Traffic Flow Behavior

BCE4784
 Chapter 1

Traffic Stream Parameters

At the end of this chapter students should be able to:

• 1- Interpret basic traffic measurements (CO1 – PO1)

• 2- Calculate different types of speed (CO1-PO1)
• 3- Calculate different types of traffic flow (CO1 – PO1)
• 4- Calculate density (CO1-PO1)
• 5- Describe effects of speed, volume and density to road
capacity (CO5 – PO2)
 Overview
• Traffic engineering :

Is a branch of civil engineering that involves the design and maintenance

of a safe , smooth and an economical traffic operation .

• This is achieved by analyzing the traffic parameters to understand the

nature of traffic stream.

• In this chapter the basic concepts of traffic stream is presented

 Overview
• The Traffic Stream is mainly influenced by a combination of factors and
how they interact with each other those factors include:

Driver behavior
Vehicle type
Weather

• Those factors above are non uniform thus The traffic stream is non
uniform.
 Overview
• The traffic stream parameters can be Macroscopic which shows the
traffic as a whole or Microscopic which shows the behavior of
individual vehicles in the traffic stream.

• The fundamental MACROSCOPIC characteristics of traffic stream are

Speed ,volume and Density

• MICROSCOPIC parameters include Headway and Spacing

 Overview
Macroscopic Microscopic
Speed Headway

Volume Spacing

Density
 SPEED (u)
• Speed : Distance traveled per unit of time .

• Typical units :

• Km/hr
• m/hr
 Types of speed

1-Spot speed
2.Running Speed
3.Journey Speed
 Types of speed

1-Spot speed :

• instantaneous speed of a vehicle at any specific location

Uses of spot speed:

• Design the geometry of the road

• Design of signals
• Accident analysis
How spot speed is measured :

Manual
Pavement Markings

Automatic
Road detector (Pressure contact strips)
Doppler Principle meters (Radar)
 Manual (pavement Markings)

Manually measuring the time a vehicle takes to travel between 2 defined points
on a road .

Minimum of two observers required to collect the data,

One at the starting point and one at the stop point
 Manual (pavement Markings)
• Advantages of using Pavement Markings to measure spot speed:

• After the initial installation no set-up time is required

• Markings are easily renewed

• Disadvantages of using Pavement Markings to measure spot speed:

• Substantial error can be introduced

• Method is only applicable for low traffic conditions
 Automatic

Road Detector : Pressure Contact Strips placed on the road

 Automatic
Doppler Principle Meters (Radar): Automatically records speed by employing
a radar Transmitter receiver unit .

The device transmits high frequency waves in a narrow beam towards the
moving vehicle.
 Types of speed

2-Running speed :

• Average speed maintained over a particular course while the vehicle is in

motion.

• This type of speed does not consider the time during which the vehicle is at a
stop
 Types of speed

3-Journey speed :

• effective speed of the vehicle on a journey between two points.

• Calculated as the distance between two points divided by the total
time taken (including delay) .
Data presentation :

• A)Qualitative :involves non-numerical data ,for example Yes or No as

an answer to a questionnaire.

• B) Quantitative :involves numerical Data

• Numerical
• Graphical
Quantitative Data
• Two ways of describing data:

Numerical

Graphical
Numerical Descriptive Measures
• Two most common measures are :

Measures of central Tendency

Measures of Scatter
Measures of central Tendency

i. Arithmetic Mean (or simply known as ‘mean’)

– Mean of a set of measurements is the sum of the measurements divided

by the total number of measurements
Types of mean speed
A. Time Mean Speed (TMS) : is the average of speed of
total vehicles speed passing a reference point of a road
section. Equal to arithmetic mean.

Time Mean Speed = Total speed of vehicles/Total vehicles

B. Space Mean Speed (SMS) : is the total distance a vehicle that

pass through divided by the total time the vehicle acquire.

Space Mean Speed = Total distance/Total journey time

Measures of central Tendency

ii. Median

– The middle value when measurements are arranged in order

E.g., consider this set of data: 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10

Measures of central Tendency

iii. Mode

– The measurement that occurs most often

– E.g., consider this set of data: 1, 3, 9, 8, 3, 2, 3,10

The mode = 3
Measures of Scatter
i. Range

– The deference between the largest and the smallest measurement.

• eg. 15, 15, 20, 21, 30, 12, 11, 5, 40, 40, 26

Range = largest – smallest = 40 – 5 = 35

Measures of Scatter

ii. Percentile
the rth percentile of a set of n measurements arranged in order of magnitude is
that value that has r% of the measurements below it.

100
90 (a) 85th percentile of X = a
80
Cumulative frequency, %

70
60 (b) 50th percentile of X = b
50
40
30
20 (c) 15th percentile of X = c
10
0
(c) (b) (a)
X
Measures of Scatter
iii. Standard deviation: Its a value that shows how far values are from the mean.

 A high standard deviation means the data is widely spread (less reliable )

 A low standard deviation means the data is widely spread (more reliable)
Measures of Scatter

iv. Standard error

– Is the approximate standard deviation of a statistical sample population .

– The larger the sample size ,the smaller the standard error

SD
SE 
n
Graphical Descriptive measures

i. Histogram

Frequency (numbers)
Speed Class (km/h)
Graphical Descriptive measures
ii. Cumulative Frequency Curve

100
90

Cumulative frequency, %
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Speed (Xi), km/h
Example 1: Spot Speed Analysis
• Analyse the following spot speed data based on a sample of 172 vehicles traversing a section
of a roadway.
Speed class Frequency
(km/h) fi
20 - 24 1
25 - 29 3
30 - 34 6
35 - 39 13
40 - 44 25
45 - 49 34
50 - 54 31
55 - 59 27
60 - 64 18
65 - 69 9
70 - 74 4
75 - 79 1
Total 172
Solution
Tabulate data as follows
Speed class Mid point Frequency % of Cum.
v (km/h) vi Fi Freq. Freq. (%) Fi * vi Fi * vi2
20 - 24 22 1 0.6 0.6 22 484
25 - 29 27 3 1.7 2.3 81 2187
30 - 34 32 6 3.5 5.8 192 6144
35 - 39 37 13 7.6 13.4 481 17797
40 - 44 42 25 14.5 27.9 1050 44100
45 - 49 47 34 19.8 47.7 1598 75106
50 - 54 52 31 8.0 65.7 1612 83824
55 - 59 57 27 15.7 81.4 1539 87723
60 - 64 62 18 10.5 91.9 1116 69192
65 - 69 67 9 5.2 97.1 603 40401
70 - 74 72 4 2.3 99.4 288 20736
75 - 79 77 1 0.6 100.0 77 5929
Total 594 172 8659 453623
Solution
n

( f v ) i i

Mean speed = v 
i 1
n

f i 1
i

8659
= = 50.34 km/h
172
Solution

Standard Deviation

 n  n 
2

  f i vi
2
  f i vi    8659  
2
 i 1   462325
453623  8745 
SD    i 1     
 f  f    172  172  
     
   

SD=10.14
 Histogram of vehicle speed
Mid point
(Vi) Frequency (Fi)

34 22 1
31 27 3
32 6
27
25
37 13
42 25
47 34
18
52 31
57 27
13
62 18
9
67 9
6
72 4
4
3 1
1 1 77
22 27 32 37 42 47 52 57 62 67 72 77

Mode
 cumulative frequency curve
100
Mid point (Vi) Cumulative Freq(%)
90

22 0.6
80

27 2.3
70

60 32 5.8

50 37 13.4

40
42 27.9
30
47 47.7
20 52 65.7
57 81.4
10
62 91.9
67 97.1
0
20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80
48 59 72 99.4
77 100

Median 85th percentile speed

Example 1 solution Summary
• Mean= 50.34 km/h

• Standard Deviation = 10.14

• Median= 48 Km/h from the cumulative frequency graph

• 85th percentile speed= 59 km/h from the cumulative frequency

graph

• Mode= 47 km/h from the histogram

 Traffic volume or flow

is the number of vehicles passing a specific reference point on a road

section within a specified period of time.

Typical units:
vehicles/hour (hourly traffic-vph),
vehicles/day (daily traffic),
vehicles/year (annual traffic), etc.
 Traffic volume
Traffic volume is used to determine :

(a) Annual Traffic

(i) To compute crash rates
(ii) To indicate trends in volume

(b) Average Daily Traffic (ADT) & Annual Average

Daily Traffic (AADT)
(i) To measure present demand
(ii) To programme capital improvements

(c) Hourly Traffic

(i) To determine peak periods
(ii) To evaluate capacity deficiencies
(iii) To establish traffic controls
 Traffic volume
• Average Daily Traffic (ADT) – Distribution of traffic flow every day from
Monday to Sunday
Day Average Daily Volume
Example: Monday 1820
Tuesday 1588
Wednesday 1406
Thursday 1300
Friday 1289
Saturday 1275
Sunday 1332
Total (veh in week) 10010
ADT (veh/day) 1430
 Traffic volume
Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT )– Distribution of traffic flow every day from
Monday to Sunday

• AADT – Distribution of traffic flow every day for the

whole year (365 days).

• Acquired by doing survey work twice in a year.

• Each survey take a week with 6 months interval.

Example: AADT = volume of traffic volume of traffic in

+
in 7 days (March) 7 days (Sept)

14
 Traffic Volume
Peak Hour Volume (PHV)

•Maximum number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway during 60

consecutive minutes.

•PHV used for:

- Design of the geometric character of highway (intersection,
signalization, channelization).
- Capacity analysis.
- Development of parking regulation.
 Traffic Volume

•Traffic Composition

•Vehicular traffic consists of various types of vehicle – i.e. various sizes, performances
,and characteristics.

•A vehicle is converted into an Equivalent Passenger Car Unit (PCU) for consistency in
interpreting road traffic performance, congestion, road geometry and traffic signal
analysis and design.

•PCU is defined as the standard unit measurement which is designed to give the
effect of an equivalent numbers of passenger cars.
 Traffic Volume

•Traffic Composition
Traffic Composition Rural Urban
Private Car, Taxi, Trishawmotor 1.0 1.0
Small Good Vehicle & Van 2.0 2.0
Medium Good Vehicle & Lorries 2.5 2.5
Heavy Good Vehicle & Lorries 3.0 3.0
Buses 3.0 3.0
Motorcycle 1.0 0.75
 Density (k)
Concentration or density of traffic is the
number of vehicles in a given length of
roadway or a lane, i.e. vehicles/km.

It is also a common parameter used to describe

road performance.
 Headway or Spacing
Headway
• The time between successive vehicles passing a point.

Spacing
• The distance between successive vehicles passing a point.

Headway if measured in terms of time, or

Spacing if measured in terms of distance

Reference point
Speed, Flow, Density
Relationships
Flow(q) – density(k) Relationship

Stable Unstable
Speed (u) – flow (q) Relationship
Speed (u) – Density (k) Relationship