Research on the operation of roundabouts based on the sustainable development principles

Abstract

The main elements of urban transport infrastructure include: the street network with intersections, bridges, viaducts, flyovers, vehicular traffic tunnels. Unsignalized four-leg intersections and roundabouts is the largest “saturated transport flow” of the street network. Roundabouts which were designed as far back as 1970–1980 were well-functioning when the car ownership level was 180–200 veh/1000 inhabitants. Currently, when the level of car owner-ship comes to 520–560 veh/1000 inhabitants, unsignalized roundabouts operate in the “oversaturated flows” regime. The research results of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and other universities showed that when designing new or reconstructing existing intersections the indicators of territorial planning, transport planning, environmental protection, traffic safety should be considered. As a common indicator for assessing all other indicators a monetization (estimation in monetary terms) should be used. When preparing projects for intersection reconstruction it is recommended to apply a new method of intersection analysis and evaluation based on the principles of sustainable development of urban transport infrastructure.