Influence of residual vehicle queue on the process of vehicle traffic at urban regulated intersections

This paper continues to investigate methods for separating turning vehicle flows at urban light-controlled intersections. The authors carried out mathematical modelling of the process of left-turn transport queue formation on the basis of existing dependencies, as well as the indicator of "residual motor transport queue". After studying the processes and existing mathematical models describing the formation of a vehicle queue at a light-controlled intersection, as well as modelling of the process depending on the "residual vehicle queue" parameter, we made an assumption about the type of mathematical model describing the process. To confirm the assumptions, we carried out studies of urban light-controlled intersections in Russian cities. Based on passive experiment, it was found that the value of the residual vehicle queue obeyed the exponential distribution law of a random variable. The length of the vehicle queue formed at the intersection depends on the residual vehicle queue parameter. A linear mathematical model describes the dependence. It was found that for an average urban regulated intersection, the required rotary-accumulative lane capacity was 9 and 5 automobiles with loading factor more than and less than 1, respectively. When the residual vehicle queue increases from 5 to 50 vehicles, the size of the vehicle queue at the regulated intersection in the left-turn direction increases in 5 times. The results of the study can be used to adjust the modes of operation of urban light-controlled intersections, as well as to estimate the length of turn-accumulative lanes.

turn-accumulative lane, traffic queue, separating of traffic flows, traffic light-controlled intersection, street and road network