01698294

Component

In congestion, when a vehicle enters an intersection with insufficient space to exit on the opposite side due to downstream traffic spillback, it often leads to the obstruction of vehicle and pedestrian movement on conflicting approaches. This “blocking the box” can propagate to nearby intersections with negative traffic impacts such as capacity reductions and increased travel times and, in extreme cases, can lead to gridlock. This paper investigates the effectiveness of “Don’t Block the Box” (DBTB) treatments in minimizing driver’s blocking an intersection. This research explores the performance of DBTB treatments by: 1) conducting a “before-after” DBTB treatment comparison study at six intersections in Atlanta, Georgia and by 2) quantifying the impact of vehicle blocking behavior on intersection performance using a microscopic simulation model. The study results indicate that the DBTB treatment installation did not significantly improve the likelihood that drivers would not choose to “block the box” when provided with an opportunity to do so. Importantly, even where the likelihood a driver would choose to block did decrease after the DBTB treatment installation, the rate of blocking remained high, with more vehicles likely to block than not (i.e. posterior blocking propensities >50% at all sites). In addition, regardless of the presence of DBTB treatments, from the simulation it was seen that the rate at which drivers chose to block has the potential to significantly increase congestion and vehicle delay. However, it was also seen that if the effectiveness of the treatment could be improved, significant benefits could be achieved.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB50 Standing Committee on Traffic Control Devices.

19-05944

English

9p

2019

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Before and after studies; Campaigns; Highway traffic control; Intersections; Microsimulation

Georgia

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2019 Paper #19-05944

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 7 2018 9:51AM