Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts (2014)

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N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 772 Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts Lee A. Rodegerdts Pete M. Jenior Zachary H. Bugg Brian L. Ray Kittelson & AssociAtes, inc. Portland, OR i n a s s o c i a t i o n w i t h Bastian J. Schroeder institute for trAnsportAtion reseArch And educAtion Raleigh, NC Marcus A. Brewer texAs A&M trAnsportAtion institute College Station, TX Subscriber Categories Highways • Design • Operations and Traffic Management TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2014 www.TRB.org Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

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C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 772 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Christopher Hedges, Manager, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Lori L. Sundstrom, Senior Program Officer Megan A. Chamberlain, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Scott E. Hitchcock, Editor NCHRP PROJECT 03-100 PANEL Field of Traffic—Area of Operations and Control Philip B. Demosthenes, Consultant, Denver, CO (Chair) Stephen A. Bass, Kansas DOT, Topeka, KS Wylie Bearup, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Sarah Bowman, Coady | Bowman LLC, Anchorage, AK Robert E. Fenton, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Theron I. “Terry” Knouse, Virginia DOT, Richmond, VA Mark S. Lenters, GHD Inc., Madison, WI Avijit Maji, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai Dina Maria Swires, Washington State DOT, Burlington, WA Hillary Isebrands, FHWA Liaison Richard A. Cunard, TRB Liaison

F O R E W O R D By Lori L. Sundstrom Staff Officer Transportation Research Board NCHRP Report 772: Evaluating the Performance of Corridors with Roundabouts provides performance measurement and evaluation methods, including a predictive model for travel speed and an overarching comparison framework, for comparing the performance of a corridor with a functionally interdependent series of roundabouts to a corridor with signal- ized intersections in order to arrive at a design solution. For the purposes of this research, a “series of roundabouts” is defined as at least three roundabouts that function interde- pendently on an arterial. These evaluation methods will be of use to traffic engineers and transportation planners. Roundabouts are increasingly recognized as an intersection control strategy that can ful- fill multiple performance goals related to traffic operation and safety, as well as meet soci- etal goals related to sustainability, livability, complete streets, context sensitive design, eco- nomic development, and others. Some transportation agencies have recently constructed or approved the use of a series of roundabouts on an arterial rather than the traditional solution of coordinated signalized intersections. While there are anecdotal reports suggest- ing that functionally interdependent roundabouts on a corridor are successful in meeting performance goals, little research has been conducted to determine objectively the efficacy of this alternative as compared to signalized intersections. The performance of traffic signal systems on arterials is well researched and documented, and methods to predict their performance are well established. Performance measures for isolated roundabouts exist, and safety research has consistently shown that roundabouts have lower fatal and injury crash frequencies when compared to signalized intersections. In contrast, qualitative and quantitative information on the performance of a set of function- ally interdependent roundabouts on arterials is lacking. Under NCHRP Project 03-100, Kittelson & Associates, Inc. of Portland, Oregon, was asked to (1) conduct a literature review and gap analysis, (2) develop proposed perfor- mance measures and evaluation methods and conduct a field demonstration of the sug- gested performance measures and evaluation methods on existing arterials, and (3) sug- gest appropriate performance measures and evaluation methods. The research resulted in the development of a predictive model for travel speed on a roundabout corridor and an overall framework for comparing alternative corridor configurations that acknowledges a wide range of project catalysts that may influence decision making. Appendix A of NCHRP Report 772 contains the “Corridor Comparison Document.” Appendices B through O con- tain data on each of the nine roundabout corridors selected for detailed study; the appendi- ces are available for downloading from the project webpage at http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/ TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=2950.

AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 03-100 by Kittelson & Associates, Inc.; Institute for Transportation Research and Education; Texas A&M Transportation Institute; and Write Rhetoric. Kittelson & Associates, Inc., was the Contractor for this study. The work undertaken by other project team members occurred under subcontracts with Kittelson & Associates, Inc. Lee Rodegerdts, P.E., Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., was the principal investigator. Brian Ray, P.E., Senior Principal Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., was project principal. The other authors of this report are Pete Jenior, P.E., P.T.O.E., Senior Engineer, Kittelson & Associates, Inc.; Dr. Zachary Bugg, Transportation Analyst, Kittelson & Associates, Inc.; Dr. Bastian Schroeder, Assistant Director, Institute for Transportation Research and Education, North Carolina State University; and Mar- cus Brewer, P.E., Associate Research Engineer, Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A & M University. During the project, Dr. Bugg graduated from North Carolina State University and joined Kittelson & Associates, Inc. The project team acknowledges others who played significant roles in the project. Dr. James Bonneson, Kittelson & Associates, Inc., and Dr. Nagui Rouphail, Institute for Transportation Research and Educa- tion, provided senior review and guidance. Liang Ding and Steven Venglar of Texas A&M Transportation Institute conducted traffic operations analysis. Christopher Vaughn, Michael Corwin, Kyle Hovey, and David Craft of Institute for Transportation Research and Education and Martin Fuest and Christopher White of Texas A&M Transportation Institute assisted with field data collection, processing, and analysis. Ralph Bentley and Jesus Culler of Kittelson & Associates, Inc., developed graphics. Danica Rhodes of Write Rhetoric provided technical editing. Traffic counts were collected by Quality Counts, LLC. The project team acknowledges the contributions of corridor owners who participated in interviews with the authors and provided as-built plans of study roundabouts. These individuals are: Mike Nieder- hauser of Maryland State Highway Administration; Siavash Pazargadi of the City of San Diego; Mike McBride of the City of Carmel; Marcos McGraw of the City of Gig Harbor; Brian Walsh, Dina Swires, and Dustin Terpening of Washington State Department of Transportation; Dan Hartman of the City of Golden; Justin Hildreth of the City of Avon; and Mark Kennedy, James Boni, and Howard McCulloch of New York State Department of Transportation. Finally, the research team also acknowledges the guidance, support, and inspiration provided by the NCHRP Project 03-100 Panel Chair and Panel Members throughout the course of the project and research efforts. These panel members customized and adapted their participation in the research to provide an improved product.

C O N T E N T S Note: Many of the photographs, figures, and tables in this report have been converted from color to grayscale for printing. The electronic version of the report (posted on the Web at www.trb.org) retains the color versions. S-1 Summary 1-1 Chapter 1 Background 1-1 1.1 Problem Statement 1-1 1.2 Research Objective 1-3 1.3 Background and Literature Review 2-1 Chapter 2 Research Approach 2-1 2.1 Corridor Comparison Document 2-2 2.2 Study Site Identification 2-7 2.3 Data Collection Plan 2-17 2.4 Site Characteristics Summary 2-21 2.5 Corridor Owner Interviews 2-34 2.6 Conclusion 3-1 Chapter 3 Modeling 3-1 3.1 Background 3-2 3.2 Modeling Framework 3-17 3.3 Modeling Results 3-39 3.4 Model Validation and Application 3-55 3.5 Equivalent Non-Roundabout Corridors 3-62 3.6 Summary 4-1 Chapter 4 Applications 4-1 4.1 Corridor Comparison Document 4-6 4.2 Predictive Operations Methodology 5-1 Chapter 5 Conclusions and Suggested Research 5-1 5.1 Conclusions 5-4 5.2 Suggested Research R-1 References A-1 Appendix A Corridor Comparison Document