There were more conflicts between vehicles, and drivers accelerate more aggressively to avoid incidents.
It appears that highway safety decreased in some sections where those theoretical measures were implemented. “We had some unexpected results concerning the standard measures for safe road design”, he says, referring to measures such as turbulence distances in front of tunnels and in weaving sections. This made it possible to choose the best ones, and better understand the traffic situation in detail. In the study, Vandermeersch compared different lane markings and weaving solutions of the ring road of Antwerp. “We’ve been using PTV Vissim for over 20 years for detailed evaluations of highways and local roads”, he says, “so we already have a traffic model created with it”.
VICINITY SOFTWARE SOFTWARE
For that, he used a combination of traffic simulation software PTV Vissim, and vehicle safety software SSAM. Noticing that the issue of highway safety kept popping up in discussions about the masterplan, Vandermeersch decided to study it through comparison of traffic scenarios.
This project involves investments in cycling and pedestrian safety, public transport, open spaces, waterways, and a new highway section that completes the ring road at its north. To tackle these issues, Masterplan Antwerp was launched. Drivers must be very concentrated while driving on highways and other roads.” Combine this with many on and off ramps, lots of trucks and a high population density. But we’re also a transit country, with heavy international traffic passing through. He explains: “Belgium is a small country with not much open space. “It’s clear that the livability of Antwerp and its transport system is under pressure”, says Vandermeersch of this situation. In addition, it has a high level of trucks (around 20%), and a dense population in its vicinity. The road has no universal weaving section design, so special road markings are used to guide drivers to the correct lanes. The ring road circling Antwerp is one of the most complicated of its kind in Belgium.ĭepending on the location, it has 4-7 lanes with a lot of on and off ramps in short distances from one another.
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