In September 2017, two Category-5 hurricanes made indirect hits on the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) and devastated local communities. The hurricanes acutely impacted surface roads and supply chains, where access to critical supplies was reduced due to impeded travel through intersections with broken and inoperable traffic signals. In this work, we assessed the possible post-disaster travel time benefits of converting intersections in the USVI into roundabouts. Roundabouts are more robust to disaster impacts because they do not require traffic signals to operate, but may be less efficient for normal traffic conditions. Thus, we studied efficiency-resilience tradeoffs for intersection design and developed a model to compare roundabouts to signalized intersections before and after a disaster. Our results show that roundabouts are unnecessary for intersections with low traffic flows on St. Croix and St. Thomas. However, roundabouts will be more efficient than traffic signals at intersections with high traffic and adjacent supply locations (e.g., shopping malls). At these intersections, roundabouts may also reduce vehicle travel times by upward of 25 minutes after a disaster when traffic lights are inoperable.


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    Title :

    Efficiency and Resilience Trade-Offs for Roadway Intersection Design in the U.S. Virgin Islands


    Contributors:
    E. Bengigi (author)

    Publication date :

    2020


    Size :

    119 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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