Minor road traffic delays at priority junctions on low speed roads in suburban areas

Abstract

Traffic delay is one of the important aspects considered in the assessment of the operational performance of intersections. In the analysis of priority or unsignalised junctions, delays to minor road vehicles are often estimated using the existing mathematical models. However, the applicability of such a model depends on the basis and the source of the data with which the model was calibrated. This study was carried out to evaluate traffic delays to minor road vehicles at priority junctions in suburban areas. The data were collected at two priority junctions using video recording technique. The results showed that the day time delays were longer than of those observed during the twilight time. In both situations, delay to minor road vehicles increases as the volume of major road traffic increases. However, the effect of conflicting volume on the delay to the minor road vehicles is not clear. The comparisons between observed delay and the values predicted using the HCM and Tanner’s models indicated that, in general, the observed delays are much lower than the values predicted by both models particularly during the day time. Such a finding suggests that both HCM and Tanner’s models are not directly applicable to the analysis of delays at priority junctions in Malaysia