Evaluation of Mobility and Safety of Operating an Overlap Phase on a Shared-Left-Turn Lane Using a Microscopic Traffic Simulation Model

Abstract

Government agencies including the national police agency have executed diverse efforts including continuous improvements of traffic facilities and operation methods, education, enforcements in order to improve traffic operation systems; nevertheless there have been continuous criticisms on irrationality in traffic signal and road facility operation. One of the reasons may be the lack of systematic preliminary evaluations on various alternatives. However, there was no appropriate tool to evaluate the mobility and safety of thus alternatives in a systematic way. Therefore, this study proposes the systematic use of microscopic traffic simulation models as a comprehensive evaluation tool. In addition, this study verified the potential of using a microscopic traffic simulation model using the case of operating an overlap phase on a shared-left-turn lane through a systematic way where the evaluation was conducted through data collection, building networks, calibrating microscopic simulation models, producing performance measures, evaluating mobility and safety, and so on. As a result, the operation of overlap phase on a shared-left-turn lane showed no big difference from other operation scenarios such as leading left-turn on exclusive left turn lane in terms of mobility. However the operation of overlap phase on a shared-left-turn lane decreased safety by increasing potential conflicts.