International Congress on Innovations in Civil Engineering 2017 (ICE 2017)

An Optimum Urban Road Junction Design

Othman Ahmad1,*,Ismail Yusof2, Mohd Azizul Ladin1
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
1

Faculty of Engineering Technology, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor,
2

Malaysia

Received 28 June 20XX; accepted 5 August 20XX, available online 24 August 20XX

Abstract: As traffic congestion gets worse, tunnels had been proposed. Other solutions such as mass transportation
systems are not always the best because they require sacrifices in the living style of the commuters. Traffic lights
are not efficient in handling road junctions. Road junctions that do not use traffic lights will use flyovers or tunnels
but are expensive and occupy a large area. In an urban environment where the average road speed is low, a low
cost in expense and area design is proposed. The road junction design consists of only one level of
tunnels/underpasses for small vehicles and mixed with normal traffic lights for all other vehicles. An increase in
handling road traffic is possible without disallowing larger vehicles. If larger vehicles are not present, the traffic
lights can be removed completely, increasing the effective traffic flow.
Keywords: Road junction, road intersection, traffic lights, tunnel, underpass,

1. Introduction headway equation (7-8) in the Highway Capacity

Manual [1].
As traffic congestions get worse, more desperate
A safe gap for human drivers is two seconds [2].
measures were proposed. Self-driving ride sharing
For such a gap, the traffic flow for one lane of road in
vehicles will increase the passenger handling of the
one hour is 30 vehicles. Robot cars should therefore be
road transportation systems. However this capacity is
able to increase traffic flow if they are able to operate
limited by the road junctions. At the junctions, traffic
safely at a lower time gap.
lights are required as the roads intersect with each
For a 4-way intersection, it means that two road
other. When two roads intersect, we shall have a 4-way
lanes cross. The total flow of the intersection is
intersection. Although we may have 5-way and 6-way
therefore 2q. For a good intersection design, the total
intersections, these are rare and can be implemented by
flow should equal this value for all the possible traffic
using combinations of 4-way intersections and/or 3-
movements.
way intersection. When traffic lights are used, no
For each lane, the vehicle can go straight, right or
matter how efficient the algorithm and sensors are, at
left. Referring to Figure 1, for vehicles driving on the
peak periods, the best traffic handling is only half of
left side of the road, turning left, D to L, does not need
the best possible if tunnels and bridges were used.
any tunnel. It just needs a bypass road, indicated by
Let us establish some basic equations for the
two lanes going in the same direction. Turning right, D
discussions on road traffic flow.
to R, requires a tunnel. One lane going straight, L to R
Traffic flow (q) is the number of vehicles passing a
and vice versa, will need tunnels. It would require three
reference point per unit of time.
levels of tunnels for the right turn from the underpass.
Spacing (s) is the centre-to-centre distance between
However, removing traffic lights require that two
two vehicles.
road lanes are able to merge to one road lane safely
Average speed (v) is the average distance covered
without any traffic light. For safe merging, the speed of
per unit time.
vehicles on both lanes should be the same. It would
q=v/s require additional lanes to allow stationary vehicles in
the bypass lane to merge with the main lane, taking
If g is the gap in time between vehicles (time into account that when corners are sharp, vehicles will
headway), need to slow down considerably.

s = vg

Therefore,

q=1/g (1)

Equation (1) shows that traffic flow is dependent on

the gap between two vehicles, not on their speed. This
equation is a rewrite of the flowrate in terms of

*Corresponding author: othman58@ums.edu.my 1

2011 UTHM Publisher. All right reserved.
O. Ahmad et al., Int. Congr. on Innov. in Civil Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (20XX) p. 1-4
U t = vt / a
L s = 50 m.
D because of flyovers. These speeds, with low traffic,
Fig. 1. 4-way road intersection
Fig. 2. Screenshot of Google Maps on Sunday night
Assuming constant acceleration, a, distance
travelled, s, time t, a vehicle that is initially stationary,
it can be shown that:
s = ½ at2
Time, t, required to achieve terminal speed of vt can
be show to be:
2
(3)
Substituting equation (3) into (2):
s = ½ vt2 / a (4)
We can use equation (4) to design the distance of
the bypass lane to merge with the main lane.
If vt = 10 ms-1 or 36 km/hr and a = 1 ms-2 (0.1 g):
R
The 36 km/hr is chosen because it is the average
speed of vehicles on roads through Kota Kinabalu that
does not go through any flyover, in light traffic. Refer
to Figure 2.
More data on some cities in U.S.A. can be found in
[3]. In London, it is shown in [4]. Some of these cities
have higher average road speed than Kota Kinabalu
range from 30 km/hr to 65 km/hr.
2. Literature review
A few inventions allow road intersections without
using any traffic light. [5] uses traffic circles and
flyovers to remove traffic lights. It requires a lot of
space so is not suitable for a dense urban area. Its
advantage is that it uses two road levels only. Another
patent that uses three road levels is [6]. It can be
considered a hybrid because it uses a road circle also.
Although a roundabout does not require any traffic
light, drivers need to wait before they can enter the
circle. It is more difficult than just merging two lanes
into one.
Classic textbook such as [7] uses passenger
capacity unit (PCU) as a unit of measurement for the
traffic flow, q. A larger vehicle such as a bus is
assigned as three PCUs. Equation (1) will fail in this
case because when we combine three vehicles, the gap
between them is zero, allowing a large flow rate.
Equation (1) is to be used with care but in this article,
the main emphasis is in designing for standard
passenger cars.
The bypass lane is called the weaving section in
[7] and [1]. When two lanes merge into one, it is called
merging. When one lane diverges into two lanes, it is
called diverging. Equation (4) provides a simple rule of
thumb in calculating the length of the weaving section
compared to the published documents.
Although there are calls for small underpasses [8], a
search in the internet proved elusive for small
underpasses with a vertical clearance of less than 3m,
except for trains. Even urban underpasses [9] does not
propose small underpasses. Small underpasses are
widely used in building car parks, which are only for
vehicles that are less than 2m in heights [10]. Figure 3
shows a typical entrance into an off-street car park.
Tachet, R. reported one method of removing traffic
lights [11]. This idea is based on a scenario where
(2) sensor-laden vehicles pass through intersections by
communicating and remaining at a safe distance from
each other [12]. It can be viewed as putting traffic
lights at each driverless vehicle. Traffic flow is still
 O. Ahmad et al., Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 1-4
limited by the amount of real estate space just like
network hubs. Hubs cannot compete with network
switches that allow point-to-point communications
similar to using layers of tunnels or bridges.
Problems of traffic jams are so bad that Elon Musk
had proposed a network of tunnels for cars travelling at
200 km/hr [13]. He had even formed a company to
investigate such a design.
Fig. 3. Civic Car Park, Auckland, New Zealand
3. Brief description
The design proposed in this paper is in the form similar
to a patent application. The diagrams and descriptions
should be sufficient to allow a person skilled in the arts
to construct and use the apparatus as described in this
article.
The proposed design consists of prior arts so are
feasible to be implemented. The prior arts are
combined in an unobvious manner and yet allow a
more efficient traffic flow without requiring too much
space. Only underpass or tunnel is recommended
because it does not obstruct the view of the city. Cost
and space is reduced by limiting the speed to around 40
km/hr and allowing only cars to pass through. To allow
busses and lorries to go through, the old traffic lights
need to be retained. One lane is for busses and the rest
of the central lanes can be reserved for cars going
through the underpass. The entrances to the underpass
need to be rain-proofed by putting roofs and side-walls.
Water pumps need to be provided in case some water
have managed to go into the underpass.
Since the speed is limited to just 40 km/hr, the
gradient of the entrance to the underpass can be steep.
The recommended gradient is 1:8 or 7°. For cars,
underpass height of 3 m, the distance of the entrance is
24 m. Since this underpass needs to cross at least two
lanes in one direction and two lanes in the reverse
direction, the underpass should be 12 m long. The total
length is therefore 60 m. The geometric design of the
road should follow the standard approved for the
locality such as [14].
To limit the levels to just two, there is no turn
underpass. The crossing turns can be implemented with
a U-turn underpass after the intersection. The exit of
the U-turn underpass should be the left-turn bypass.
The minimum radius should allow the largest cars that
are allowed to use the U-turn underpass. If four lanes
are used for the turning, assuming 3 m per lane, the
achievable turning radius is only 6 m, which is lower
than the recommended turning radius by [15].
4. Simplified design
Figure 4 shows a design for a 4-way intersection where
traffic lights are still used. Only the L to R way can
travel freely without being obstructed by traffic lights
and only for small vehicles. If we follow the 4-lane
design, the minimum turning diameter for the U-turn is
only 9 m centre-to-centre. This is not a bad design
choice because in Kota Kinabalu, a few U-turns
actually have this as the turning diameter because of
the 3-lane space provided for the turn. It can also be
observed that most of the time, traffic congestions
occur only in one direction. This solution is the
cheapest and feasible solution for a crowded city like
Kota Kinabalu.
If more space and budget is available, the design in
Figure 5 may be attempted. It does not allow large
vehicles at all and require six lanes although five lanes
can still be provided along the less congested direction.
Because of the extra lanes, the U-turn turning diameter
can be increased to 12 m if the lane width is 3 m.
Figure 6 shows the side view of the entrance and
the underpass. A roof is to be provided to reduce the
amount of water entering the underpass tunnel.
U
L R
Road
Entrance
Underpass
Require traffic lights
Terminal road
D
Fig. 4. 4-way intersection with traffic lights
3
O. Ahmad et al., Int. Congr. on Innov. in Civil Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (20XX) p. 1-4

L R

Road
Entrance
Underpass

D
Fig. 5. 4-way intersection without any traffic lights
240.00

Roof 120.00
30.00

60.00
30.00

Entrance Underpass
Fig. 6. Side view of the entrance and underpass in dm

4
 O. Ahmad et al., Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 1-4
5. Results and discussion
The designs that are presented are not as detailed as
production drawings but this level of disclosure of
drawings and descriptions are usually accepted by patent
offices, because what is required is that people skilled in
the art can use the drawings and descriptions to construct
and operate an embodiment of the invention.
Technical analysis is not compulsory but will be
useful to establish the technical advantage of the
invention. It should be noted that these designs do not
require elaborate construction techniques. However no
design or patent had been published that implement the
road intersections as described in this paper. The
simplicity of the design is a strength of the design. Pre-
fabricated methods can be used to construct many of
such intersections, including T-junctions. Roundabouts
can also be converted to this style of intersections, at
least for small vehicles and in a particular direction only.
Pre-fabrication will also reduce the construction time
and therefore the interruption to existing traffic while
construction is carried out. The recommended method of
construction is to start at the centre in order to minimise
traffic disturbance. The central part of the road also has
some space to separate the traffic so provides some
space for construction work.
Since the proposed gradient does not allow safe high
speed driving above 40 km/hr, warning signs and speed
barriers need to be provided in front of the entrances to
the tunnels/underpasses. Other safety measures must also
be included which is beyond the scope of this article.
6. Conclusion
A simplified design methodology of a road junction is
presented. The properties and parameters of the design
are based on current building standards. Analytical
methods are also used to justify the optimisation used in
the design. Some concluding observations of the design
characteristics are given below.
i. The design is unique but could be
implemented quickly and cheaply while
requiring limited space.
ii. The design is most useful in congested
urban areas. With ingenious design, the roof
can be made unobtrusive.
iii. The design exploits the fact that road speed
in urban areas are small so a steeper slope
can be used. The slower speed does not
mean that the traffic handling of this design
is limited because the traffic flow is only
dependent on the gap allowed between
vehicles in seconds.
iv. The design allows small cars to move
through junctions without going through
traffic lights. Because small cars contribute
the most to the flow of road traffic in urban
areas, the overall traffic flow is more than if
traffic lights are to be used for the small
cars.
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