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Technical Correspondences__________________________________________________
A New Trafc-Signal Control for Modern
Roundabouts: Method and Application
Xiaoguang Yang, Xiugang Li, and Kun Xue
AbstractWhen the circulatory roadway of a roundabout has more
than two lanes, the vehicles weaving and merging cause large trafc and
safety problems. In this paper, a new method of trafc-signal control
for modern roundabouts is proposed to solve problems by eliminating
the conict points and weaving sections at a roundabout with different
trafc-ow rates on each approach, which normally appear in the real
world. A second stop line is set exclusively for the left-turn trafc on the
circulatory roadway. It is beside the rst stop line on the approach. Trafc
signals are installed before each stop line to eliminate the conicts between
the trafc ows on the approaches and the left-turn trafc ows on the
circulatory roadway. Left-turn vehicles on the circulatory roadway will
stop before red signals to avoid weaving. Equations are derived to compute
the signal cycle length and the green time for each trafc ow, considering
the limited queue on the circulatory roadway. Capacity and delay are also
formulated to evaluate the roundabouts performance. This trafc-signal
control has a successful application of a roundabout in Xiamen, China,
to solve the very serious trafc-congestion problem. The signal-timing
scheme was computed with the proposed equations, as well as the capacity
and delay. Pictures taken before and after the improvement show the
operation. After the improvement, the roundabout capacity increases
72.1% and the average delay of each vehicle decreases by 20 s.
Index TermsCapacity, delay, roundabout, trafc signal.

I. INTRODUCTION
Roundabouts are circular intersections with specic design and
trafc-control features. These features include yield control of all
entering trafcs, channelized approaches, and appropriate geometric
curvatures to ensure that travel speeds on the circulatory roadway are
typically less than 50 km/h [1]. The modern roundabout was developed
in the U.K. in the 1960s and modern roundabouts provide substantially
better operational and safety characteristics than older trafc circles
and rotaries [2]. Therefore, many countries have adopted them as a
common intersection form.
Roundabouts have unique characteristics that warrant consideration
by developers and managers of the road system [3]. However, a roundabout usually has more than one lane on the circulatory roadway in
order to increase the capacity. In Fig. 1, the roundabout has two circulatory lanes. The eight white points are vehiclevehicle conict points,
while the eight gray points are vehicle-merging points. If we need to
increase the capacity, more than two circulatory lanes should be set.
However, there will be much more conict points, which have to be
eliminated in order to keep smooth and safe operation of the roundabout.
Manuscript received December 1, 2003; revised August 25, 2004. This work
was supported in part by the National Nature Science Foundation of China under
Project 50108012 and in part by the Chinese National 973 Fundamental Research Program under Project G1998030408. The Associate Editors for this
paper was F.-Y. Wang.
X. Yang and K. Xue are with the Department of Trafc Engineering, Tongji
University, Shanghai 200092, China (e-mail: yangxg@mail.tongji.edu.cn).
X. Li is with the College of Engineering, Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA and also with the Department of Trafc Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China, (e-mail: xli@lsu.edu;
lixg@mail.tongji.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TITS.2004.838181

Fig. 1. Conict points for a roundabout with two circulatory lanes.

The bottlenecks of a roundabout with two or more circulatory lanes

are the weaving sections, where the vehicles enter or leave the roundabout. Disorder will occur, causing serious safety problem if there is
no trafc control. And the designed capacity cannot be achieved.
Roundabouts without trafc-signal controls have been intensively
studied and widely used. Previous research on modern roundabouts are
mainly on the capacity [3][6], delay [7][9], geometric design, and
safety [9][11] of roundabouts without signal controls. Sisiopiku and
Oh found that, for intersections with two-lane approaches, roundabouts
without signal control have better performance than four-leg intersections under yield control, two- and four-way stop control, and signal
control by using the signalized and unsignalized intersection design
and research aid (SIDRA) package [12].
Roundabouts with trafc-signal controls have been studied and are
used much less than those without the controls. Usually, the trafc signals are installed on the approaches of a roundabout. Kimber and Semmens suggested the type of junction named SIG-NABOUT, which
combines the features of a signalized junction and a roundabout [13].
A case study of a roundabout in Shefeld, U.K., found that the introduction of trafc signals turned out to be the most effective and economical
solution for sharing out or balancing the entry ows between the approaches [14]. The improvements by the installation of trafc-signal
control at a roundabout in Scotland was proven to be successful [15].
From a survey, Lines found that signalized roundabouts signicantly
reduced cycle accidents at the signalized entries [16].
However, there are very few trafc-signal controls on the circulatory roadway of a roundabout. The authors have done some previous
work on this, such as Yang et al., which explored the concepts of using
a second stop line and trafc signals to control the left-turn trafc on
the circulatory roadway, combined with the trafc-signal control on
the approach roads [17]. Then, Yang et al. proposed the signal-timing
process [18]. Yang and Li developed the control method adapted to a
roundabout with similar trafc-ow rates in the opposite driving directions [19]. Xue et al. explored the optimization of the control for a
roundabout at a xed cycle [20].
In this paper, a new method of trafc-signal control is proposed to
solve the trafc problem by eliminating the conict points and weaving

1524-9050/04$20.00 2004 IEEE

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283

Fig. 3. Phase sequences of the trafc-signal control.

Fig. 2.

Geometric design of the roundabout.

sections at a roundabout with different trafc-ow rates on each approach, which normally appear in the real world. A second stop line is
set exclusively for the left-turn trafc on the circulatory roadway. It is
beside the rst stop line on the approach. Trafc signals are installed before each stop line and the signal-phase sequences are designed. Equations are derived to compute the signal timing considering the limited
queue on the circulatory roadway. Capacity and delay are also formulated. A case study in Xiamen, China, is presented to show the successful application. The minimum value of the roundabout radius is
discussed under the constraint of queue on the circulatory roadway.

II. METHODOLOGY
A. Geometric Design
For this method, the rst step is the geometric design of the roundabout, as shown in Fig. 2. The left-turn, go-through, and right-turn lanes
are set on each approach. The left-turn and go-through lanes are set on
the circulatory roadway.
There are two kinds of stop lines shown in Fig. 2. The rst is located
on each approach for the left-turn and go-through vehicles. The second
is exclusively for the left-turn vehicles and is located on the circulatory
roadway.
In Fig. 2, SS 0 is the rst stop line on approach 1, while BB 0 is
the second stop line for left-turn trafc from approach 1. In the same
way, CC 0 is the rst stop line on approach 2, while DD0 is the second
stop line for approach 2. Approaches 3 and 4 also have two stop lines,
respectively.
Before each stop line, trafc signals are installed to control the trafc
ows. The locations of the signal lamps are shown in Fig. 2.
B. Trafc-Signal Control
The proposed trafc-signal control provides queue of the left-turn
ow before the second stop line on the circulatory roadway. Fig. 3 illustrates the signal phase sequences. Direction I means the direction
of approaches 2 and 4, while direction II means the direction of approaches 1 and 3.
For Direction I, the signal-phase sequences are as follows.
Go-through trafc before the rst stop lines on approaches 2 and
4 gets green time and starts to move.
While the go-through trafc keeps moving, the left-turn trafc
before the rst stop lines on approaches 2 and 4 gets green time,

starts to move, and queues before the second stop lines on the circulatory roadway. For example, left-turn trafc from approach 2
queues before DD0 , having no conict with trafc from approach
4.
Green time for left-turn trafc on approaches 2 and 4 ends. The
go-through trafc keeps moving until its green time ends.
Left-turn trafc queuing before the second stop lines gets green
time and starts to move. For example, the green time ends for
go-through trafc on approach 4, then trafc queuing before DD0
starts to move until its green time ends.
For Direction II, the signal-phase sequences are the same as Direction I, shown in Fig. 3. Furthermore, the go-through trafc ows from
approaches in the same direction, such as approaches 2 and 4, should
not share the same phase, when the ow rates are much different. The
green time will be adjusted with the proposed equations.
C. Limited Queue on the Circulatory Roadway
As shown in Fig. 2, r is the radius of the roundabout and w is the
width of one circulatory lane. Suppose that there is only one left-turn
circulatory lane. Point O is the center of the roundabout. Point B locates at the center of the second stop line on this lane. A is the weaving
point.  is the angle between lines OA and OB . Suppose that i is the
approach number. Then, i =  when i = 1, as shown in Fig. 2. For
approach i, the limited queue length qi before the second stop line is

qi = i (r + 0:5w):
180

(1)

Then, the limited number of queuing vehicles Cil is

Cil = qi =l;

(2)

l is the average occupied length of one queue vehicle m.

where 
Suppose that there are n left-turn lanes on the circulatory roadway.
For approach i, the limited number of queue vehicles Cin is
Cin = nCil :

(3)

For all the approaches, the total limited number of queue vehicles Ccl
before the second stop line on the circulatory roadway is

Ccl =

Cin:

(4)

Ccl also is the capacity of left-turn vehicles on the circulatory roadway

during one signal cycle, because every approach has one chance of
green time in one cycle.

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D. Signal Timing
1) Signal-Cycle Length: The signal cycle length ce for the
go-through trafc ows at the approaches is computed with the
Webster equation [1].

ce = (1:5L + 5)

0
j

L=
j

=1

=1

Yj

lj + R

where L is the total lost time per cycle s, Yj is the maximum value of
the ratios of approach ow rates to saturation ow rates for all trafc
ows using phase j; k is the number of phases, lj is the lost time for
phase j , and R is the total all-red time during the cycle.
Suppose that tci is the time for releasing the vehicles queuing before
the second stop line on the circulatory roadway from approach i. Then
[17]

sc + 19:5

(7)

where sc is the saturation ow rate on the circulatory roadway in passenger car unit (pcu) per second.
tj is taken as the maximum value of tci in phase j . The minimum
signal cycle length for releasing the left-turn trafc ows on circulatory
roadway is

cc

=
j

=1

(t j + lj ):

c 0 L:

max(Vi =Si + Vi+2 =Si+2 )

G0i = G0i+2 = Ge
k
Yj
j =1

G0i

min (Y
0 max
Y

s
i

; Yis+2 )
; Yis+2

s
i

(13)
(14)

Gli =

Gsi ;

Gsi ;
Yl
Gsi is ;
Yi

Ccl
;
nli Sil

qil Ge

C

l
c

Y

s
i

q Ge < C and Y < Y

s
i

qil Ge < Ccl and Yil

l
i

l
c

l
i

(15)

where qil is the left-turn ow rate on approach i; Yil is the ratio of leftturn ow rate to saturation ow rate on approach i; nli , and Sil are,
respectively, the number of left-turn lanes and the saturation ow rate
of one left-turn lane on approach i; Ccl is computed with (4).
5) Green Time for Left-Turn Trafc on Circulatory Roadway: As
shown in Fig. 2, the left-turn trafc before the second stop line BB 0
from approach 1 conicts with the trafc on approach 3. From (15),
we have Gs3  Gl3 ; that is, the green time for go-through trafc is no
less than that for left-turn trafc on approach 3. Therefore, we have

Gdi = c 0 2Iid 0 Gsi+2

(16)

where Gdi is the effective green time for left-turn trafc before the
second stop line from approach i; Gsi+2 is the effective green time for
go-through trafc on approach i + 2, and Iid is the interval between Gdi
and Gsi+2 .
III. EVALUATION OF CAPACITY AND DELAY
An operational analysis produces two kinds of estimates: capacity
and level of performance. Here, the capacity and delay are selected to
evaluate the performance.
A. Capacity

(10)

where G0i ; Vi and Si are, respectively, effective green time, ow rate,

and saturation ow rate of go-through trafc on approach i; G0i+2 ; Vi+2
and Si+2 are those for go-through trafc on approach i + 2, respectively.
3) Adjustment of Green Time for Going-Through Trafc: As the
trafc-ow rates on approaches i and i + 2, such as approaches 1 and
3 in Fig. 2, are normally different, G0i and G0i+2 may have different
values and need adjustment to get similar degrees of saturation.
The adjustment of effective green time for going-through trafc
a
ti;i
+2 is computed with [20]
a
ti;i
+2

min

(9)

Initially, we let the go-through trafc ows on approach i and i +

2 use the same signal phase, such as approaches 1 and 3 in Fig. 2.
Therefore, the effective green time is

(12)

4) Green Time for Left-Turn Trafc on Approaches: The capacity

of left-turn vehicles on the circulatory roadway Ccl is considered to determine the effective green time Gli for left-turn trafc on an approach
as

(8)

Therefore, the signal cycle length c should be the maximum of ce and

cc .
2) Initial Green Time for Going-Through Trafc: The total effective green time per cycle Ge is

Ge

a
a
Gsi = G0i 0  2 ti;i
+2 +  2 ti+1;i+3
0;
Yis  Yis+2
=
1;
Yis < Yis+2
0;
Yis+1  Yis+3
=
1;
Yis+1 < Yis+3 :

(5)

(6)

tci = Cil 0 6

After the adjustment, we get the effective green time for go-through
trafc Gsi as

(11)

where Yis and Yis+2 are the ratios of go-through ow rates to saturation
ow rates on approaches i and i + 2, respectively.

With the new trafc signal control, the roundabout capacity CAP is
s

CAP =

CAPi + CAPi

(17)

where CAPsi is the go-through trafc capacity on approach i and

l
is the left-turn trafc capacity

CAPi

CAPi =

nsi Si

Gsi
c

(18)

where nsi is the number of go-through lanes on approach i

CAPi = min CAPi ; Cc
l

(19)

where CAPai is the left-turn trafc capacity on approach i and is computed with
a

CAPi =

nli Sil

Gli
:
c

(20)

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 5, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2004

285

Fig. 4. Roundabout before the improvement.

B. Delay
For approach i, three values of delays should be computed: delay
of go-through trafc dsi ; delay of left-turn trafc before the rst stop
line dfi ; and delay of left-turn trafc before the second stop line ddi .
s f
d
di ; di and di can be computed with the well-known equation on the
delay of a lane group at a signalized intersection documented in the
Highway Capacity Manual [21]. Then dli , the delay of left-turn trafc
for approach i, is
l

di

l f

qi di

c d

qi di

qi

qi

(21)

where qic is the left-turn ow rate on the circulatory roadway from approach i.
IV. CASE STUDY IN XIAMEN, CHINA
This method of trafc-signal control has been applied successfully
for a roundabout in Xiamen, China.
A. Roundabout Before Improvement
Fig. 4 shows the roundabout before improvement. The island diameter was 70 m and there was a big statuary in the center of the island.
The width of the lanes for motor and nonmotor vehicles was large. The
ow rates of pedestrians and nonmotor vehicles were small and they
could cross the street through the overbridges on approaches. On the
east, south, and north approaches of the roundabout, there were three
entrance lanes and three exit lanes, respectively. On the west approach
of the roundabout, there were only two entrance lanes and two exit
lanes. The roundabout was controlled by two-phase trafc signals and
the typical cycle length was 140 s. The green time for Direction 1 was
77 s, as well as 55 s for Direction II.
B. Improvement of the Geometric Design
The geometric design for the improvement is shown in Fig. 5. Because the ow rates were small and the width of the pedestrian lanes
was large before improvement, the new lanes for the nonmotor vehicles were set on the previous pedestrian lanes. The previous lanes for
nonmotor vehicles were used for the right-turn vehicles. By reducing
the width of the entrance lanes to 3.25 m, we set, respectively, two
left-turn entrance lanes for the left-turn trafc, two entrance lanes for

the go-through trafc, one entrance lane for the right-turn trafc, and
four exit lanes on each leg of this roundabout. Two left-turn lanes and
two go-through lanes were set on the circulatory roadway. The rst stop
line was set on each approach. The second stop line for left-turn trafc
was set on the circulatory roadway besides the rst stop line, as shown
in Fig. 5.
C. New Trafc-Signal Control
Signals were installed before both the rst and second stop lines.
Based on the trafc demands, the signal-timing scheme, as shown in
Fig. 6, was designed by using (5)(16). The cycle length was 135 s.
The operation of the roundabout after the improvement is shown in
Fig. 7.
D. Evaluation
The capacity and delay were computed to evaluate the performance
according to (17)(21). The results are listed in Table I.
Table I shows that, after the improvement the capacity of the roundabout is 7989 pcu/h, which increased 72.1% as compared with the capacity before the improvement 3080 pcu/h. The total average delay decreases 20 s for each vehicle passing the roundabout.
For each approach, the average delay of go-through trafc has
decreased signicantly. For example, the average delay of each
go-through vehicle on approaches 14 has decreased 11, 40, 46,
and 39 s, respectively. As the left-turn trafc needs to pass two
stop lines with trafc signals, the average delay of each vehicle
is much larger than that of the go-through vehicle, such as 26,
42, 24, and 45 s larger, respectively, for approaches 14. However,
the average delay of each left-turn vehicle still decreases after the
improvement, except for approach 3. The decreases are 11, 13, and
12 s, respectively, for approaches 1, 2, and 4, while the increase
is 7 s for approach 3.
For each approach and trafc direction, the capacity signicantly
increases after the improvement. The increases are 61%, 132%, 61%,
and 366%, respectively, for approaches 14. The capacity increases
96% for left-turn trafc, as well as 118% for go-through trafc.
With the new control, there is no conict point during the operation
of the roundabout after the improvement. Therefore, it is safer than
before the improvement.

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Fig. 5. Geometric design for the improvement.

In order to let all left-turn vehicles pass the roundabout in one cycle,
the following equation should be satised:

Cin  cqil :

(22)

Cin = ni (r + 0:5w):
180l

(23)

From (1)(3), we have

Then, we get

r

180qil cl

ni

0 0:5w:

(24)

Suppose that there are two left-turn lanes on the circulatory roadway,

i = 120 ; c = 130s, l = 5 m, and w = 3:75 m. Therefore, r should

not less than 20 m to satisfy left-turn trafc qil = 500 pcu/s from one

Fig. 6. Signal timing for the improvement.

The evaluation of capacity, delay, and safety of the case roundabout

in Xiamen, China, shows that the proposed trafc-control method for
roundabouts has been applied successfully and improves signicantly
the facility performance.
V. DISCUSSIONS
If the limited number of queue vehicles Cin before the second line
on the circulatory roadway is too small to accommodate queues, this
trafc-control method may not be used. As shown in (1)(3), Cin is
dependent on the roundabout radius r and the number of left-turn lanes
is dependent on the circulatory roadway n.

approach.
If the roundabout has the same go-through trafc- and saturation-ow rates in the opposite driving directions, such as approaches 1
and 3 in Fig. 2, the adjustment of green time is zero according to (11).
Compared with the previous method of signal control on the approaches of a roundabout, the control method in this paper eliminates
all conict points and weaving sections and adapts to a roundabout with
at least two circulatory lanes.
VI. CONCLUSION
The proposed method of trafc-signal control eliminates the conict
points and weaving sections of a roundabout and is proven to be very
necessary and effective when the circulatory roadway of the roundabout needs more than two lanes. By using this control, the roundabout
is safer and the capacity increases while the delay decreases.
This trafc-signal control has been successfully applied to a roundabout in Xiamen, China, to solve the very serious trafc-congestion
problem by increasing the capacity signicantly. After the improvement, the roundabout capacity increases by 72.1% and the average

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 5, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2004

287

Fig. 7. Roundabout after improvement.

TABLE I
CAPACITY AND DELAY BEFORE AND AFTER IMPROVEMENT

delay of each vehicle decreases by 20 s. The capacity increases 96%

for left-turn trafc, as well as 118% for go-through trafc.
As the left-turn trafc needs to pass two stop lines with trafc signals,
the average delay of each vehicle is obviously larger than that of the
go-through vehicle. It is also found that the roundabout radius should
be larger than the minimum value under the constraint of queue on the
circulatory roadway.
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