Abstract
The operation analysis of isolated signalized intersection provides valuable and important information about the performance of transportation system in the city. The signalized intersections are major elements and critical points within the city transportation network; therefore accurate detailed information and data about the capacity and operation performance of the signalized intersections is very important and more significant to evaluate and improve the capacity of the transportation system and network of the city. Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) Model is widely used for operation analysis of the isolated signalized intersections in Iraq through number of traffic analysis software tools which uses the HCM delay model. The most popular and widely used among traffic analysis software tools are; HCS 2010, SIDRA 5.1 and TRANSYT-7F Release 11. The objective of this study is a comparison between these three traffic analysis software tools based on evaluation of the quality of their operation analysis and optimization capabilities of isolated signalized intersections in order to be a good guide for the traffic engineers to decide which of these tools provide better results in evaluating the quality of isolated signalized intersections operation performance and optimizing intersection parameters. To achieve this objective, Bukhari signalized intersection in Kalar City was selected and the required data for the study purposes were collected. Based on results of this study SIDRA 5.1 is the most effective and the richest operation analysis and optimization software among the three selected computer traffic analysis software tools; HCS2010, SIDRA 5.1 and TRANSYT-7F Release 11.
