Operational Performance and Safety Effects of Arterial Weaving Sections

Arterial roadways are crucial links in the national transportation system. Providing both local and regional mobility and access, they are critical to economic vitality and quality of life in the United States. As drivers place increasing demands on transportation infrastructure and freeway congestion continues to increase, arterials have become an alternative route for many drivers, resulting in the lower performance of these roadways. In many areas, weaving maneuvers negatively affect arterial operations and safety. For this research, arterial weaving is defined as the crossing of two or more traffic streams in the same direction between two or more access points on a multi-lane urban street with some type of traffic control. Furthermore, weaving maneuvers can affect the operations and safety of many alternative intersection configurations, including median U-turns and restricted crossing U-turns. Understanding the operational and safety performance of arterials and the effects of weaving thereon is important for transportation agencies tasked with maintaining these roadways. The Highway Capacity Manual, Sixth Edition (HCM), provides a methodological approach for estimating the performance of weaving sections on freeway segments. This methodology, however, is not applicable to arterial weaving due to differences between freeways and arterials in traffic control, traffic flow characteristics, and driver behavior. The primary objective of this research project was to develop a deterministic method for evaluating the operational performance of weaving sections on arterials. The secondary objective is to identify the safety effects of varying geometric, volume, and traffic control conditions in weaving sections on arterials.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4199

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $750000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 15-66

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Jared, David

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Florida Transportation Institute

  P.O. Box 116580
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611
• Principal Investigators:

  Elefteriadou, Lily

• Start Date: 20201116
• Expected Completion Date: 20230915
• Actual Completion Date: 20230915
• Source Data: RiP Project 40845

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Arterial highways; Geometric design; Highway capacity; Highway design; Intersections; Traffic congestion; Traffic flow; Traffic safety; Weaving sections; Weaving traffic
• Identifier Terms: Highway Capacity Manual
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01598994
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 15-66
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: May 12 2016 1:43PM