• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.177-189
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• 2013

PURPOSES: This study aims to suggest a proper left-turn treatment method for the bicycle traffic flow at four-legged intersections. METHODS: Four types of crossing methods are proposed and analyzed : (1) indirect left turn, (2) direct left turn, (3) direct left turn on a Bike Box, and (4) direct left turn on bike left turn lane. The VISSIM simulation tests were conducted based on forty-eight operation scenarios prepared by varying vehicle and bicycle traffic volumes. RESULTS : The results from the four-legged signalized intersections suggest that (1) the indirect left turn is appropriate when vehicle demand is high, (2) the direct left turn is efficient on most traffic situation but the safety is a concern, (3) the direct left turn on a Bike Box is appropriate when bicycle demand is high while vehicle demand is not, and (4) the direct left turn on a bike left turn lane is appropriate when both vehicle and bicycle demand are low. CONCLUSIONS : The direct left turn of bicycle provides more efficiency than the indirect left turn at the four-legged intersections but to apply the methods and to study more, advanced evaluation methods, related law, and insurance programs are needed.

• Journal of the Society of Disaster Information
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.597-606
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• 2015

Until now, u-turn lane installation methods have been studied variously. But, There is no specific standard yet. This study ranges are commercial area in Incheon metropolitan city through field investigation and presents specific design standard for efficient operation of left turn using a field data through calculating relevant permitted u-turn lane length and minimum separation distance from the front intersection to starting point of permitted u-turn lane in urban signalized intersections in commercial area. Relevant permitted u-turn lane length is found to be 32m and minimum separation distances from the front intersection to starting point of permitted u-turn lanes are 72m, 40m, 24m in case of 1 left turn lane, 2 left turn lanes and 3 left turn lanes respectively. By comparing result values and field data, they had a large difference under the similar situations in their lengths. This result is caused of no specific standard about design of u-turn lanes. If results of this study applied to design of u-turn lanes, signalized intersections in urban commercial areas would be operated more safety and efficiently.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.95-103
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• 2016

PURPOSES : Permitted left turn is a turning maneuver in which a vehicle turns left using a gap between oncoming vehicles, called gap acceptance, and it enables for more efficient traffic operation at intersections. In Korea, the permitted left turn has not been a common maneuver at signalized or un-signalized intersections. However, many experts and the Police Agency tried to apply this effective turning maneuver at intersections in Korea since 2010. Though the investigation of gap acceptance is significantly important in understanding a driver's behavior at intersections, there have not been many studies about this topic, specifically a study to develop probability models of gap acceptance behavior. METHODS : In this study, the probability model of gap acceptance behavior for a permitted left turn was developed based on observational field studies. To develop the model, seven variables were analyzed including gap, waiting time, traffic volume, conflict-flow vehicle type, left-turning vehicle type, the number of lane, and time. RESULTS : In the final model, gap and left-turning vehicle type were found to be significant influencing factors. CONCLUSIONS : Through this model development, it was concluded that as the gap size increased, the probability of gap acceptance was higher. Moreover, when a left-turning vehicle was a passenger car, the probability of gap acceptance was higher than compared to large size buses or freight cars.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.153-164
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• 2018

Calculating the relevant length of left turn storages in urban intersections is very crucial in road designs. A left turn lane consists of deceleration lanes and left turn storages. In this study, we developed methods for calculating relevant lengths of left turn storages that vary at each intersection using UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) spatial images. Problems of conventional design techniques are applying the same number of left turn vehicles (N) using Poisson distribution without considering land use types, using a vehicle length that may not be measurable when applying the length of waiting vehicles (S), and using same storage length coefficient (${\alpha}$), 1.5, for every intersections. In order to solve these problems, we estimated the number of left turn vehicles (N) using an empirical distribution, suggested to use headways of vehicles for (S) to calculate the length of waiting vehicles (S) with a help of using UAV spatial images, and defined ranges of storage length coefficient (${\alpha}$) from 1.0 to 1.5 for flexible design. For more convenient design, it is suitable to classify two cases when possible to know and impossible to know about ratio of large trucks among vehicles when planning an intersection. We developed formula for each case to calculate left turn storage lengths of a minimum and a maximum. By applying developed methods and values, more efficient signalized intersection operation can be accomplished.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.33-42
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• 2007

The current left-turn split model adopted in COSMOS has an inherent limitation when a loop detector in the left-turn lanes was disconnected for a period of time. In this instance, the current model always allocated minimum green time to the left-turn phase, thus optimal split and efficient signal operation for the intersection was not guaranteed. In this paper, four mathmatical models using detector information of the intersection and four empirical models using historical profiles were developed and investigated for different traffic conditions to improve the operational efficiency of the intersection. From the model evaluation test, the empirical model using a four-week historical profile produced the least error among the eight models investigated. NETSIM simulation test results also showed that the proposed model could give significantly reduced delay time as compared to the current model. From these results, the operational efficency of the signalized intersections under the real-time control can be greatly improved by using the model proposed in case of the left-turn detector failure.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 1983

Intersection control has dual-purposes; increasing capacity and reducing delay. The primary concern of efficient intersection control under oversaturated condition as in Korea is to increase capacity. Prevailing intersection operation technique permits thru traffic to utilize left turn lane, because the intersection without left turn pocket has left turn signal interval. In this situation, it seems not to be valid to calculate capacity, delay, and signal timings by conventional methods. By critical lane technique, capacity increases as cycle length increases. However, when thru traffic utilize LT lane, the capacity varies according to LT volume, LT interval as well as cycle length, which implies that specific cycle length and LT interval exist to maximize capacity for given LT volume. The study is designed is designed to calculate utilization factors of LT lane for thru traffic and capacities, and identify signal timings to yield maximum capacity. The experimental design involved has 3 variables; 1)LT volumes at each approach(20-300 vph), 2)cycle lengths (60-220 sec), and 3)LT intervals(2.6-42 sec) for one scenario of isolated intersection crossing two 6-lanes streets. For LT volume of 50-150 vph, capacity calculated by using the utilization factor is about 25% higher than that by critical lane method. The range of optimum cycle length to yield maximum capapcity for LT volume less than 120 vph is 140-180 sec, and increases as LT volume increases. The optimum LT interval to yield maximum capacity is longer than the intrval necessary to accommodate LT volume at saturation flow rate.