Calibration and validation results for modeling double-crossover diamond (DCD) interchanges in a microsimulation environment are presented. The VISSIM simulation tool and detailed field data collected at four operational DCDs in the United States help to describe modeling challenges, calibration steps, and validation results in the form of delay, travel time, and queuing estimates. DCD interchanges are rapidly being deployed across the United States, accelerated by their ability to process high volumes of especially left-turning traffic at interchanges at a greatly reduced construction cost as that of other interchange alternatives. In the absence of an analytical methodology for evaluating these interchanges, simulation currently represents the only option for evaluating the operational performance of DCDs. Although other research has applied simulation to DCD evaluation, this study is able to present detailed validation results from field data collected at four fully operational U.S. DCDs. The results show that the operations of DCDs can largely be replicated in a simulation environment but that care needs to be taken for properly setting speed and routing decisions throughout the DCD network. The analysis further show that validation is more readily achieved over an extended route analysis, with increasing difficulties for short segment validation. The validation of field-measured queues proved challenging because of definitional differences between simulated and field study results. Overall, the results demonstrate the feasibility of satisfactory calibration of simulation tools to enable the operational performance evaluation of DCD interchanges.

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