CAD User Online Article Archive

Review

Magic roundabouts!

From CAD User AEC Magazine Vol 22 No 7 - JULY/AUGUST 2009

TRL Software releases ARCADY 7, the latest version of its Roundabout Design and Analysis software

It may be hard for you to imagine, if you had to sit for ages on the way into work this morning waiting to negotiate one of the many roundabouts on your route, but a lot of care goes into making the circumnavigation of these as painless as possible. Or at least that’s the case if you’re lucky enough to encounter a roundabout that’s been designed and analysed using TRL Software's ARCADY. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but roundabout designers do analyse traffic flows throughout the day, and attempt to assess how long it will take a queue of cars approaching from a particular direction to enter and leave the roundabout. And, with the right software, particularly ARCADY, they can investigate a range of scenarios, modifying layout, flares, entry points and all other pertinent information, until they come up with an optimum solution that will keep traffic flowing smoothly. In the latest version of the software, multiple scenarios can be analysed simultaneously.

ARCADY is already well-established globally, and used by traffic engineers around the world. It handles left-hand drive traffic as easily as it does our own congested roads, and besides calculating roundabout capacity, it can assess delays and safety aspects of many different types of roundabout, including standard, mini and gradeseparated. Traffic engineers use it to design and assess the effects of modifying existing roundabout. It has also been designed to be simple to use, with an array of timesaving features, and with ARCADY 7, a completely new User Interface, providing task lists, window management tools, data grids, undo/redo and more.

It has a look and feel similar to other TRL Traffic management packages such as TRANSYT and OSCADY. Users can set up multiple geometries and flows for different time periods in the same file and immediately compare performances across all scenarios. A graphic view of the roundabouts shows turning counts and flows for each road entering the roundabout, showing queues, flares and crossings. Colourcoded overlays show relative proportions of entry, exit and circulating traffic in vehicles or PCU, and to assist in editing the designs, users also have access to scale indicators and measuring tools Output - or analysis results - are shown in powerful graphs and charts, showing the best set of parameters, from the multiple scenarios, that meet traffic management targets. In addition, flows, turning movements and queues can be visualized on a new interactive junction diagram and the powerful analysis tools provide sensitivity testing and 'what-if'’ investigations.

With ARCADY 7 linked roundabouts can be modelled for the first time, or even entire systems of roundabouts (anybody out there remember the infamous multi-mini roundabout systems at High Wycombe? They should have waited for ARCADY 7!). Other new modelling features include entry and exit restrictions, Puffin crossings, customizable units and extensive options for flow and capacity scaling. And, of course, ARCADY 7 can be adapted for drive-on-the-left or drive-on-the-right scenarios, Level of service indicators and a US terminology option has been included. In short, any type of traffic system can be set up and analysed, with different traffic profiles for each arm of the roundabout, multiple queue variations, changing flows and capacity - and minimum and maximum capacities - all the way through to Saturation point! And the analysis can be monitored throughout with easy access to results data with flexible and customizable data grids, and multiple results and traffic displays - all available for output into reports as Word or PDF documents or on the web.

The software is currently being betatested by traffic engineers worldwide. One client, Mark Lenters from Ourston Roundabouts in America, enthuses about the response from TRL for specific features that they reckon needed to be included in the latest Version of the software: "We asked for capacity and calibration correction - check. We needed adjustment factors for lane by lane capacity assessment - check. We asked for interactive screens to explore multiple scenarios simultaneously - check!" So next time you are stuck on the approach road to a roundabout, and find out that there has been an accident in front of you - remember that ARCADY has predicted that, as well! www.trlsoftware.co.uk

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