Empirical Study on Maximum Traffic Throughputs at Intersections

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathumthani 12121, Thailand

Abstract

Traffic congestion in big cities of Thailand has been a major problem seriously deterring economy growth. An average travel speed has become lower than 15 km/hour during peak-hour periods. One of the current major questions is how to find the most optimum green time that minimizes vehicle delay at an intersection. Since the identification of this optimum green time significantly depends on the knowledge of how fast vehicles can pass through an intersection, the information of the maximum traffic throughputs at intersections at different locations is indispensable. In this study, therefore, traffic counts were extracted manually from the videos recorded at 4 major intersections in Saensuk city. After the data were analyzed, the maximum traffic throughputs for different lane numbers and configurations were calculated and summarized. A better understanding of this maximum traffic throughput at intersections will lead to more accurate estimation of optimal green time.