A comparative empirical assessment of roundabouts operations in rural areas: impacts on congestion-specific vehicle speed profiles, pollutant and noise emissions

Increasing concern about global warming and air quality has meant an increasing use of energetic and environmental indicators in roundabout design. The main objective of this paper is to compare different rural roundabouts in terms of traffic performance, pollutant and noise emissions through an integrated empirical assessment. Field measurements were carried out with a light duty vehicle in single-lane (SL), compact two-lane (CTL) and multi-lane (ML) roundabouts using Portable Emission Measurements Systems, OBD scan tool and Sound Level Meter, to measure real-world exhaust emissions, engine activity and acoustic data, respectively. Road traffic scene at roundabouts were obtained from video…