Modeling High-Capacity Multilane Roundabouts

RODEL and SIDRA are two of the most common macroscopic roundabout operational analysis tools being used in the United States. One significant drawback of the macroscopic tools is that they cannot address complex interactions between roundabouts being analyzed and any adjacent intersections. Analysis of interaction between the operations of closely-spaced intersections becomes critical in urban settings where peak-hour traffic volumes are high. Only microscopic traffic modeling tools can analyze such interactions. However, due to a large set of parameters that affect driver behavior in these models, their application and acceptability of results from roundabout analysis is still not predominant. This paper attempts to provide some guidelines for multi-lane roundabout operational analysis using the popular microscopic traffic simulation tool, VISSIM. Comparison of results from VISSIM to those from RODEL and SIDRA is also provided.