Understanding the Determinants of Lane Inefficiency at Fully Actuated Intersections: An Empirical Analysis

Nihat Can Karabulut, Murat Ozen () and Oruc Altintasi
Additional contact information
Nihat Can Karabulut: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul 34420, Türkiye
Murat Ozen: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mersin University, Mersin 33343, Türkiye
Oruc Altintasi: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Izmir Kâtip Celebi University, Izmir 35620, Türkiye

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: As urban traffic challenges intensify, the growing interest for fully actuated control systems in intersection management is on the rise due to their capacity to adapt to dynamic traffic demands. These systems play a crucial role in sustainable traffic solutions, significantly reducing delays and emissions and enhancing overall system efficiency. The optimal performance of these systems relies on effectively facilitating vehicle discharge at the saturation flow rate throughout the green period. This study introduces a new parameter, lane inefficiency, evaluating vehicle discharge effectiveness by comparing saturation flow rate with instantaneous discharge for each green period. It provides a comprehensive assessment of green utilization for specific lanes. This study also explores the impact of signal control system parameters and traffic flow characteristics on lane inefficiency using principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression models. This approach holistically evaluates how both signal control system and traffic flow parameters collectively influence efficient green period utilization. The findings emphasize the impact of critical factors on lane inefficiency, including green time, the proportion of total unused green time to green time, total unused green time, the percentage of heavy vehicles in departing traffic, the ratio of effective green time to cycle time, the total time headways of the first four vehicles, and queue length. Decision makers need to pay due attention to these parameters to enhance intersection performance and foster a more sustainable urban transportation network.

Keywords: fully actuated intersection; signal performance; discharge flow rate; saturation flow rate; lane inefficiency; urban intersections (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/722/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/722/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:722-:d:1319027

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().