ROUNDABOUT GROWTH IN THE USA: STUDIES IN KANSAS

This paper will discuss the opposition to roundabouts in many cities in the USA, with specific Kansas examples. In 1997, the City of Manhattan installed the first roundabout in the state of Kansas. A Kansas State University (KSU) research team was funded by Mack Blackwell Transportation Center (MBTC) to study traffic operations and concluded that the roundabout operated more efficiently than other traffic control options. Using data obtained with a camera and videotape recorder as a starting point, the SIDRA computer model was used to evaluate a range of traffic conditions. SIDRA was used to evaluate roundabout operation at increasing traffic levels. The results of the roundabout and other intersection traffic control devices were compared using six measures of effectiveness available in SIDRA. Since then, several other roundabouts have been constructed or planned in Kansas. A KSU research team is collecting before and after traffic operations data on most of them: a Tintersection in Lawrence; two on high-volume arterials in Olathe; two on interstate ramps in Newton, one at the intersection of two state highways and one at a high crash intersection in Hutchinson. The KSU team has been conducting "before and after" traffic operations studies at roundabouts in Kansas and also the states of Maryland and Nevada for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS.) This paper will present the video-camera methodology of data collection being used by the team, present a summary of the presently available study results regarding the superior operational efficiency of roundabout, e.g., significantly less delay and stopping, and conclude with a brief summary of the acceptance/non acceptance of roundabouts in Kansas.

Language

  • English

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00964365
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 087659229X
  • Files: TRIS, ATRI
  • Created Date: Oct 15 2003 12:00AM