Simulation study of speed control at congested arms of roundabouts

Abstract

Traffic conflict problems at road and highway intersections are continuously increasing and often result in severe congestion problems and violate the safety protocols involved. Roundabouts are introduced on intersections to alleviate such problems. Nevertheless, the increased traffic volumes on roads result in traffic congestion at roundabouts and lower their efficiency. To that effect, several studies have investigated factors that affect the performance of roundabouts, such as their geometrical features and driving speeds. Nonetheless, none of these studies has explored the effect of speed control on the performance of roundabouts. In this paper, we propose a simulation study that investigates the effect of speed control at congested arms on overall performance of roundabouts. Findings indicate that increasing the speed on roundabout's congested arms by a certain threshold helps improve the traffic flow and minimize the travel time. Moreover, results show that certain distributions of traffic volumes on the arms of a roundabout does affect its performance.