Feasibility of an Automated Solution for Deriving Roundabout Turning Movements

As non-traditional designs such as the roundabout are increasingly used, it is important to complement the design with the appropriate operational and planning tools. A frequent challenge for engineers is obtaining turning movement counts at roundabouts. Some researchers have evaluated various analytical techniques, and others have developed unique and expensive hardware for this purpose. This team of researchers aimed to create a methodology that strikes a balance between quality of results and expenses. This methodology involves a omni-directional camera system and the Double Series Algorithm. This research shows the feasibility of using off-the-shelf components to create an easily reproducible system for obtaining roundabout turning movement counts. The proof of concept was demonstrated using a single lane four-legged roundabout. Analysis of type I and type II errors was conducted, and an improvement over other methodologies is demonstrated.