Some New Developments in Two-Way-Stop-Controlled Intersections Procedures and Recommendations for a Future Version of the Highway Capacity Manual

Abstract

The estimation of capacities and traffic performance at two-way-stop-controlled (TWSC) intersections has been the subject of investigations conducted by many researchers. The results of these investigations are incorporated in highway capacity manuals like the U.S. Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) or the German Handbuch für die Bemessung von Strassen (HBS). Although the underlying methodologies are similar, there are two major differences between the current HBS 2015 and HCM6: (a) the procedure for the impedance factor for movements of rank 4 and (b) the procedure for estimating the capacity of shared short lanes for both minor and major movements. In HBS 2015, new developments are accounted for and the accuracy of capacity and traffic quality estimations significantly improved. In HCM6, these two procedures have not been updated. Therefore, the replacement of the two procedures in HCM6 is recommended. In both HCM6 and HBS 2015, the procedures for calculating delays at shared lanes or shared short lanes are inaccurate and they also should be updated. In most cases, the delays are significantly underestimated. Recently, the authors have developed a new methodology dealing with this problem which can be easily incorporated into future versions of HBS and HCM. In this paper, the theoretical backgrounds of the three new methods are presented and major results are summarized. Compared with HCM6, the advantages of the new developments are highlighted. As a recommendation, three corresponding procedures for estimation of capacity and delay are given for potential use in a future version of HCM.