Evaluating pedestrian considerations for transit advantage at roundabouts

Summary

Roundabouts have proven to be an effective tool for traffic control at many intersections, particularly in rural and suburban areas?they have been shown to reduce crash severity, improving safety and increasing capacity at many locations. However, roundabouts bring some challenges when considering their use on corridors with transit, particularly bus operations, partially because roundabouts have been shown to decrease driver yielding rates to pedestrians compared to other intersection types. This, combined with the elevated pedestrian volumes associated with transit, along with overall lack of clarity on how pedestrians interact with transit advantage infrastructure such as bus-only lanes, makes it difficult to tell how best to implement such options on corridors with roundabouts. To address this research gap, this project is 1) identifying the state of practice on operating transit with roundabouts, 2) providing an understanding of how pedestrians interact with roundabouts, 3) collecting video data to understand how pedestrians interact with bus-only lanes, and 4) making recommendations for best practices for operating transit on corridors with roundabouts.