Citation

Ahmed H, Easa SM. Transp. Res. Rec. 2021; 2675(10): 395-410.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/03611981211011478

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Mobility, safety, and environmental sustainability are priorities in the geometric design of roundabouts. This paper presents a multi-objective optimization model that determines the geometric design elements of single-lane roundabouts using all three objectives. The user can specify weights for the objectives, or the model can determine the optimal weights. Mobility is defined in terms of roundabout delay and modeled using the United Kingdom empirical model. Safety is modeled in terms of collision frequency based on the methodology of the Highway Safety Manual. Environmental sustainability is represented by vehicle emissions (nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide) and is modeled using the vehicle-specific power methodology. The proposed model directly identifies the optimal geometric dimensions (decision variables) of the roundabout, including entry width, exit width, approach half-width, circulatory width, effective flare length, entry radius, entry angle, and inscribed circle diameter. The input data to the model include traffic data, site conditions, and limitations based on design guidelines. Application of the proposed model is illustrated using two actual roundabouts. The comparison results show that the proposed model provides substantial improvements in safety, mobility, and environmental sustainability compared with existing conditions. In addition, the model requires much less effort to apply compared with the traditional iterative method, and as such should be of interest to highway designers.

Language: en