• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.11-21
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• 2012

As a strategy to enhance traffic management, roundabouts come to the fore recently to decrease traffic accidents, streamline traffic flows, and expedite the realization of green transportation. As local governments introduced roundabouts, new road sign standards have to be established because the existing road sign regulations cannot be applied to roundabouts. Prior to trying to make suitable specification of sub-destination signs in roundabouts, regulations of other countries were examined and modified. The legend and location was calculated so that drivers could turn in time. Two specifications were determined by simulation experiments. As a result, drivers could read signs at right side better than at traffic island, and turn in time at 15cm legend size. Consequently, we proposed the minimum specifications and optimal locations of sub-destination signs.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.54-67
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• 2016

All roundabouts are designed based on "Roundabout Design Guideline, Ministry of Land and Transportation, 2014" in Korea. The guideline also provides the traffic volume criteria to convert from signalized intersections to roundabouts. While the criteria are based on capacity of roundabouts, left-turn ratio and the number of lane on approaches are not considered to calculate the capacity of roundabouts. Therefore it is difficult to apply the traffic volume criteria in the real world. In this study, we studied the impact of left-turn ratio and the number of lane on approaches into capacity of roundabouts using micro-simulation. It was found that the capacity of roundabouts is changed according to left-turn ratio and the number of lane on approaches.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.43-52
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• 2013

A roundabout is a form of circular intersection in which traffic travels counterclockwise around a central island and in which entering traffic must yield to circulating traffic. It has been known that a roundabout provides substantially better operational and safety characteristics than other intersections including rotaries. Recently, a roundabout has started to be constructed due to its efficiency, safety, and other advantages of a roundabout comparing other intersections in Korea. However, there has been no guideline to be used to decide appropriate intersection types considering given conditions of the intersections. To solve this problem, the guideline with traffic volume to choose the suitable intersection types was developed based on analysis results using the SIDRA software which is generally used to analyze operational effects of roundabouts. It was found that a roundabout is more efficient than signalized intersection when the traffic volume is between 125 and 450 veh/h on one lane road and roundabout is not recommended when there are more than 30% left turn traffic. The optimal traffic volume provided in this research will be usefully used in planing and designing roundabouts in Korea.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.30-38
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• 2022

As of 2020, 1,564 roundabouts have been installed and operated to prevent major traffic accidents and promote safe and smooth passage over the past 10 years. According to the Korea Transportation Research Institute, the number of accidents decreased by an average of 43.8% per year, fatal accidents by 50%, and serious injuries by 48.1%, confirming the safety effect. However, most intersections with high pedestrian traffic, such as children's protection areas near elementary schools, operate signal intersections. Therefore, in this study, a simulation was performed through the VISSM program to conduct a study on the pedestrian-centered roundabout installation method. This study was conducted to ensure that pedestrians can have the right of way safely by installing and operating traffic lights at crosswalks on roundabouts located in urban areas or child protection zones.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.337-347
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• 2015

Since the application of roundabouts by 2010 have been started, more than 350 roundabouts were installed in Korea. Recently the types of constructed roundabouts become various, and the intersection conditions for installing roundabouts were also various. However, there were some difficulties to install roundabouts around school zone due to safety problems. In this study, appropriate distance from adjacent signal crosswalks to roundabouts were estimated for securing pedestrian safety and operation efficiency around school zone. With the analyses, the minimum distance standard was suggested to obtain operational effectiveness of roundabout according to traffic volume, traffic flow, pedestrian green time and secures pedestrian safety and convenience. In this paper, average delay of roundabout as various length of distances between an adjacent crosswalk and a roundabout as different pedestrian signal times, traffic volumes, traffic flow rates were analyzed. Through this study, it was found that about four times of delay in a roundabout was generated if there was adjacent signal crosswalk. However if there is enough distance between an adjacent crosswalk and a roundabout, the value of increasing delay on roundabouts with adjacent a signalized crosswalk can be considerably reduced. Critical value of the distance between a roundabout and a signal crosswalk in case of roundabouts within 200-500 vehicle/hour/lane entry traffic flow, 20-40% of left turn traffic, and over 15 seconds pedestrian green time was about 50 meters. In conclusion, if there is minimum 40 meter distance from roundabouts, adjacent signal crosswalks can be installed and operated for students' safety around school zone.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.63-75
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• 2013

Roundabouts have been operated in Europe, America and Australia since the 1970s, and many relevant researches continually was carried out. Though many studies regarding roundabout have been recently conducted in korea, most of them have focused on its operational safety and efficiency. Moreover, roundabout design guideline did not define a clear criteria related to pedestrian in roundabout, but seldom investigate the influences of pedestrian on crosswalk. In this study, we seek ways to operate the pedestrian crosswalk signal on roundabout maximizing their operational effects in exceptional case such as rush hour or intersection near the special facilities. We proved that roundabout signal operation is effective under certain circumstances in according to the number of pedestrian, and suggested the optimal signal timing plan for signalized roundabouts. For pursuing the above, we conducted the simulation test using the VISSIM model. The results show that the operational effectiveness of signalized roundabout was evaluated to be better than non-signalized roundabout in specific pedestrian volume condition. In addition, those results are confirmed using simulation analysis conducted on the real roundabout.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 2012

Under unsaturated capacity conditions with balanced approach flows, roundabout gives less delay and queue length than existing signalized intersections; however, over capacity conditions with unbalanced approach flows(flow above 450 pcu/h/lane), roundabouts efficiency drops due to the short gap between entering vehicles and circulating vehicles. This study provides a roundabout Signal Metering transfer standard and operation method. In this study, a four-way-approach with one-lane roundabout is selected to compare the Signal Metering performance for the case of unbalanced flow conditions. The performance is evaluated by using SIDRA software in terms of average delay and queue length. The result shows that the Signal Metering provides substantial improvements for the case of total approach flow is 1,800~2,000 pcu/h in which the main approach flow ratio is 60~70% gives 30~40% less delay and 30~60% less queue length than normal roundabout operation. Also, it is approved that operational performance saving can be achieved when the Metered Approach is selected adjoining to the main approach in pair.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.218-226
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• 2014

This study examines a way to install a crosswalk that can improve pedestrians' convenience and safety and that goes beyond the crosswalk design standard of existing roundabouts. When a scrambled crosswalk, one of the crosswalk installation methods, is introduced to the roundabout system, it shortens the cross-walking distance of pedestrians and thus enhances convenience. Although the installation of a scrambled crosswalk may enhance pedestrians' convenience, it may obstruct vehicular traffic. Thus, this study presents standards for reasonable diagonal crosswalk installation based on the investigation on its effects on a vehicle's delay time. This study includes an analysis of the various geometric structures of roundabouts. The study results show that as v/c and the number of pedestrians increased, the delay time after the installation of a scrambled crosswalk increased although the extent was different. In general, the effect of the installation of a scrambled crosswalk was insignificant regardless of the number of pedestrians when v/c was under 0.6. When the number of pedestrians was 300/hour or lower, the difference in the delay time was quite insignificant regardless of v/c. In addition, as the inscribed circle of the roundabout was larger, the difference in the delay time decreased depending on v/c and the number of pedestrians.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1299-1306
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• 2014

Recently, there are many roundabouts installation works which are ordered to provide convenient transportation to road users as well as to eliminate traffic accidents and traffic delays. This study propose an approximate construction cost estimation model for early stages of roundabout construction. The model is designed considering the conditions of the early stage roundabout construction sites in Jeju. The regression equation of approximate construction cost was derived through regression analysis of 25 design data of roundabout construction in Jeju, and it was analyzed to have a high prediction accuracy. Finally, results verifies high prediction accuracy of the derived regression equation. Difference between the estimation cost and the design cost was only 2.3%, 3.7%, and 5.8% that verifies the high accuracy of the proposed approximate construction cost estimation model.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.74-84
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• 2016

After installing roundabouts, changes of travel behaviour in the vicinity of roundabouts can cause increasing traffic volumes and unbalanced flow conditions. In that cases, the efficiency of roundabouts as a whole intersections can drop due to the insufficient gap between vehicles in the circulating lanes. The purpose of this study is developing a dynamic signal metering operation method for roundabouts in which a real time Signal Metering operation algorithm is suggested and its performance is tested by using VISSIM COM Interface(Visual Basic Application). The results of the real time Signal Metering operation show that there is a substantial delay improvements when two adjoined approaches are combined together and the flows of metering approach are less than controlling approach. Especially, the total entering flow is around 1,600 vehicle/h gives the delay reduction per vehicle of 70.9~102.2(73.8~77.8%) seconds for four-lane-approach with one-lane roundabouts.