Explicit traffic control measures are absent in uncontrolled intersections which make them susceptible to frequent conflicts and resulting collisions between vehicles. In developing countries like India, drivers at such intersections do not yield to higher priority movements which cause more crashes between vehicles. The objective of this study is to analyze and model the gap acceptance behavior of minor street drivers at uncontrolled T-intersections considering their aggressive nature. Three intersections in the northeast region of India have been selected as the case study area. Preliminary analysis of the data revealed that drivers behave aggressively, not because they have to wait for a long time at the stop line, but because of their lack of respect for traffic rules. Binary logit models are developed for minor road right turning vehicles which show that gap acceptance behavior is influenced by gap duration, clearing time and aggressive nature of drivers. The equations obtained were used to estimate the critical gaps for aggressive and non-aggressive drivers. Critical gaps are also calculated using an existing method called clearing behavior approach. It is also shown that the estimation of critical gap is more realistic if clearing time and aggressive behavior of drivers are considered.
The aim of this study was to explore the viability of microsimulation in estimating critical gaps at unsignalised intersections. Critical gaps are generally estimated by extracting gap acceptance data from traffic videos. Extracting such data is a strenuous task, especially under mixed traffic conditions. In this study, gap acceptance data were generated from simulation models developed in the Vissim software package. Critical gaps of three unsignalised intersections were estimated using field data and simulated data of the intersections. Critical gaps were estimated by the logit method and the clearing time method. The critical gaps estimated using simulated data were reasonably close to those obtained using field data for both methods. The results also showed that the logit method was more robust than the clearing time method in estimating critical gaps under mixed traffic conditions. Moreover, the time needed for generating simulated data was only 3.6% of that required for obtaining field data. The method proposed in this study will help traffic engineers and practitioners in critical gap estimation by saving a considerable amount of time and effort.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.