Service interchange ramp terminals provide access from the local highway or urban
street system to the freeway. In urban areas, the ramp terminals at the arterial road are
usually signalized for separation of all high-volume conflicting movements. If right-turn
or other movements exiting from the ramp terminals are high, a free right-turn lane,
which improves operations for right-turn and through exiting traffic, is sometimes
provided at the ramp terminals with an exclusive lane for right-turn vehicles on a
departure leg.
If the ramp terminal is closely followed by the next downstream intersection,
weaving maneuvers will occur since some vehicles make a right turn at the ramp
terminal and make a left turn at the downstream intersection. These weaving vehicles
usually slow down or stop on the free right-turn lane in order to find an acceptable gap in
the arterial road traffic. These slowing or stopping vehicles may cause safety and
operational problems. This research evaluates the effect of these weaving maneuvers on
the operations of a free right-turn lane at the ramp terminals. To provide a means for evaluating free right-turn lane operations, a linear
regression model was developed to predict the delay on the free right-turn lane caused
by stopped or slowed vehicles planning on making a weaving maneuver. The variables
for this model were arterial through volumes, weaving volumes, number of lanes, and
ramp spacing within the interchange. The regression model was based upon the results
of the CORSIM traffic simulation model that was calibrated using field data obtained
from the study site in College Station, Texas.
Once the predicted model was developed, the model validation was performed
using the field data to check the accuracy of its prediction. A statistical measure was
performed for quantifying the difference between the observed and predicted delay on
the free right turn lane. From the research results, it was concluded that the weaving
maneuvers influence the operation of a free right-turn lane and cause delay on the free
right-turn lane.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3265 |
| Date | 12 April 2006 |
| Creators | Park, Minchul |
| Contributors | Zhang, Yunlong |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 808806 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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