Alberta Transportation policy states that roundabouts shall be considered as an alternative option for intersection design where, in the judgment of the department, a greater degree of traffic control is required on a paved roadway than that provided by a two-way stop. Two alternative treatments–a traffic signal and a roundabout–have been proposed for the intersection of Lochend Road (Highway 766) & Highway 1A located in Alberta’s Rocky View County. At the time of the study the intersection was two-way stop controlled.

A multivariate evaluation has been used to compare the two alternative treatments. A total of thirteen evaluation criteria within categories of cost, safety and operations were applied to each. A relative numerical score was generated in each category for each alternative treatment. A higher score indicates a more favorable evaluation which was used to select a recommended plan.

Jorge Arango is a Professional Engineer with MMM’s Transportation business unit. He has over seven years of experience in a variety of transportation planning and traffic operation projects in the private sector and in different levels of government in Manitoba and Alberta. His experience includes data collection and analysis, traffic operation analysis, traffic modeling and simulation (with expertise in Synchro/SimTraffic, Vistro and HCS), transportation impact assessments, traffic forecasting, sensitivity analysis, value engineering, active transportation, transit, parking studies, and road safety studies. Jorge also served as research assistant and manager for the Manitoba Highway Traffic Information System (MHTIS) and has experience in traffic monitoring and analysis, traffic database analysis, SQL Language, and visualization.