Abstract:

A hazard analysis model was built for the first discharge headway of queuing vehicles at the signalized intersections. The calibration method was proposed for the model parameters and the calibration was performed using the traffic data collected from the signalized intersections in Beijing. The distribution of the first discharge headways in the heterogeneous traffic flow was described and the effects of different factors were analyzed quantitatively. The results show the first discharge headway at the signalized intersections in Beijing is much longer than those in other countries and regions. It is obviously affected by the vehicle type, the complexity of the environment at the intersection and the traffic flow behavior. The starting disturbance increases the average first discharge headway from 3.99 s to 5.47 s, the moving disturbance prolongs it from 4.15 s to 6.65 s, both factors reduce the traffic operation efficiency significantly.

Key words: engineering of communications and transportation, first discharge headway, hazard analysis, heterogeneous traffic flow, signalized intersection