Choosing the Right Traffic Analysis Tool

Steve Thieken

Senior Transportation Engineer and Planner
Burgess & Niple

Steve has nearly 30 years of experience in the analysis and design of transportation improvement projects. His experience with roundabouts goes back to 2003 and has since helped analyze and design dozens of roundabouts that are now in operation.

This presentation will present the findings of the comparison of results for multiple analysis tools on the same location/roundabout. Common software tools and analysis methods: Sidra, VISSIM, HCS, and Rodel are compared. The featured comparison will include a complex roundabout location (Hilliard, Ohio), where drone video was collected during the same timeframe that traffic counts were collected to provide recorded, real-world, traffic operations during the analysis period. The traffic queuing results from the model analysis are compared to queues recorded from the drone video. Modeling methods and parameters will be discussed such as gap acceptance, headways, lane utilization, etc. General conclusions will be shared regarding the particular capabilities of each analysis methodology for the given locations.

The learning objective is to help the audience understand modeling methodologies and their assumptions and capabilities. The intended audience is anyone who performs traffic analysis or that relies on traffic analysis to make decisions related to roundabout design.

There is much discussion and debate about the best methods to evaluate roundabout capacity. Selecting the most appropriate roundabout size and language can heavily influence roundabout cost, which can ultimately impact whether a roundabout is chosen as the preferred alternative or not. This presentation should help practitioners better understand the sensitivities, advantages, and limitations of common analysis tools