ENERGY, AIR POLLUTION, DELAY, AND SAFETY EVALUATION OF NON-SIGNALIZED CONTROL AT LOW VOLUME INTERSECTIONS

The profusion of stop signs through residential and rural areas has caused not only unnecessary gasoline and travel time waste but also created a serious driver disobedience to the stop mandate. This report examined all the parameters influencing vehicular flow and selected, on the basis of a systems tradeoff, the most efficient control technique. Simulation output permited close study of the velocity patterns created by automobiles crossing an intersection from the controlled, approaches. Gasoline consumption and air pollution resulting from stop, yield, or no sign control were also compared. The analysis showed a significant increase in carbon monoxide emissions and gasoline use with increasingly positive control. The simulation output also aided the travel time-delay comparison. Significant differences were apparent between the average delay characteristics of stop, yield,and no control. Stop signs were found to require an average of four seconds more travel time per vehicle than did yield control. Laboratory analysis of field-gathered data permitted a test of the noise generated by traffic in the vicinity of stop as compared to yield control. Systems analyses permitted tradeoffs comparing the safety advantages against the air pollution, gasoline, and travel time disadvantages associated with increasingly restrictive intersection control. The cost associated with each control indicated that the yield sign provided the most efficient alternative at adequate sight distance intersections for daily volumes of traffic, while no sign at all is the most cost effective measure at lower volumes. A set of signing guidelines are presented, based on this analysis, to aid in the selection of the optimal control for any given low volume intersection.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This report was prepared as part of an investigation conducted by the Highway Extension and Research Project for Indiana Counties.
• Corporate Authors:

  Purdue University/Indiana Department of Transportation JHRP

  Purdue University, School of Civil Engineering
  West Lafayette, IN  United States  47907-1284
• Authors:
  • Hall, D L
• Publication Date: 1977-8

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 252 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pollution; Data analysis; Energy; Intersections; Mathematical analysis; Simulation; Traffic control; Traffic flow; Traffic safety; Traffic volume; Travel time
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00167469
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CE-TRA-77-1 Final Rpt.
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 3 1978 12:00AM