Comparing the New Double Contraflow Intersection to Conventional and Alternative Intersections
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper introduced a new intersection design, the double contraflow intersection (DCI), that could help at big, busy suburban sites, and explored how well it would work. The DCI uses contraflow left turn lanes on each approach to minimize the conflicting traffic flows. The DCI has the potential to provide slightly better capacity than the continuous flow intersection (CFI) and median U-turn (MUT), and much better capacity than a comparable conventional intersection, while mitigating some of the known limitations of the CFI and MUT. Our results showed that the DCI was generally superior to the CFI, MUT, and conventional designs in capacity and travel time. The DCI likely looks about as safe as the conventional and CFI designs, and is as good in through progression as the CFI. The DCI looks to be generally behind the MUT in pedestrian service, and behind the CFI in bicyclist service, but not by much in either case. The DCI looks to be generally behind the conventional design, but better than the CFI, in driveway service and right-of-way needed. In sum, the DCI looks like it could have a future in helping relieve traffic congestion at some suburban intersections and deserves attention from researchers and project teams.
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Data Availability Statement
Some data and models that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank their employers for providing the time to develop this idea and work on this manuscript. The views and opinions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the North Carolina Department of Transportation or the University of Mississippi.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148 • Issue 3 • March 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 5, 2021
Accepted: Nov 8, 2021
Published online: Dec 28, 2021
Published in print: Mar 1, 2022
Discussion open until: May 28, 2022
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