Paul St-Aubin edited Methodology.tex  almost 10 years ago

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\section{Methodology}  \subsection{Scope} Early on in the research project, a descision was made to deconstruct roundabout geometry into symetrical and repeating sections. There are several reasons for this:  \begin{itemize}  \item Roundabout \textbf{branches vary in the number} (between two and six, with a median of four branches) and branches can vary greatly in geometry even among branches of the same roundabout, which makes detailed description of the entire roundabout very complex. Instead, a smaller number of measures are chosen to describe a larger number of reapeating design elements found at each branch, for example: number of approach lanes.  \item There are \textbf{practical limitations} to performing video data collections across the entire roundabout.  \item Roundabouts are large enough that they can and often do contain \textbf{multiple independant road user interactions simultanously}. For example, a motorist approaching the roundabout depicted in Figure~\ref{fig:roundabout-quadrants} from the North-West section can do so independantly of any movement occuring inside of the South-Eeast section. This isn't strictly true for all interactions however; particular care should be taken at section transitionary zones.  \end{itemize}  These sections are termed *quadrants* as they cut the most-common configuration of roundabout, a four-way roundabout, into four sections using two axes of similtude. Though other configurations do exist, the general principle still applies: a quadrant is the section of a roundabout delimited by an approach and the next immidiate exit, bounding a central weaving zone where the most complex motorist and cyclist interactions are expected to occur. Pedestrian-motorist interactions are expected at crosswalks across each approach and exit, but because these movements are protected by median, they can be bounded by the same quadrant.  Nevertheless, some factors, particularly factors related to the built environment, are still treated as site-wide.