Safety Evaluation of Flower Roundabout Considering Autonomous Vehicles Operation

Alessandro Severino, Giuseppina Pappalardo, Salvatore Curto, Salvatore Trubia and Isaac Oyeyemi Olayode
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Alessandro Severino: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Salvatore Curto: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy
Salvatore Trubia: Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy
Isaac Oyeyemi Olayode: School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-14

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.

Keywords: flower-roundabouts; surrogate measures; traffic conflicts; CAVs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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