L&D Manual Turn Lane Storage Validation/Update (SJN: 134573)
Researcher: Deogratias Eustace – University of Dayton
The formation of queues on a highway facility is a sign of the presence of operationally inefficient sections of the facility. Queuing occurs at signalized and unsignalized intersections mostly due to overflow or inadequacy of turn bays. The ODOT Location and Design (L&D) Manual provides storage requirements at signalized and unsignalized intersections. However, there are currently no records whether storage lengths given in this manual are valid and accurately represent the actual conditions at intersections. Therefore, the collection of traffic and queue storage data at some intersections and analysis of data is needed in order to validate and/or update the model ODOT is currently using.
The objective of this research is to (1) collect traffic, signal and geometry data at signalized and unsignalized intersections; (2) use these data to validate and/or update the current ODOT model used for queue storage length calculations; and (3) compare queue storage length calculations by other models available such as the McTrans’ Highway Capacity Software (HCS), Synchro, etc., using the same datasets for validity purposes. This research will focus on left-turn and right-turn lanes encompassing both signalized and unsignalized intersections.