TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Evaluating the operational impact of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections in China
JO  - Transportation research record
A1  - Yang, Zhao
A1  - Liu, Pan
A1  - Tian, Zong Z.
A1  - Wang, Weixu
SP  - 12
EP  - 20
VL  - 2286
IS  - 
N2  - Transportation professionals in China have started using left-turn waiting areas and lagging left-turn phasing to improve traffic efficiency at signalized intersections. Left-turn waiting areas are usually set up beyond the stop bar at an exclusive left-turn lane or dual left-turn lanes. This design allows left-turning vehicles to enter and wait at the left-turn waiting area after the initiation of the through phase. The operational impact of left-turn waiting areas at signalized intersections was evaluated, and the arrival and departure processes of left-turning vehicles at exclusive left-turn lanes with and without waiting areas were compared. A procedure for estimating the capacity of an exclusive left-turn lane with a waiting area was proposed. Cross-sectional analysis used data collected from 12 approaches at nine signalized intersections to compare the start-up lost time and saturation headways of left-turn passenger cars for four scenarios. The capacities of exclusive left-turn lanes with differently sized left-turn waiting areas were compared. The results indicate that left-turn waiting areas increase the capacity of exclusive left-turn lanes and that the capacity gains would increase with an increase in the storage capacity of the left-turn waiting area.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 0361-1981
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3141/2286-02
ID  - ref1
ER  -