• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2015

PURPOSES : Although signalized intersections have been considered the best way to control traffic volume in urban areas for several decades, roundabouts are currently being discussed as an alternative way to control traffic volume, especially when traffic is light. Because a roundabout's efficiency depends on the load geometry as well as the traffic volume, design guidelines for roundabouts are recommended only if the incoming traffic volume is very low. It is rare to substitute a roundabout for an existing signalized intersection in urban areas. This study aims to estimate the benefits from the transformation of an existing signalized intersection into a roundabout in an urban area. When there is a more moderate volume of traffic, roundabouts can be effectively used by optimizing signals located at an approaching roadway. METHODS : The methodologies of this paper are as follows: First, a signalized intersection was analyzed to determine the traffic characteristics. Second, the signalized intersection was transformed into a roundabout using VISSIM microscopic traffic simulation. Then, we estimated and analyzed the effects and the performance of the roundabout. In addition, we adjusted a method to improve the benefits of the transformation via the optimization of signals located at an approaching road to control the incoming traffic volume. RESULTS : The results of this research are as follows: The signal-optimized roundabout improved delays compared with the signalized intersection during the morning peak hour, non-peak hour, and evening peak hour by 1.78%, 12.45%, and 12.72%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : According to the simulation results of each scenarios, the signal-optimized roundabout had less delay time than the signalized intersection. If optimized signal control algorithms are installed in roundabouts in the future, this will lead to more efficient traffic management.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.79-89
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• 2011

Though many studies regarding roundabout have been recently conducted, most of them have focused on operational aspect. Moreover, majority of the previous researches analyzes operational effects of single roundabout, but seldom investigate the effects of multi-roundabouts constructed on road networks. In this study, we seek ways to construct multiple roundabouts on road network maximizing their operational effects. The analysis investigate influence of both adjacent signalized and unsignalized intersections as well as influence of the distance from those intersections to roundabouts. The results show that the optimal distance between two adjacent intersections were calculated to be 150m, and any two intersections located within 150m apart influence each other thus imposing operational restrictions on each other. In addition, those results are confirmed using simulation analysis conducted on the real urban network in Nonheon regional area, Incheon City.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.65-74
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• 2010

This study aims at developing a method for estimating passenger car equivalency (PCE) values for various vehicle types that could be considered in estimating capacity and delay at intersections without traffic signals, especially at modern small 3-leg roundabouts. Unlike signalized intersections, the PCE value has not yet been treated explicitly in traffic operations involving unsignalized intersections. Both empirical and theoretical approaches for determining the PCE values at modern small 3-leg roundabouts were evaluated. As a result, the PCEs derived in this study were highly correlated with those of field measurements.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.39-46
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• 2015

PURPOSES: The operational characteristics of roundabouts are generally influenced by location as well as traffic volume. The goal of this study is to develop urban and rural roundabout accident models and to discuss safety improvement guidelines based on the model. METHODS : To analyze accidents, count data models are utilized in this study. This study used accident data from 2010 to 2013 for 56 roundabouts collected from the Traffic Accident Analysis System (TASS) of Road Traffic Authority. Poisson and negative binomial regression models were developed for this study using NLOGIT 4.0. RESULTS : The main results are as follows. First, the hypotheses that there are distributional differences in the number of accidents and injuries/fatalities among rural and urban roundabouts were accepted. Second, Poisson and negative binomial regression accident models, which were all statistically significant, were developed. Seven independent variables, which were statistically significant, were adopted. Third, the common variable of models was evaluated to be traffic volume. CONCLUSIONS : This study developed two negative binomial roundabout accident models and suggested some accident reduction strategies. The results are expected to give some implications to the safety improvement of roundabout.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2009

Korea Highway Capacity Manual (2001) proposes only LOS(Level of Service) analysis method on non-control and two-way-stop intersections, not dealing with the analysis method on LOS for roundabouts, nor even including the term 'roundabout'. This study selects proper MOEs for roundabouts and criteria the LOS through simulation analysis. To attain this goal, the authors reviewed the methods to select proper MOEs in the first step, criteria the Los. For this study, the MOEs were chosen from existing literature, and used for the criteria. The MOEs to be applied to roundabouts in this research were entry traffic volume, v/c (volume/capacity) ratio, and average vehicle delays. The results showed that the maximum entry traffic volume(LOS F) at local one-lane roundabout was analyzed to be 1,700pcph and average vehicle delay 18 seconds LOS A was analyzed as 700pcph and average vehicle delay 3 seconds and v/c 0.41 in this case Maximum entry traffic volume(LOS F) at local area 2 lane roundabouts was analyzed as 2,900pcph and their average vehicle delay as 31 seconds LOS A was analyzed to be 1.500pcph and average vehicle delay 8 seconds, v/c 0.52.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.59-69
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• 2003

Signalized intersections are widely used in urban street network. However, it was reported that a roundabout is better than a signalized intersection in terms of delay when the approaching traffic volume for each bound is low. The objective of this study is to develop entry capacity models of roundabout and establish the warrant for signalized intersection based on the delay. The entry capacity of a roundabout is determined by the circulating traffic volume and the geometric design of the roundabout such as the diameter of central island, entry lane widths, and the circulating roadway width. The traffic and geometric characteristics of four roundabouts were collected and analyzed. The study reveals that; i)among the geometric features, the diameter of central island and the circulating roadway width influence the entry capacity, and ii)even though it is difficult to compare the models of each country due to different geometric features considered in the models, the models developed in this study show higher capacity than the models from Israel or Germany. These seem to be attributed to the facts that; i)the outside diameters of the roundabouts selected in this study are larger than in the other studies, and ii)the acceptable gap in Korea is smaller than that in the other countries. In order to compare the performances of round- about and signalized intersection, the performance of roundabouts was evaluated with the SIDRA. The simulation was conducted only for the roundabouts composed of single lane. According to the result of the analysis, it may be concluded that when the approaching traffic volume for each bound is lower than 600pcph, a roundabout is better than a signalized intersection in terms of its operational performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.104-110
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• 2015

This study deals with the roundabout accidents. The goal of this study is to develop the sideswipe accident models at roundabout. In the pursuing the above, this study gives particular attentions to collecting the data of geometric structure and accidents of 54 roundabouts in Korea and developing the Poisson and negative binomial regression models. The main results are as follows. First, sideswipe accident is analyzed to be the highest frequency that is 39.5% of total accident data. Second, Poisson models which is statistically significant is developed. Finally, traffic volume per approach($X_1$), number of circulatory roadway($X_3$), operation of parking lot($X_4$) and width of circulatory roadway($X_6$) are adopted as the common variables. This study might be expected to give some implications to the accident research on the roundabout.

• Transportation Technology and Policy
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.6-16
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• 2013

• Transportation Technology and Policy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.47-51
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• 2011