BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS OF A SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH WAS TO ESTABLISH AN ESTIMATE OF THE ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY OF MODIFYING AN INTERSECTION TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM TO INCORPORATE A SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL. AN APPROPRIATE HIGH-SPEED INTERSECTION CURRENTLY UNDER TRAFFIC-ACTUATED CONTROL WAS SELECTED FOR THIS EVALUATION. DATA ON TRAFFIC VOLUMES, DELAYS, APPROACH SPEED PROFILES, AND ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE WERE GATHERED FOR THE STUDY SITE SO FUTURE COSTS OF RETAINING THE PRESENT CONTROL SYSTEM COULD BE ESTIMATED. A SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL INCORPORATING THREE VARIABLE-MESSAGE SPEED SIGNALS WAS THEN DESIGNATED FOR EACH OF THE TWO MAJOR APPROACHES AT THE INTERSECTION. ESTIMATES SPECIFYING EQUIPMENT COSTS, MAINTENANCE COSTS, VEHICLE OPERATION COSTS, TIME COSTS, AND ACCIDENT COSTS WERE DEVELOPED FOR THE PROPOSED SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL. THE ECONOMIC DESIRABILITY OF THE SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL WAS DETERMINED BY MEANS OF AN INCREMENTAL BENEFIT-COST RATIO. IT WAS FOUND THAT THE SPEED SIGNAL FUNNEL YIELDED BENEFIT-COST RATIOS RANGING FROM 1.5:1.0 TO AS HIGH AS 12.0:1.0 DEPENDING ON THE ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE COMPUTATION.

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  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Publication of the paper sponsored by Committee on Traffic Control Devices. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
  • Authors:
    • Dare, Charles E
    • Jomini, Perre-Andre
  • Publication Date: 1973

Media Info

  • Media Type: Print
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: pp 1-11
  • Monograph Title: Traffic signals
  • Serial:

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00226785
  • Record Type: Publication
  • ISBN: 0309021766
  • Files: TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: Jan 11 1974 12:00AM