ANALYSIS OF SIGNALIZED INTERSECTION PERFORMANCE AND FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE TRAFFIC DELAYS IN URBAN AREAS

Abstract

Signalized intersections are among the most important nodes in urban road networks due to the fact that traffic delays mainly occur at these points. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of signalized intersections and to determine the factors impacting traffic delays in urban areas through the methodology of Systematic Literature Review. 24 scientific papers were selected from those published in the last ten years and were used for data collection and analysis. All the sources used were openly accessible and could be downloaded anytime, including indexed national journals, conference proceedings, and university libraries. Every factor found was then extracted, documented on a worksheet, and categorized into six groups, namely traffic volume and mix, signal timing, intersection capacity and design, side friction around intersection, drivers’ behavior, and traffic engineering and management. Analysis was done through frequency counts. The findings indicate that traffic volume and mix has the first rank with 20 mentions (27.4 percent), while signal timing is the second one with 16 mentions (21.9 percent). Intersection capacity and geometry takes the third place with 14 mentions (19.2 percent), while traffic management and engineering is the last one with 12 mentions (16.4 percent). It is noted that almost all the articles indicate the presence of saturation more than 0.85 in peak hours with level of service E to F. This means that the findings confirm that the delay at the signalized intersections is caused by high traffic volumes and inappropriate signal timing relative to the real traffic flow.