Pedestrian accessibility to a large four-leg roundabout can be improved by locating staggered crosswalks on all roundabout legs and signalising them to allow for two-stage crossing. A multi-level pedestrian signalisation (MPS) is developed for such roundabouts to balance pedestrian accessibility and vehicle mobility. With appropriate application of traffic control devices and traffic detection systems, the right-of-way is assigned to pedestrians and vehicles in three actuated modes. Signals at adjacent crosswalks can operate independently or as a group in a specific mode of right-of-way to prioritise pedestrians or vehicles. A number of traffic events are defined to autonomously manage signal operations second by second. Simulation results indicated that MPS had good operational stability and offered sufficient capacity for a large four-leg roundabout to serve traffic demand varying in a wide range. The appealing operational advantage of the MPS-enabled roundabout over the fully actuated conventional intersection may help prevent large four-leg roundabouts from being converted to conventional intersections.

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Multi-level pedestrian signalisation at large four-leg roundabouts

References

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