Method for increasing vehicle flow through an intersection

Abstract

This method increases the number of lanes immediately preceding and immediately following a given intersection. When the traffic signal is red, vehicles must come to a stop. When the traffic signal turns green, vehicles traverse the intersection and enter the stretch of road immediately following the intersection ( 3 ). Of these, vehicles in the priority lanes ( 6 ) move on while those in the non-priority lanes must slow and/or stop. When the traffic light turns red and all vehicles from the priority lanes have safely left the area, vehicles in the non-priority lanes can safely merge back into the priority lanes and move on. This method results in a tremendous increase in the traffic flow rate in intersections.

1 . A method for increasing the traffic flow through an intersection, comprising:
 designating additional lanes in a stretch of road immediately preceding a traffic light in the intersection; and   designating the same quantity of additional lanes in a stretch of road immediately following the traffic light;   
       wherein when the traffic light turns red, vehicles in the stretch of road immediately preceding the traffic light come to a stop; when the traffic light turns green, the vehicles traverse the intersection in parallel and enter into the stretch immediately following the traffic light, the vehicles in priority lanes of the additional lanes in the stretch immediately following the traffic light move on, while the vehicles in non-priority lanes of the additional lanes in the stretch immediately following the traffic light slow down or stop to wait until the traffic light turns red again and the priority lanes are empty, then vehicles in the non-priority lanes safely merge into the priority lanes and move on. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises regulating the flow of traffic by using signs and/or traffic signals in the stretches immediately preceding and immediately following the traffic light. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method comprises designating additional vehicle stop lines, besides a vehicle stop line on the stretch of road immediately preceding the traffic light, to effectively partition idling vehicles in an equidistant manner such that upon the traffic signal turning green, vehicles can accelerate immediately and at a similar rate.