Aspen Elementary (14)/Interim Report

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=14

Problem Definition
Most people don't think of roundabouts instead of stoplights. A better intersection means less time you have to wait on average. Our team thinks that in some cases roundabouts will work better than stoplights. In our studies, we will try to find if a roundabout works well and under what conditions.

We got the idea for roundabout efficiency from the Los Alamos newspaper when Los Alamos County was thinking about putting roundabouts on Trinity Dr. Our goal in our project is to find the number of cars that can go through a roundabout in a given time without bad traffic flow. Our team is going to study a four-way roundabout with one lane of traffic going in each direction with normal driving rules. Our data for the project will be based on the traffic flow on Trinity Dr.

Problem Solution
Our team is using NetLogo to simulate our project, and in the simulation, the agents will be cars. We are randomly assigning cars to go left, right, and straight. The cars will follow the rules of the road, maintain a safe distance from each other, and yield to cars that are already turning. We will increase the number of cars until the cars have congested traffic flow.

Progress to Date
The first thing our team did was make the roundabout. It has separate lanes for traveling different ways. The roundabout has an inner lane for traveling straight and left. It also has separate outer lanes for traveling right.

The second thing our team did was simulate a car traveling straight. The car enters the roundabout, does a series of small turns, and then turns off the roundabout. After this, we did left turns. We did the same thing as the straight turn except we turned off the roundabout later. Then we did right turns. The car turned into the separate outer lane and then turned into the traffic lane.

The next thing our team did was start cars coming from all directions. Each car was randomly chosen to go left, right, or straight. We can also change the number of cars. We are working on maintaining a safe distance between cars, and yielding when merging.

Expected Results
Our team expects to find under what circumstances a roundabout is most efficient. We also expect the cars will follow safe driving rules.

Introduction
Hi,

My name is Drew Einhorn. See the biography on my User Page.

Progress
I see good progress from your proposal to your interim report.

Mentors
If you do not yet have a mentor, please contact consult for help in finding a mentor to help you with this ambitious project.

Model
You have a good start on your basic model.

Later you might want to consider some enhancements:


 * In practice not all driver observe safe distances. And accidents happen.  Perhaps your model should include what happens when a lane is blocked.


 * Pedestrians in crosswalks.


 * Perhaps you should focus on one particular intersection on Trinity and see if you can obtain traffic statistics for each lane at different times: morning and afternoon rush periods, lunch, and other lighter traffic times.

Face to Face Evaluation
Your next milestone is a |face to face evaluation in February.

Rubrics
The judges will use these rubrics to evaluate your projects. Use them as checklists for what you need to communicate to the judges.


 * Expo Judges Rubric
 * Finalist Judges Rubric

Good Luck!!
You are making excellent progress on a project with a lot of potential.