A Study of the Applicability of Variable Guide Lanes at Signalized Intersections

In the context of China’s rapidly expanding urbanization, there is an increasing trend of car ownership among residents, which has led to a concomitant rise in traffic demand and a worsening of traffic congestion. To address this challenge, Variable Guided Lanes have been proposed as a novel traffic management strategy. This strategy entails the real-time adjustment of lane function, in response to fluctuations in traffic flow, with the objective of enhancing intersection access efficiency. The present study employs the average delay of vehicles in the inlet lane of the intersection as the discriminating index, and the left-turn and straight flow in the inlet lane as the discriminating condition. The study establishes an equal average delay model and delineates a threshold curve to assess the suitability of the lane for the implementation of Variable Guided Lanes. Furthermore, the study investigates whether the characteristics of the variable lanes are altered for the applicability study. The simulation experiment, conducted using Vissim, demonstrates that the implementation of Variable Guide Lanes leads to a 24.6% reduction in the total delay of the east entrance lane and enhances intersection capacity. This outcome substantiates the efficacy of the employed modeling method and the viability of establishing Variable Guide Lanes.