Application of access management techniques to large buildings in Beijing, China

Vehicle access of large buildings is the convergence point between the buildings and urban roads. The impact of access on vehicles and pedestrians on urban roads is different as the access location varies. At the same time, large buildings attract and generate high volumes of traffic, which impact traffic movement on roadways. Traffic congestion and accidents are the common consequences of poorly managed roadways. This paper studies the issues of access management of large buildings with a focus on Yansha Outlets shopping center, which attracts and generates a lot of traffic, as well as the surrounding road network. It is because of its tremendous size, the traffic performance of the surrounding roadways, to a great extent, is highly affected. The impact of the existing design and layout of access and driveways on surrounding traffic operation are also invested in this paper. Considering the operational and safety deficiencies of the study area, based on access management principles, some countermeasure of improvements were proposed to decrease traffic conflicts and make sure that the traffic condition improves, such as addition of driveway channelizing islands and right turn lanes, increase of driveway throat lengths, removal of on-street parking, and incorporation of traffic signs to guide Vehicles and pedestrians. Results from the paper can be a reference for access management on other similar large buildings areas.