Simulation studies of the effects of some geometrical and traffic factors on the capacity of priority intersections.

This paper describes a simulation model of traffic at major/ minor priority intersections, which has been used as a basic tool for developing a practical method of capacity calculation. The objective of the studies is to assess the effects of traffic restraints and platooning and its non-stationarity on capacity and traffic performance measures. The simulation model has appeared to be a very effective tool in evaluating the capacity calculation method; it allows the modelling of flow demands according to various profiles of traffic and the study of the effect of these profiles on capacity and traffic performance. The simulation results presented here show that traffic variations considerably affect the performance at priority intersections; this should be considered in the practical method of capacity calculation and in evaluating priority intersection performance. These results have also made it possible to evaluate the influence of interdependencies between traffic streams on the capacity of intersections. Some of these relationships are very difficult to evaluate without the use of simulation.