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Turbo-Roundabouts as an Instrument for Improving the Efficiency and Safety in Urban Area: An Italian Case Study

Author

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  • Salvatore Leonardi

    (Department of Civil Engineering and Architectural, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria, 6, 95125 Catania, Italy)

  • Natalia Distefano

    (Department of Civil Engineering and Architectural, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria, 6, 95125 Catania, Italy)

Abstract

In recent years, numerous turbo-roundabouts have been built in many European countries. To date, there are no turbo-roundabouts in Italy and even the regulations do not provide for their implementation. Turbo-roundabouts are considered the ideal alternative to multi-lane roundabouts as they have numerous advantages. However, they offer better operational performance only for specific traffic flow distributions. This research used the case study of an important and complex urban arterial road in eastern Sicily, Italy, to compare the operational and safety performance between multi-lane roundabouts and turbo-roundabouts. The evaluations were carried out with two simulation software: (1) AIMSUN Next 20.0.1 (operational performance); (2) SSAM 3.0 (safety performance). The results show that at medium/low traffic volumes, multi-lane roundabouts are significantly superior to turbo-roundabouts in terms of operational performance. At high traffic volumes, the operational performance of turbo-roundabouts improves significantly. As regards the safety parameters, for turbo-roundabouts there is always an increase in the TTC and PET, a reduction in maximum speeds and decelerations. There is also a significant decrease in conflict points. Ultimately, the safety and efficiency performance of turbo-roundabouts should: (1) Encourage administrations to replace the multi-lane roundabouts (illegal in Italy) with turbo-roundabouts; (2) encourage Italian legislators to revise intersection design legislation to include turbo-roundabouts among possible design solutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Salvatore Leonardi & Natalia Distefano, 2023. "Turbo-Roundabouts as an Instrument for Improving the Efficiency and Safety in Urban Area: An Italian Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3223-:d:1063883
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Astarita, Vittorio & Guido, Giuseppe & Vitale, Alessandro & Giofré, Vincenzo, 2012. "A new microsimulation model for the evaluation of traffic safety performances," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 51, pages 1-2.
    2. Jan Petru & Vladislav Krivda, 2021. "An Analysis of Turbo Roundabouts from the Perspective of Sustainability of Road Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-25, February.
    3. Shan Huang & Liya Guo & Yan Yang & Irene Casas & Adel W. Sadek, 2012. "Dynamic demand estimation and microscopic traffic simulation of a university campus transportation network," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 449-467, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mehrzad Hasanvand & Amir Saman Abdollahzadeh Nasiri & Omid Rahmani & Khaled Shaaban & Hossein Samadi, 2023. "A Conflict-Based Safety Diagnosis of SCI Roundabouts Using a Surrogate Safety Measure Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-19, September.

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