Microscopic analysis of traffic behavior at unsignalized intersections in developing world

Abstract

Unsignalized intersections in India are uncontrolled, and are characterized by chaotic traffic situation and have become accident hot spots. In this study, we have collected traffic data at three uncontrolled intersections, one each is from city center (Type I), suburb (Type II), and outskirt (Type III). Traffic parameters, such as traffic composition, speed variations, lane distribution, trajectories, conflict points, and pedestrian movements are analyzed. All the vehicle classes prefer inner lane, except auto-rickshaws. The speed on inner lane is higher than outer lane vehicles as latter are affected by the roadside friction. It is also found that the minor approach vehicles have to slow down or stop many times. Trajectories of two-wheelers are found to be much flatter than the trajectories in the standard conflict point diagram. This study has great potential in assessing the performance and safety of unsignalized intersections in developing world.

Keywords:

• Uncontrolled intersections
• Microscopic analysis
• Conflict points
• Vehicle trajectories
• Travel behavior