Overview

Rotary intersections or round abouts are special form of at-grade intersections laid out for the movement of traffic in one direction around a central traffic island. Essentially all the major conicts at an intersection namely the collision between through and right-turn movements are converted into milder conicts namely merging and diverging. The vehicles entering the rotary are gently forced to move in a clockwise direction in orderly fashion. They then weave out of the rotary to the desired direction. The benefits, design principles, capacity of rotary etc.

In one sense, Rotary intersections (or Roundabouts) can be considered as a from of channelized intersection in which vehicles are guided onto a one-way roadway and required to move in a clockwise direction about a central island. At one time, the rotary intersection was considered to be the answer for all the problems associated with intersections. In fact, the rotary intersections have particular advantages and disadvantages, and the decision as to whether a rotary should be used at any individual location requires an understanding of these. Where roundabouts are properly used and designed, the efficient flow of traffic is promoted by the orderly movement of vehicles about the central island. There is only minor delay to traffic due to speed reductions and no delay, at all, due to stopping. Further more the

possibility of having vehicle conflicts is considerably reduced. Since, all traffic streams merge and diverge at small angles, accidents, if occur, rarely have fatal consequences, damage being usually confined to vehicle only. The rotary design is more suited to intersections with four or more approach roads and or where there are very heavy right turning movements. These intersections usually require greater land area and cost more than other at grade intersections, capable of handling same traffic flow. These are nor adaptable to locations with difficult top graphic conditions. These can not be properly used at locations with large traffic volumes in built up areas. Similarly they can not be adapted for high speed roads as long weaving lengths are required to ensure low relative speeds. Roundabout intersections are not readily adaptable as are traffic signal controlled intersections to the long term stage development of highway. If constructed to meet the long term needs, they usually result in over-design when compared with immediate traffic requirements. For traffic control reasons, roundabout should not be provided in areas with an existing or proposed area-wide urban traffic control systems.

IRC GUIDELINES FOR SELECTING ROTARY INTERSECTION

Because of the above limitation, rotaries are not suitable for every location. There are few guidelines that help in deciding the suitability of a rotary. They are listed below 1.Lowest traffic volume for which rotary treatment should be considered is about 500 veh/hr. 2. The volumes entering from different intersection legs are almost equal. 3. The maximum volume, that a traffic rotary can efficiently handle, can be taken as 3000 veh/hr. entering from all intersection legs. 4. A rotary is advantageous at locations where the proportion of right turning traffic is high. 5. A rotary is preferable if there are other junctions so near, that there would be insufficient space for the formation of queues. 6. A rotary is very beneficial when the proportion of the right-turn traffic is very high; typically if it is more than 30 percent. 7. Rotaries are suitable when there are more than four approaches or if there is no separate lanes available for right-turn traffic. Rotaries are ideally suited if the intersection geometry is complex.

Shape of Central Island

The shape and disposition of central island (control island) depend upon various factors such the number and disposition of intersecting roads and traffic flow pattern. Fig 3.1 illustrates the common shapes of rotary islands. The conditions under which a particular shape is favoured are discussed in Table

Type a) Circular b) Squarish with rounded edges

Remarks Equal importance to all the roads meeting. Suitable for predominantly straight ahead flows.

c) Elliptical, elongated oval or rectangular shapes

To favour through traffic/to suit the geometry of the intersecting legs/ to provide longer weaving lengths

d) Irregular

Shape is dictated by the existence of large number of approaches

Table COMMON SHAPES OF ROTARY ISLANDS

Advantages and disadvantages of rotary

The key advantages of a rotary intersection are listed below: 1. Tra_c ow is regulated to only one direction of movement, thus eliminating severe conicts between crossing movements. 2. All the vehicles entering the rotary are gently forced to reduce the speed and continue to move at slower speed. Thus, more of the vehicles need to be stopped. 3. Because of lower speed of negotiation and elimination of severe conicts, accidents and their severity are much less in rotaries. 4. Rotaries are self governing and do not need practically any control by police or tra_c signals. 5. They are ideally suited for moderate traffic, especially with irregular geometry, or intersections with more than three or four approaches. Although rotaries over some distinct advantages, there are few specific limitations for rotaries which are listed below. 1. All the vehicles are forced to slow down and negotiate the intersection. Therefore the cumulative delay will be much higher than channelized intersection. 2. Even when there is relatively low traffic, the vehicles are forced to reduce their speed. 3. Rotaries require large area of relatively at land making them costly at urban areas. 4. The vehicles do not usually stop at a rotary. They accelerate and exit the rotary at relatively high speed. Therefore, they are not suitable when there is high pedestrian movements.

Traffic operations in a rotary

As noted earlier, the traffic operations at a rotary are three; diverging, merging and weaving. All the other conicts are converted into these three less severe conicts.

1. Diverging: It is a traffic operation when the vehicles moving in one direction is

separated into different streams according to their destinations.

2. Merging: Merging is the opposite of diverging. Merging is referred to as the process of

joining the traffic coming from different approaches and going to a common destination into a single stream.

Figure 2: Traffic operations in a rotary

3. Weaving: Weaving is the combined movement of both merging and diverging

movements in the same direction. These movements are shown in figure 40:1. It can be observed that movements from each direction split into three; left, straight, and right turn.

Design elements
The design elements include design speed, radius at entry, exit and the central island, weaving length and width,entry and exit widths. In addition the capacity of the rotary can also be determined by using some empirical formula. A typical rotary and the important design elements are shown in figure.

Figure 3: Design of a rotary

Design speed
All the vehicles are required to reduce their speed at a rotary. Therefore, the design speed of a rotary will be much lower than the roads leading to it. Although it is possible to design roundabout without much speed reduction, the geometry may lead to very large size incurring huge cost of construction. The normal practice is to keep the design speed as 30 and 40 kmph for urban and rural areas respectively.

Entry, exit and island radius

The radius at the entry depends on various factors like design speed, super-elevation, and coefficient of friction. The entry to the rotary is not straight, but a small curvature is introduced. This will force the driver to reduce the speed. The speed range of about 20 kmph and 25 kmph is ideal for an urban and rural design respectively. The exit radius should be higher than the entry radius and the radius of the rotary island so that the vehicles will discharge from the rotary at a higher rate. A general practice is to keep the exit radius as 1.5 to 2 times the entry radius. However, if pedestrian movement is higher at the exit approach, then the exit radius could be set as same as that of the entry radius. The radius of the central island is governed by the design speed, and the radius of the entry curve. The radius of the central island, in practice, is given a slightly higher reading so that the movement of the traffic already in the rotary will have priority of movement. The radius of the central island which is about 1.3 times that of the entry curve is adequate for all practical purposes.

Width of the rotary

The entry width and exit width of the rotary is governed by the tra_c entering and leaving the intersection and the width of the approaching road. The width of the carriageway at entry and exit will be lower than the width of the carriageway at the approaches to enable reduction of speed. IRC suggests that a two lane road of 7 m width should be kept as 7 m for urban roads and 6.5 m for rural roads. Further, a three lane road of 10.5 m is to be reduced to 7 m and 7.5 m respectively for urban and rural roads. The width of the weaving section

should be higher than the width at entry and exit. Normally this will be one lane more than the average entry and exit width. Thus weaving width is given as,

where e1 is the width of the carriageway at the entry and e2 is the carriageway width at exit. Weaving length determines how smoothly the tra_c can merge and diverge. It is decided based on many factors such as weaving width, proportion of weaving tra_c to the non-

Figure 4: width of rotary carriageway weaving tra_c etc. This can be best achieved by making the ratio of weaving length to the weaving width very high. A ratio of 4 is the minimum value suggested by IRC. Very large weaving length is also dangerous, as it may encourage over-speeding.

Capacity
The capacity of rotary is determined by the capacity of each weaving section. Transportation road research lab (TRL) proposed the following empirical formula to find the capacity of the weaving section.

Where w = e= p= l=

where

is the average entry and exit width, i.e,

is the weaving width,

is the

length of weaving, and

is the proportion of weaving traffic to the non-weaving traffic. and are the non-weaving

Figure 3 shows four types of movements at a weaving section, traffic and and are the weaving traffic.

Figure 3: Weaving operation in a rotary Therefore,

Where a = b= c=

d=

This capacity formula is valid only if the following conditions are satisfied. 1. Weaving width at the rotary is in between 6 and 18 metres. 2. The ratio of average width of the carriage way at entry and exit to the weaving width is in the range of 0.4 to 1. 3. The ratio of weaving width to weaving length of the roundabout is in between 0.12 and 0.4. 4. The proportion of weaving traffic to non-weaving traffic in the rotary is in the range of 0.4 and 1. The weaving length available at the intersection is in between 18 and 90 m.

ANALYSIS OF ROTARY Survey:

ROTARY NAME :Knowledge park (IV) NO OF INTERSECTION: 4
S.NO. Width of entry(e1)m Width of non weaving Length(l)m

section (e2)m 1 2 3 4 11 13.6 11.7 11.3 13.2 15.6 16.5 12.0 62.1 64 67 61.6

No of PCU per hours Time 7:00 am t0 8:00am S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) 28 22 39 45 32 14 10 b (p/hr) 210 179 231 210 198 41 32 c (p/hr) 202 210 201 205 154 45 42 d (p/hr) 25 30 23 23 21 08 07

Average a (p/hr)= Average b (p/hr) = Average c (p/hr)= Average d (p/hr)=

Time 8:00 am t0 9:00am S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) 43 43 34 60 45 22 16 b (p/hr) 241 188 198 267 265 103 71 c (p/hr) 247 164 234 204 210 130 40 d (p/hr) 32 31 40 23 22 21 10

Average a (p/hr)= Average b (p/hr) = Average c (p/hr)= Average d (p/hr)=

Time 9:00am to 10:00 am

S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7

a 45 65 71 67 62 32 21

(p/hr)

b 287 276 245 289 301 87 53

(p/hr)

c 188 198 298 176 207 123 63

(p/hr)

d 21 34 21 45 32 21 19

(p/hr)

Average a = Average b = Average c = Average d =

Time 5:00pm to 6:00 pm

S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7

a 49 43 65 41 40 31 21

(p/hr)

b 301 303 234 289 298 102 67

(p/hr)

c 310 256 256 283 198 82 39

(p/hr)

d 21 19 43 26 29 13 12

(p/hr)

Average a = Average b = Average c = Average d =

Time 6:00 pm to 7:00pm (no. of vehicles/hr) S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a 56 55 53 76 63 32 21 (p/hr) b 342 298 287 354 314 179 80 (p/hr) c 276 206 201 210 290 60 90 (p/hr) d 45 62 43 52 32 31 31 (p/hr)

Average a = Average b = Average c = Average d =

Time 7:00 pm to 8:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a 49 54 75 64 61 31 23 (p/hr) b 323 302 290 278 364 239 78 (p/hr) c 301 190 283 274 273 190 54 (p/hr) d 87 61 43 67 56 41 43 (p/hr)

Average a = Average b = Average c = Average d =

Analysis:
for time 7:00am to 8:00am

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 ,l = w= so Q=

Analysis: for time 8:00am to 9:00am

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 w= so Q=

,l=

Analysis: for time 9:00am to 10:00am

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

Analysis: for time 5:00pm to 6:00pm

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

Analysis: for time 6:00pm to 7:00pm

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

Analysis: for time 7:00pm to 8:00pm

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

Analysis: for time 7:00am to 8:00am

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

Analysis: for time 1:00pm to 2:00pm

a= b= c= d= so p=

w = (e1+e2)/2 so Q=

so the maximum capacity of the rotary after analysis = required capacity as provided by IRC is =

Improvement=

ROTARY NAME :CITY PARK NO OF INTERSECTION: 4

S.NO. Width of entry(e1)m Width of non weaving Length(l)m

section (e2)m 1 2 3 4

Time 7:00 pm to 8:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a 31 51 23 32 43 26 18 (p/hr) b 156 178 89 103 178 98 18 (p/hr) c 189 261 198 149 134 81 25 (p/hr) d 34 31 24 21 28 19 13 (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)

Time 5:00 pm to 6:00pm S. no. Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Day7 a (p/hr) b (p/hr) c (p/hr) d (p/hr)