Multi Vehicle-Type Right Turning Gap-Acceptance and Capacity Analysis at Uncontrolled Urban Intersections

Abstract

Intersections are the critical zones where conflicting, merging and diverging movements influence the intersection capacity. Uncontrolled intersections in particular pose dangerous situations to vehicular traffic. During peak vehicular flow, the unpredictable crossing behavior of minor stream vehicles induces delay and reduces the capacity of the intersection. Capacity at uncontrolled intersections is typically measured either by gap acceptance method, empirical regression approaches and conflict technique. Gap acceptance is an important characteristic for analyzing uncontrolled intersections. The behavior of different vehicle types and gap of subject vehicle type from minor street taking right turn to merge with major traffic stream is analyzed using gap acceptance method. The objective of the current study is to analyze the effect of major stream vehicle type combinations on the minor stream vehicle gap-acceptance behavior and to determine the capacity of the minor stream taking into account the influence of the right turning vehicles. The capacity of minor stream calculated using Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010, Luttenin’s model, and Tanner’s model are compared. It is observed that two wheelers are more aggressive than three wheelers for most of the major stream vehicular combinations observed in this study.