Possible Development of Autonomic Properties on Modern Roundabouts

Development of road intersections in recent years has led to the creation of configurations that reduce the problems in terms of traffic safety, capacity, driver comfort and environment. This development is in connection with a creation of SMART CITIES and with an increasing use of technologies (e.g. wireless or conductive cables) within the various geometrical schemes; especially if areas are equipped with curbs or central islands and without of road signs. The unconventional geometries are often the presence of curbs and lane separation as the conventional ones of a central island and areas surmountable; they offer a good side of ITS systems within them. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) are useful for application traffic management and as a result of their control produces huge volumes of data that are useful to support traffic operators in their decision-making linked to increasing amount of information overload. This choice would lead to a kind of “autonomic management“ because it is assumed that such instruments can be targeted to self-repairing in case of failure, and preserving pedestrians and drivers safety. It also must be supported by good management policy related to economical aspect of road network (costs vs. gains from narrowed carriageways, less infrastructure investment, better road safety and environment...). This paper shows the evolution of different roundabouts schemes linked to the development of potential application of the autonomic concept, especially using the curbs as monitoring sensors housing.