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Author ORCID Identifier

N/A

AccessType

Open Access Dissertation

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Year Degree Awarded

2018

Month Degree Awarded

May

First Advisor

Eleni Christofa

Second Advisor

Eric Gonzales

Third Advisor

Ahmed Ghoniem

Fourth Advisor

Song Gao

Subject Categories

Transportation Engineering

Abstract

Alternative geometric designs (e.g. roundabouts) and multi-objective signal control strategies are promising measures to improve sustainability of traffic networks. However, roundabouts are mostly used because of their safety and operational advantages. There has been less attention to the environmental performance of roundabouts. Also, the existing studies have been mostly used through field measurements and current simulation models, which need high calibration efforts and they are not inclusive in terms of considering all influencing factors on vehicular emissions at roundabouts. Furthermore, the existing real-time signal control strategies do not account for the emission rates of different vehicle types (e.g. cars and buses). In addition, the real-time multi-objective signal control systems does not consider environmental objectives. This dissertation develops a real-time bi-objective signal control system for isolated intersections, which operate at undersaturated traffic conditions that minimizes a weighted combination of vehicle delay (or person delay) and emissions of auto and transit vehicles. Pareto Frontiers of the optimal solutions are presented to help decision makers select the most appropriate combinations of objectives to achieve desirable levels of delay and emissions. Additionally, a simple simulation tool based on Cellular Automata (CA) model of traffic simulation is developed to estimate delay and reproduce vehicle trajectories for emission estimation. The models are used to compare the operational and environmental performance of roundabouts and signalized intersections and perform sensitivity analysis with respect to total traffic demand, left turn ratio, and pedestrian volume. Evaluation tests show that replacing a signalized intersection with a roundabout results in improved delay and emissions at undersaturated traffic conditions and any pedestrian volume. It also shows that roundabouts’ performance is less affected by high left turning demand compared to signalized intersections. On the contrary, roundabouts’ performance is sensitive to frequent pedestrian crossings while the performance of signalized intersections is not affected by pedestrian crossings.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/11955661

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