Micro-Simulation of Gap Acceptance by Turning Vehicles at a Signalized Intersection in a University Campus

Turning decision by vehicles, at a signalized intersection in a university campus, is not only dependent on the vehicle’s attributes but also on pedestrian and bicycle attributes. Depending on the geometric design, pedestrians may be screened/protected by the presence of cyclists, because in most cases turning vehicles first yield to cyclists then pedestrians. For example, a bicycle path may have an impact on the turning decision of vehicles. The explanatory attributes may also have different extents of impact on the left- and right-turning vehicles. This study considers the intersection of Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest and Rue Mackay in George Williams Campus of Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) as a case study. There are two conflict zones at such intersection for the left- and right-turning vehicles. Left-turning vehicles interfere with pedestrians and cyclists
at the North-East crossing (Maisonneuve–Mackay), while right-turning vehicles interfere with pedestrians at the West-South crossing (Mackay–Maisonneuve).

This study estimates left- and right-turning vehicles’ critical gap acceptance at the selected intersection with a stochastic distribution model. Traffic video data were collected from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm from July to October 2010. A total of 638 traffic data records of left-turning vehicles and 392 records of right-turning vehicles were recorded during the 30-hour period.