Critical Gap in Roundabouts – A Short Comparison of Estimation Methods

Abstract

Gap-acceptance method is one of the classical methods used to analyze the capacity of roundabouts. Critical gap has a privileged role in this approach. Different driver behavior and local rules of traffic have key role in implementing gap-acceptance method into the local standard for capacity calculation in each country. Therefore, a reliable method for estimation of critical gap at a certain location can be of great importance. This paper presents an experimental investigation and analysis on whether it is possible to find differences between estimating critical gap using video-based gap acceptance data of roundabouts in Hungary. Three single lane roundabouts of different size were recorded for hours in different locations in Budapest and Érd to assess gap acceptance data. Three different methods or models were used to estimate critical gap and no significant differences were found between their results.