New ways for roadway design – Using driving simulation to restructure the Finkenwerder Ring in the Port of Hamburg aiming at enhanced traffic safety and reliability

The „Finkenwerder Ring“ is an important traffic junction in the Port of Hamburg – however, a lot of accidents per year impair traffic safety and reliability. The current traffic management, the signage, and the high number of lanes might be causal for the many crashes. Therefore, a requirements analysis was conducted to investigate the current traffic situation of the Finkenwerder Ring. Based on these results possible countermeasures were identified and subsequently implemented in a reproduction of the Finkenwerder Ring in a driving simulation. Four variations of the Finkenwerder Ring were realized which differ in signage and roadway geometry and were evaluated in a driving simulator study with N=30 participants. Even a small implementation like a modification of signage is able to have positive effects on drivers’ evaluations. However, a quite expensive and complex solution (the separation of traffic streams via an additional traffic light) shows the largest effect. These results show the benefit of driving simulation as a tool for roadway design.