Intersection Design

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Intersection is an area shared by two or more
roads.
This area is designated for the vehicles to turn to
different directions to reach their desired
destinations.
Its main function is to guide vehicles to their
respective directions.
Conflict of intersection: vehicles & pedestrians
Small error results to severe accident
Overall traffic flow depends on the performance
of the intersections
Road network capacity depends on intersections
Specific for urban areas
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In general there are three types of
intersections:
◦ Intersection at grade
◦ Grade separations without ramps
◦ Interchanges
intersection at grade is one where two or more
highways join or cross.
When two highways cross each other at a different
grade, with no connections, the arrangement is referred
as grade separations.
When it is necessary to accommodate high volumes of
traffic safely and efficiently, through intersections, one
to through traffic lanes separated in grade and this is
referred as an interchange.

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The objective of intersection design is to “reduce the
severity of potential conflicts between vehicles”.
Four basic elements are generally considered in the
design of at grade intersection.
◦ Human factors: driving habits and decision and reaction times
◦ Traffic considerations: capacities and turning movements,
vehicle speeds and size and distribution of vehicles
◦ Physical elements: Characteristics and use of abutting property,
sight distance and geometric features
◦ Economic factors: cost and benefits and energy consumption

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Conflicts at an intersection are different for different
types of intersection

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The control of an intersection can be exercised at
different levels.
They can be either passive control, semi control, or
active control.
◦ In passive control, there is no explicit control on
the driver.
◦ In semi control, some amount of control on the
driver is there from the traffic agency.
◦ Active control means the movement of the traffic is
fully controlled by the traffic agency and the drivers
cannot simply maneuver the intersection according
to his choice.
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When the volume of traffic is less, no explicit control is
required.
Here the road users are required to obey the basic rules
of the road.
Passive control like traffic signs, road markings etc.
are used to complement the intersection control.
Some of the intersection control that are classified
under passive control are as follows:
◦ No control .
◦ Traffic signs: Stop sign and Give way
◦ Road marking: stop line marking, arrow marking etc.

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In semi control or partial control, the drivers are gently
guided to avoid conflicts.
Some of the intersection control that are classified under
semi control are as follows:

◦ Channelization: The traffic is separated to flow through

definite paths by raising a portion of the road in the middle

◦ Traffic rotaries: It is a form of intersection control in which

the traffic is made to flow along one direction around a
traffic island. Free-left turn is permitted where as through
traffic and right-turn traffic is forced to move around the
central island in a clock-wise direction in an orderly manner.
Merging, weaving and diverging operations reduces the
conflicting movements at the rotary.
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Active control implies that the road user will be forced
to follow the path suggested by the traffic control
agencies.
He cannot maneuver according to his wish.
Some of the intersection control that are classified
under active control are as follows:
◦ Traffic signals
◦ Grade separated intersections

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There are four categories of intersections:
1.Priority Intersection: Occur where one of the intersecting
roads is given definite priority over the other. The minor
road will usually be controlled by some form of marking
such as stop or yield sign;
thus ensuring that priority
vehicles travailing on the main
street will deserve virtually no delay.

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2. Space sharing intersection:
Are intended to permit fully equally priority and to permit
continuous movement for all intersecting vehicle flows;
example would be rotaries
and other weaving areas

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3. Time Sharing Intersection: Are those at which
alternative flows are given the right of way at different
point in time. This type of intersection is controlled by
traffic signal or by police officer.

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4. Uncontrolled intersection: are the most
common type of intersection usually occurs where
the intersecting roads are relatively equal
importance and found in areas where there is not
much traffic

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Grade-separated intersections are provided to
separate the traffic in the vertical grade.
Different types of grade-separators are flyovers and
interchanges.
Flyovers itself are subdivided into overpass and
underpass.
◦ When two roads cross at a point, if the road having major
traffic is elevated to a higher grade for further movement of
traffic, then such structures are called overpass.
◦ Otherwise, if the major road is depressed to a lower level to
cross another by means of an under bridge or tunnel, it is
called under-pass.

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Interchange is a system where traffic between two
or more roadways flows at different levels in the
grade separated junctions.
Common types of interchange include trumpet
interchange, diamond interchange, and cloverleaf
interchange

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Vehicles approaching an intersection are directed to
definite paths by islands, marking etc. and this method
of control is called channelization.
Channelized intersection provides more safety and
efficiency.
It reduces the number of possible conflicts by reducing
the area of conflicts available in the carriageway

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The conflicts arising from movements of traffic in
different directions is solved by the principle of time
sharing.
The advantages of traffic signal includes an orderly
movement of traffic, an increased capacity of the
intersection and requires only simple geometric design.
However the disadvantages of the signalized
intersection are it affects larger stopped delays, and the
design requires complex considerations.
Although the overall delay may be lesser than a rotary
for a high volume, a user is more concerned about the
stopped delay.

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 The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
(MUTCD) describes nine warrants in detail, at least one of
which should be satisfied for an intersection to be
signalized.

Warrant 1: Eight hour vehicular volume

Warrant 2: Four hour vehicular volume
Warrant 3: Peak hour volume
Warrant 4: Pedestrian volume
Warrant 5: School crossing
Warrant 6: Coordinated signal system
Warrant 7: Crash experience
Warrant 8: Roadway network
Warrant 9: Intersection near a grade crossing

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Tables below give minimum volumes that should exit at
intersection for consideration of traffic signal under this
warrant.
Condition A-Minimum vehicular volume
Major street, Minor street ,
veh/hr Veh/hr
Number of lanes
(both approach) (one direction
only)
Major street Minor Street 100% 80% 100% 80%
1 1 500 400 150 120
2 or more 1 600 480 150 120
2 or more 2 or more 600 480 200 160
1 2 or more 500 400 200 160

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Condition B-Interruption of continuous traffic
Major street, Minor street ,
veh/hr Veh/hr
Number of lanes
(both approach) (one direction
only)
Major street Minor Street 100% 80% 100% 80%
1 1 750 600 75 60
2 or more 1 900 720 75 60
2 or more 2 or more 900 720 100 80
1 2 or more 750 600 100 80

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The warrant is considered at locations where the main
reason for installing a signal is the high intersecting
volume.
It is based on the comparison of standard graphs
given in the MUTCD.
When the plot for each of any four hours of an
average day falls above the appropriate standard
graph, this warrant is satisfied

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This warrant is used to justify the installation of traffic
signals at intersections where traffic conditions during
one hour or longer of an average day results in undue
delay to traffic on the minor street entering or crossing
the intersection.
One of two conditions (A or B) should be satisfied for
the warrant to be satisfied.

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Condition A
1. The total stopped delay during any four periods on
consecutive 15 min. on one of the minor street
approaches controlled by a stop sign is
>4 veh/h for a one lane approach and
>5 veh/h for a two lane approach.
2. The same minor street approach volume should be
>100 for one moving lane of traffic
>150 per hour for two moving lane of traffic
3. The total intersection entering volume;
>650 veh/hr –for three leg intersection
>800 veh/hr –for four leg & multileg intersection
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Condition B
This condition is illustrate in figure:

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This warrant is used to justify the installation of
traffic signal at intersections or mid block crossings
where traffic conditions results in excessive delay to
pedestrians wishing to cross the major street.
One of two conditions should be satisfied for this
warrant to be met.
Condition A
When the plotted point of the veh/hr and the
corresponding pedestrians/hr are above the curve in
figure

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Condition A
When the plotted point of the veh/hr (any four hour)
and the corresponding pedestrians/hr are above the
curve in figure

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Condition B
When the plotted point of the veh/hr during the peak hour and
the corresponding pedestrians/hr are above the curve in figure

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This warrant is used to accommodate the crossing of
the major street by school children.
The signal in this case should be pedestrian actuated,
and all obstruction to view should be prohibited for at
least 30 m before and 6.1 m after the crosswalk.
But this warrant is not applicable at locations that are
less than 90 m from the nearest traffic control signal
along the major road.

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Criteria A
When adjacent traffic controls are at long distance from
each other on a one way street, or on a street with
traffic predominantly in one direction.

Criteria B
When an adequate degree of platooning on a two way
street is not provided by the existing adjacent traffic
signal .

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 This warrant is used when the purpose of installing a
traffic signal control is reduce the number and severity
of crashes at intersection.
Criteria A. Crash frequency has not been reduced by an
adequate trial of less restrictive measures.
Criteria B. Five or more injury or reportable PDO
crashes have occurred within a 12 months period
Criteria C. The traffic volume should not be less than
those given in both of the 80% of the requirements
specified in the Warrant 1.

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 This warrant is used at some intersections when such
an installation will help to encourage concentration and
organization of traffic flow on the networks.
Criteria A
The intersection of two or more roads has a total
existing or immediately projected entering volume of at
least 1000vehicles during peak hour of a week day.
Criteria B
The total existing volume, or immediately projected
entering volume is 1000 veh/hr or greater of a non-
normal business day.

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This warrant is considered at stop or yield control
intersections, near rail road grade crossings where the
criteria for installing a traffic signal control for all the
eight warrants discussed above are not met.
Criteria A
The center of the rail track closet to the stop or yield
controlled intersection is located at a distance of 40 m
or less.
Criteria B
As shown in figure below

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A number of definitions and notations need to be
understood in signal design. They are discussed below:
Cycle:
A signal cycle is one complete rotation through all of
the indications provided.
Cycle length:
Cycle length is the time in seconds that it takes a signal
to complete one full cycle of indications. It indicates
the time interval between the starting of green for one
approach till the next time the green starts. It is denoted
by C.

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Interval:
Thus it indicates the change from one stage to
another.
There are two types of intervals - change interval
and clearance interval.
Change interval is also called the yellow time
indicates the interval between the green and red
signal indications for an approach.
Clearance interval is also called all red is
included after each yellow interval indicating a
period during which all signal faces show red and
is used for clearing off the vehicles in the
intersection.

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Green interval:
It is the green indication for a particular
movement or set of movements and is denoted by
Gi. This is the actual duration the green light of a
traffic signal is turned on.

Red interval:
It is the red indication for a particular movement or
set of movements and is denoted by Ri. This is the
actual duration the red light of a traffic signal is
turned on.

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Phase:
A phase is the green interval plus the change and
clearance intervals that follow it. Thus, during
green interval, non conflicting movements are
assigned into each phase.
It allows a set of movements to flow and safely
halt the flow before the phase of another set of
movements start

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Lost time:
It indicates the time during which the intersection is not
effectively utilized for any movement.
For example, when the signal for an approach turns
from red to green, the driver of the vehicle which is in
the front of the queue, will take some time to perceive
the signal (usually called as reaction time) and some
time will be lost here before he moves

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The signal design procedure involves six major steps.
They include the
(1) phase design,
(2) determination of amber time and clearance time,
(3) determination of cycle length,
(4) apportioning of green time,
(5) pedestrian crossing requirements, and
(6) the performance evaluation of the above design.

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Objective:
◦ to separate the conflicting movements in an intersection into
various phases, so that movements in a phase should have no
conflicts.
◦ Decide the number of phases
If all the movements are to be separated with no
conflicts, then a large number of phases are required. In
such a situation, the objective is to design phases with
minimum conflicts or with less severe conflicts.
This is often guided by the geometry of the
intersection, flow pattern especially the turning
movements, the relative magnitudes of flow.

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There are two intervals:
◦ change interval and
◦ clearance interval.
The change interval or yellow time is provided after green time
for movement. They normally have a value of 3 to 6 seconds.
The clearance interval is provided after yellow interval ,it is used
to clear off the vehicles in the intersection.
Clearance interval is optional in a signal design. It depends on
the geometry of the intersection. If the intersection is small,
then there is no need of clearance interval whereas for very
large intersections, it may be provided.

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 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has
recommended a methodology for computing the appropriate
, length of change interval as:

Y=is the length of yellow interval in seconds

t=is the reaction time of the driver,

V85=is the 85th percentile speed of approaching vehicles in
m/s,
a=is the deceleration rate of vehicles in m/sec2
g=is the grade of approach expressed as a decimal.

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Cycle time is the time taken by a signal to complete one full
cycle of iterations. i.e. one complete rotation through all signal
indications.
It is denoted by C .
Figure illustrates a group of N vehicles at a signalized
intersection, waiting for the green signal

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As the signal is initiated, the time interval between two
vehicles, referred as headway, crossing the stop line is
noted.
The first headway is the time interval between the
initiation of the green signal and the instant vehicle
crossing the stop line.
The second headway is the time interval between the
first and the second vehicle crossing the stop line.
Successive headways are then plotted as in figure :

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The first headway will be relatively longer since it
includes the reaction time of the driver and the time
necessary to accelerate.
The second headway will be comparatively lower
because the second driver can overlap his/her reaction
time with that of the first driver's.
After few vehicles, the headway will become constant.
This constant headway which characterizes all
headways beginning with the fourth or fifth vehicle, is
defined as the saturation headway, and is denoted as h .

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 This is the headway that can be achieved by a stable
moving platoon of vehicles passing through a green
indication.
If every vehicles require h seconds of green time, and
if the signal were always green, then s vehicles/per
hour would pass the intersection. Therefore,

S=is the saturation flow rate in vehicles per hour of green

time per lane,
h= is the saturation headway in seconds

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As noted earlier, the headway will be more than h
particularly for the first few vehicles.
The difference between the actual headway and h for
the i th vehicle and is denoted as l1 shown in figure
These differences for the first few vehicles can be
added to get start up lost time l1, which is given by,

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 The green time required to clear N vehicles can be
found out as

where
T=is the time required to clear N vehicles through
signal,
l1 is the start-up lost time,
h is the saturation headway in seconds.

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Effective green time is the actual time available for the
vehicles to cross the intersection.
It is the sum of actual green time (Gi ) plus the yellow
minus the applicable lost times.
This lost time is the sum of start-up lost time (l1 ) and
clearance lost time (l2 ) denoted as tL .
Thus effective green time can be written as,

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 The ratio of effective green time to the cycle length
(gi/C) is defined as green ratio.

We know that saturation flow rate is the number of

vehicles that can be moved in one lane in one hour
assuming the signal to be green always. Then the
capacity of a lane can be computed as,

ci= is the capacity of lane in vehicle per hour

si= is the saturation flow rate in vehicle per hour per lane
C= is the cycle time in seconds.
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Let the cycle time of an intersection is 60 seconds, the
green time for a phase is 27 seconds, and the
corresponding yellow time is 4 seconds. If the
saturation headway is 2.4 seconds/vehicle, the start-up
lost time is 2 seconds/phase, and the clearance lost time
is 1 second/phase, find the capacity of the movement
per lane?

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During any green signal phase, several lanes on one or
more approaches are permitted to move.
One of these will have the most intense traffic.
Thus it requires more time than any other lane moving
at the same time.
If sufficient time is allocated for this lane, then all
other lanes will also be well accommodated.
There will be one and only one critical lane in each
signal phase.
The volume of this critical lane is called critical lane
volume.

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 If C is the cycle length in seconds, then the number of
cycles per hour =

The total lost time per hour is the number of cycles per
hour times the lost time per cycle and is =

Substituting as
Total lost time per hour =

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The total effective green time Tg available for the
movement in a hour will be one hour minus the total
lost time in an hour.
Therefore

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Let the total number of critical lane volume that can be
accommodated per hour is given by
Then,

or

or

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Highway capacity manual (HCM) has given an
equation for determining the cycle length which is a
slight modification of the above equation.

= number of phases
=lost time per phase
=quality factor called critical ratio where is
the volume and is the capacity
= ratio of volume to saturation flow for phase

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The traffic flow in an intersection is shown in the
figure:

Given start-up lost time is 3 seconds per phase,

saturation head way is 2.3 seconds, compute the cycle
length for that intersection. Assume a two-phase signal.

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If we assign two phases as shown below figure then the
critical volume for the first phase which is the
maximum of the flows in that phase = 1150 vph.

Similarly critical volume for the second phase = 1800

vph.
Therefore, total critical volume for the two signal
phases = 1150+1800 = 2950 vph.

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 Saturation flow rate for the intersection can be found
out from the equation as
= 1565.2 vph.
This means, that the intersection can handle only 1565.2
vph.
However, the critical volume is 2950 vph .
Hence the critical lane volume should be reduced and
one simple option is to split the major traffic into two
lanes. So the resulting phase plan is as shown in figure

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Here we are dividing the lanes in East-West direction
into two, the critical volume in the first phase is 1150
vph and in the second phase it is 900 vph.
The total critical volume for the signal phases is 2050
vph which is again greater than the saturation flow rate
and hence we have to again reduce the critical lane
volumes.

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Assigning two lanes in North-South direction, as shown
in figure the critical volume in the first phase is 575
vph and that of the second phase is 600 vph, so that the
total critical lane volume = 900+575 = 1475 vph which
is lesser than 1565.2 vph

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The phase diagram with flow values of an intersection
with two phases is shown in the figure below.

Given lost time per phase is 3 sec. saturation headway

is 2.2 sec. The yellow time for first phase and second
phase are 4 and 3 sec respectively. Find the cycle
length for that intersection.

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Green splitting or apportioning of green time is the
proportioning of effective green time in each of the
signal phase.
The green splitting is given by,

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Effective green time available in a cycle will be cycle
time minus the total lost time for all the phases.
Therefore,

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 If lost time is different for different phases, then
effective green time can be computed as follows.

Actual green time can be now found out as,

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The phase diagram with flow values of an intersection
with two phases is shown in figure .

The lost time and yellow time for the first phase is 2.5
and 3 seconds respectively.
For the second phase the lost time and yellow time are
3.5 and 4 seconds respectively.
If the cycle time is 120 seconds, find the green time
allocated for the two phases

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Pedestrian crossing requirements can be taken care by
two ways; by suitable phase design or by providing an
exclusive pedestrian phase.
It is possible in some cases to allocate time for the
pedestrians without providing an exclusive phase for
them. For example, consider an intersection in which
the traffic moves from north to south and also from east
to west.
If we are providing a phase which allows the traffic to
flow only in north-south direction, then the pedestrians
can cross in east-west direction and vice-versa

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However in some cases, it may be necessary to provide
an exclusive pedestrian phase. In such cases, the
procedure involves computation of time duration of
allocation of pedestrian phase. Green time for pedestrian
crossing can be found out by,

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Performance measures are parameters used to evaluate
the effectiveness of the design. There are many
parameters involved to evaluate the effectiveness of the
design and most common of these include delay,
queuing, and stops.
Delay is a measure that most directly relates the driver's
experience. It describes the amount of time that is
consumed while traversing the intersection.
The figure shows a plot of distance versus time for the
progress of one vehicle

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There are three types of delay as shown in the figure.
They are
◦ Stopped delay,
◦ Approach delay and
◦ Control delay.
Stopped time delay includes only the time at which
the vehicle is actually stopped waiting at the red signal.
It starts when the vehicle reaches a full stop, and ends
when the vehicle begins to accelerate.

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Approach delay includes the stopped time as well as
the time lost due to acceleration and deceleration. It is
measured as the time differential between the actual
path of the vehicle, and path had there been green
signal.
Control delay is measured as the difference between
the time taken for crossing the intersection and time
taken to traverse the same section, had been no
intersection.

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Vehicles are not uniformly coming to an intersection.
i.e., they are not approaching the intersection at
constant time intervals. They come in a random
manner.
This makes the modeling of signalized intersection
delay complex.
Most simple of the delay models is Webster's delay
model.
It assumes that the vehicles are arriving at a uniform
rate.

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Webster derived an expression for delay per cycle,
which is as follows:

= effective green time

= cycle length
= critical flow for that phase
= saturation flow

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The traffic flow for a four-legged intersection is as shown
in figure:

Given that the lost time per phase is 2.4 seconds, saturation
headway is 2.2 seconds, amber time is 3 seconds per phase,
find the cycle length, green time and performance
measure(delay per cycle). Assume critical v/c ratio as 0.9
(use HCM equation)
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The phase plan is as shown in figure

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Level of service (LOS) LOS Control delay per
for signalized
vehicles (s/veh)
intersections is defined
in terms of control A ≤10
delay. The average B >10-20
control delay is C >20-35
estimated for each lane
D >35-55
group and aggregated
E >55-80
for each approach and
for the intersection as a F >80
whole.

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The v/c ratio for each lane group is computed directly
by dividing the adjusted flow by the capacities
computed as equation
gi
ci = si
C

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The ratio of flow rate to capacity, v/c, often labeled as
X is therefore:
v vi vi C
Xi =   = =
 c i  g i  si g i
si  
C

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