Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Sustainability Edit a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Special Issue "Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues"

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2023 | Viewed by 11960

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Elżbieta Macioszek

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering Department, Faculty of Transport and Aviation Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 40-019 Katowice, Poland
Interests: road traffic engineering; roads and intersections capacity analyzing; measurements; traffic modeling; research and traffic flow analysis; transport infrastructure; functional analysis; transport systems and processes modeling; transportation engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Anna Granà

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, 90133 Palermo, Italy
Interests: traffic; road safety; traffic safety
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Tomaž Tollazzi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Interests: sustainable safe road infrastructure design, with particular focus on intersections, interchanges, roundabouts, and vulnerable road users

Prof. Tullio Giuffrè

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, University of Enna Kore, Viale della Cooperazione, 94100 Enna, Italy
Interests: road safety evaluation; road design; connected automated vehicles operations; transport infrastructure; traffic operations modeling; statistical analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many different layouts and sizes can be used to design modern roundabouts. The type of roundabout is determined by various factors, such as space availability, traffic volume, expected and-users, location, etc. Roundabouts are often used to improve traffic safety and capacity in urban and rural areas and can also be employed as a measure for traffic calming instead of signal-controlled intersections.

This Special Issue will consist of papers describing the synthesis of current theory and practice of planning, design, operation, and safety of modern roundabouts, with special attention on future challenges and will be of interest to scientists dealing with roundabouts problems and issues and generally involved in road traffic engineering as well as design, traffic, and maintenance engineers. Other major areas of interest with regard to roundabouts include but are not limited to:

- Efficiency evaluation;

- Traffic capacities and delays;

- Issues related to pedestrians, bicyclists, and visually impaired users;

- Costs and location criteria;

- Road traffic measurements, data analysis;

- Traffic flow modeling;

- Signing and pavement markings;

- Signalized roundabouts;

- Experimental analysis for roundabouts;

- Autonomous vehicles on roundabouts;

- Driver behavior patterns on roundabouts;

- Conflicts at roundabouts.

Prof. Elżbieta Macioszek
Prof. Anna Grana
Prof. Tomaž Tollazzi
Prof. Tullio Giuffrè
Guests Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Road traffic engineering
Road transport network
Modern roundabouts

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Roundabout Capacity

and

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2203; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042203 - 15 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1605

Abstract

Studying the impact of AVs on our road infrastructure offers a lot of potential in the transportation domain; one of these issues is how capacity will be affected. This paper presents a contribution to this research area by investigating the impact of AVs on the capacity of single-lane roundabouts using a microsimulation model. For the development of the model, a roundabout situated in Győr (Hungary) was selected and field data on the roundabout geometric characteristics as well as traffic volumes were used. Simulations using Vissim were run for various scenarios based on varying input traffic volumes and market penetration rates of AVs to assess queue lengths. The highway capacity manual (HCM) roundabout model was used to estimate the capacity of the existing roundabout. Values of follow-up times and critical gaps were set to decreasing as the penetration rate of AVs increases. The results demonstrated that 20% and 40% AVs in the flow would increase leg capacities by about 10% and 20%, respectively. Furthermore, a reduction in excessive queue lengths was estimated and capacities and queue lengths were calculated by legs. It was found that these are highly influenced by the distribution of flows among legs, and the share of flows in various directions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Safety Evaluation of Flower Roundabout Considering Autonomous Vehicles Operation

Alessandro Severino

Giuseppina Pappalardo

Salvatore Curto

Salvatore Trubia

and

Isaac Oyeyemi Olayode

Sustainability 2021, 13(18), 10120; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810120 - 09 Sep 2021

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 1819

Abstract

With the significant technological growth that affected autonomous vehicles in the last decade, several consequences occurred as: human factor exclusion, entry and exit manoeuvres precision from roundabouts, and headway reduction. In this paper, it was carried out a microsimulation approach study that aims to evaluate benefits in terms of safety obtained with flower roundabouts in a scenario where traffic is characterized by conventional vehicles “CVs” and Connected Autonomous Vehicles “CAVs”. This study focused on the evaluation of CAVs and CVs operation with the presence of the so called “weak users” or rather, pedestrians and bikes. Then, simulated scenarios were characterized by the presence of zebra-crossings in main roads, positioned at 20 m from circulatory carriageway edges. Micro simulation choice is due to the absence of survey data collection because the presence of CAVs in ordinary traffic is still minimal. The micro simulation was carried out through VISSIM, so it was operated with a specific methodological path, consisting, in the application, of O–D matrix based on real cases, in order to achieve an assessment of potential conflicts in relation with the increase in CAVs. Simulation results showed that higher safety levels were achieved for special cases of O–D distribution and with CAVs present. Finally, considering crash absence in results related to CAVs presence, safety interventions of such roundabout types have to be thorough. There were 10 O/D matrices analysed through VISSIM considering parameters as: average tail length, maximum tail length, average speed, vehicles, and number of stops quantity. As reported in the conclusion section, O/D matrices that showed minimum conflicts and maximum dynamic performances were identified. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Safety Evaluation of Turbo-Roundabouts with and without Internal Traffic Separations Considering Autonomous Vehicles Operation

Tullio Giuffrè

Anna Granà

and

Salvatore Trubia

Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8810; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168810 - 06 Aug 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1128

Abstract

The paper presents a microsimulation approach for assessing the safety performance of turbo-roundabouts where Cooperative Autonomous Vehicles “CAVs” have been introduced into the traffic mix alongside conventional vehicles “CVs”. Based on the analysis of vehicle trajectories from VISSIM and subsequent analysis of traffic conflicts through the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM), the research aims to evaluate the safety benefits of turbo-roundabouts where the lanes are physically separated by raised curbs, compared to roundabouts without such curbs. The paper will then describe the methodological path followed to build VISSIM models of turbo-roundabouts with and without raised curbs in order to calibrate the simulation models and estimate the potential conflicts when a higher percentage of CAVs are introduced into the traffic mix. A criterion has been also proposed for setting properly the principal SSAM filters. The results confirmed both higher safety levels for turbo-roundabouts equipped with raised lane dividers compared to turbo-roundabout solutions without curbs, and better safety conditions under the traffic mix of CVs and CAVs. Therefore, it follows that, in absence of crash data including CAVs, the surrogate measures of safety are the only approach in which the safety performance of any roundabout or road entity can be evaluated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessArticle

Data-Driven Scenario Specification for AV–VRU Interactions at Urban Roundabouts

Andreas Keler

Patrick Malcolm

Georgios Grigoropoulos

Seyed Abdollah Hosseini

Heather Kaths

Fritz Busch

and

Klaus Bogenberger

Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8281; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158281 - 24 Jul 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1409

Abstract

Detailed specifications of urban traffic from different perspectives and scales are crucial for understanding and predicting traffic situations from the view of an autonomous vehicle (AV). We suggest a data-driven specification scheme for maneuvers at different design elements of the built infrastructure and focus on urban roundabouts in Germany. Based on real observations, we define classes of maneuvers, interactions and driving strategies for cyclists, pedestrians and motorized vehicles and define a matrix for merging different maneuvers, resulting in more complex interactions. The sequences of these interactions, which partially consist of explicit communications, are extracted from real observations and adapted into microscopic traffic flow simulations. The simulated maneuver sequences are then visualized in 3D environments and experienced by bicycle simulator test subjects. Using trajectory segments (in fictional space) from two conducted simulator studies, we relate the recorded movement patterns of test subjects with observed cyclists in reality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessArticle

Modeling the Influence of Roundabout Deflection on Its Efficiency as a Noise Abatement Measure

and

Sustainability 2021, 13(10), 5407; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105407 - 12 May 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1490

Abstract

Challenges that emerge in roundabout design are mostly related to space constrictions and provision of appropriate deflection around the central island. This can result in speed profiles on roundabouts that might reduce their potential as a noise abatement measure. Because of this, the impact of a roundabout on noise levels and its applicability as a traffic calming device and a noise abatement measure should be investigated in the early design stage, by modeling noise levels. In this paper, the following hypothesis is tested: vehicle movement trajectories, defined during the fastest path performance check in roundabout early design phase, can be used as the road traffic noise sources when modeling noise at roundabouts using static noise model. This procedure (1) simplifies the preparation of the noise model, (2) results in a model that is closer to the real-world in terms of traffic flow conditions, (3) allows the noise calculations in the early stages of roundabout design, and (4) includes the influence of roundabout deflection on calculated noise levels. The abovementioned simplifications of the road traffic noise modeling process should encourage the optimization of roundabout geometry in terms of its noise reduction capabilities in the preliminary design phase of these intersections. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Open AccessArticle

Roundabout Entry Capacity Calculation—A Case Study Based on Roundabouts in Tokyo, Japan, and Tokyo Surroundings

Elżbieta Macioszek

Sustainability 2020, 12(4), 1533; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041533 - 18 Feb 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 2960

Abstract

The article presents the calculation of roundabout entry capacity as a case study based on roundabouts located in Tokyo, Japan, and Tokyo surroundings. The analysis was conducted as part of the project entitled “Analysis of the applicability of the author’s method of roundabouts entry capacity calculation developed for the conditions prevailing in Poland to the conditions prevailing at roundabouts in Tokyo (Japan) and in the Tokyo surroundings”. The main aim and the research question was whether the author’s model of roundabouts entry capacity calculation constructed for the conditions prevailing in Poland after calibration is suitable to calculate roundabout entry capacity of roundabouts located in Tokyo and in the Tokyo surroundings. In order to perform the calibration in 2019, measurements were taken at the single-lane roundabouts located in Tokyo and Tokyo surroundings. The model calibration revealed that it is possible to evaluate the entry capacity of roundabouts located in Tokyo and in Tokyo surroundings using the author’s model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Roundabouts Performance in Road Transport Networks - Future Challenges, Problems and Issues)

► Show Figures