TITLE:
The Application of Access Management in Commercial Area
AUTHORS:
Siqi Gao, Xiaokuan Yang
KEYWORDS:
Access Management, Commercial, Parking
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Engineering and Technology,
Vol.4 No.3C,
September
22,
2016
ABSTRACT: With the rapid development of automobile ownership and roadway network in China, there is more and more travel demand in the city of Beijing, China. Large commercial areas attract high volumes of traffic, which greatly impacts traffic movement on roadways, producing congestion and safety problems. What is more serious is that existing design of the parking lot, the location of access, layout of driveway, and passage of circulation are not desirable, causing potential conflicts and traffic delays. This paper mainly investigates the impact of the existing design of parking lot and layout of access and driveways at commercial areas around intersection in Beijing. The overall goal of this study is to use access management technologies to find out the measures for commercial area to improve roadway safety and operational efficiency. Some measures of improvements are proposed based on the analysis, including addition of right turn lanes, increase of driveway throat length and incorporation of traffic signs to guide on-site circulation. To accomplish the study objective, a total of 10 commercial areas around intersection were selected and some necessary data were collected at access points including traffic volume of each access and the frontage roadways during peak hours, access type, location, and spacing. The field investigations were conducted for 2 weekends for each area. Meanwhile, the peak hours were 10:00 to 12:00 a.m. on weekends. The data from field investigations show that the number and location of the access is different from place to place. Access driveway is closely located at the signalized intersection mostly. Other problems are also observed based on field investigation such as shortage of the access spacing. The result of this study can be a reference for traffic management on other similar areas in Beijing.