The Methods of Computing the Capacity of Signalized Intersection

There are many methods of computing the capacity of signalized intersection in the road networks, which are fit for different conditions. Traffic in China is characterized of mixed traffic flow. Computing the capacity of urban signalized intersections is the task of many transportation planning researchers. Taking a typical four leg intersection for example, three common methods (crashing point method, stop line method and America method) are used to compute the capacity of it respectively. The results of the above methods are compared with the capacity measured on the spot. It shows that the result of crashing point method is closest to the real capacity, however the results of the other two methods are larger than the real capacity. So we can conclude that crashing point method is more suitable for the traffic conditions and the characteristics of mixed traffic flow in China.