An-Najah Staff

The usage of traffic simulation to evaluate the safety of signalized intersections is an innovative approach to assess performances of various layouts or operations upon the safety of these facilities. This study presents the development of a microscopic simulation model aiming at the safety assessment of signalized intersections. This paper starts with a comprehensive discussion regarding the basic requirements for such a simulation model. The proposed simulation model integrates many key behavioral models of road users such as stop/go decision at the onset of yellow, turning paths, turning speeds, start-up response time and pedestrian gap acceptance models and so on. The main feature of these empirical models is that they consider the stochastic behavior of road users. Furthermore, they are sensitive to the layout and the operation of signalized intersections. This paper discusses how different conflicts are presented inside the simulation by demonstrating the mechanism of one of these conflicts. Model validation and a case study are conducted. The validation results show that the simulation model reasonably represents the conflict occurrence at signalized intersections, which proofs that such a model can be a reliable approach for the safety assessment. A case study is conducted to compare the performance of compact layout intersections with wide size ones. Trends of safety improvements are observed in the simulation results, although a generalized conclusion could not be made