Estelle Chevallier
Modeling unsignalized intersections at macroscopic and
micrsocopic scales: issues and proposals
Driving experience and on-field data reveal
two distinct traffic patterns at unsignalized intersections: (i) when the
conflict area is uncongested, minor stream vehicles search for acceptable time
intervals between major stream vehicles to complete the insertion manoeuvre;
(ii) when the conflict area is congested, minor stream vehicles do not respect
the give-way rule anymore and adopt an alternating behaviour with queued
vehicles of the major road to enter the merge.
These observed traffic patterns are well
described by the gap acceptance theory in uncongested regime and by the
demand-supply framework in congestion. However, current dynamic microscopic and
macroscopic insertion models are exclusively based on either one or the other
theoretical background. The resulting modelling errors in terms of flows
estimation will be highlighted in this presentation. This can be devastating in
practice as capacity and delays can be misestimated. For each kind of traffic
flow representation, some insights will be also proposed to avoid these errors
by modelling both operation regimes within the same framework.
Talk