Improved Operational Performance Assessment for Two-Lane Highway Facilities

Abstract

AbstractHistorically, two-lane highways served primarily as uninterrupted flow connectors between major population centers. Increasingly, however, population growth in areas between the major population centers along these highways is reaching levels such that occasional signalized intersections are commonly present. Given increasing congestion along these routes, particularly as a result of increased signalization, transportation engineers need methods and tools to analyze highway performance. The current analysis methodology contained in the commonly used highway capacity manual (HCM) for two-lane highways is limited in scope to completely uninterrupted-flow facilities. Furthermore, the spacing of signalized intersections along a two-lane highway is typically great enough such that the urban streets analysis methodology of the HCM is not applicable. Until recently, a simulation tool did not exist that could model the combination of two-lane highway segments and signalized intersections. This capability ...