Smith, Douglas
(2013)
Development of a New Jughandle Design for Facilitating High-Volume Left Turns and U-Turns.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The jughandle is a category of unconventional intersection that redistributes left turns to improve capacity and safety. The New Jersey Department of Transportation, a pioneer in jughandle design, classifies jughandles as either Type A (forward ramp intersecting the cross street), Type B (forward ramp curving left to intersect the mainline), or Type C (reverse loop ramp).
This research has developed a new type of jughandle design referred to as Type A+B. This design closes the minor approaches at intersections and directs traffic through a jughandle onto the mainline. It also accommodates U-turns and mainline left turns in a manner similar to traditional Type B jughandles. A unique type of signal phasing, developed to accommodate this design, allows both jughandles to move concurrently. This type of intersection is hypothesized to be most appropriate for the retrofit of suburban arterials requiring installation of a median barrier. The retrofit would install a median barrier with the jughandles, and eliminate signals at intersections with low cross-street volumes, replacing them with right turns followed by U-turns (RTUT). The objective of this research is to determine whether this is an appropriate context for the design, and under what general volume conditions the Type A+B jughandle can reduce delay.
Simulation software was used to compare performance measures for the Type A+B jughandle against a conventional intersection and a traditional Type A jughandle, for a wide range of traffic volumes whose turn movement proportions were modeled after a suburban arterial. The research also tested use of this design on an existing suburban arterial in the Pittsburgh region. Measures of performance evaluated include intersection delay, additional footprint, fuel consumption, and number of stops. It was found that the Type A+B jughandle significantly reduced delay under high-volume conditions, and resulted in a much larger intersection footprint.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
27 June 2013 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
2 April 2013 |
| Approval Date: |
27 June 2013 |
| Submission Date: |
4 April 2013 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
94 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Swanson School of Engineering > Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
traffic, traffic engineering, transportation, transportation engineering, transport engineering, intersection, intersections, interchange, interchanges, jughandle, jughandles, arterial, arterials, U-turn, U-turns, superstreet, superstreets |
| Date Deposited: |
27 Jun 2013 14:32 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 14:11 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18187 |
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