Evaluating Operational Performance of Intersections Using SIDRA

Abstract

Traffic congestion has significant social, economic and environmental costs associated with it. Efficiency of intersections contributes significantly towards the efficiency of whole urban road networks as they are the main bottlenecks in the system. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the operational efficiency of priority controlled, roundabout and signalised intersections under a range of traffic conditions with different volume and turning ratios using SIDRA software. We used three measures to represent the operational efficiency namely: intersection capacity, average delay and total emissions. The analysis revealed strengths and weaknesses of each intersection types under a range of demand and traffic conditions. At low traffic demand, priority controlled intersections outperformed the other two forms of intersection control. At moderate traffic demand, roundabout performed the best while at high traffic demand, signalised intersections performed the best.