KIRKUK UNIVERSITY

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Traffic Engineering

Title of report: Traffic Characteristics

Name of author the report: Mohammed Amir Arslan Shawkat,Ali Najat

 Described below are the important road user

characteristics studied in traffic engineering.

1-Road User Characteristics:

1. Physical Characteristics
2. Mental Characteristics
3. Psychological Characteristics
4. Environmental Characteristics

1. Physical Characteristics

Vision, hearing, strength and the reaction of the road user are the
important physical characteristics that are studied in traffic
engineering.

Vision
The field of vision includes acute or clear vision cone, fairly clear
vision cone and peripheral vision cone as shown in the figure below.
 Fig.1. Field of Vision

1. Acute or clear vision cone: This vision is around 3 to 10

degrees around the line of sight.
2. Fairly clear vision cone: This vision is at 10 to 12 degrees
around the line of sight. A vision in this field can identify the
color and shape.
3. Peripheral Vision: This field of vision extends up to 90 degrees
to the right and left of the centerline of the pupil, as shown in
figure-1. It also extends above and below the line of sight by 60
and 70 degrees respectively. A peripheral vision does not show
stationary objects. It only detects the movement of objects
within this field.

Hearing

Hearing characteristics is more important for pedestrians and cycles

compared to drivers.

Strength
This is a less important characteristic compared to others. The lack
of strength makes it difficult to park heavy vehicles.

2. Mental Characteristics

The important mental characteristics of the road user include skill,

intelligence, experience, knowledge and literacy. Proper knowledge
of the vehicle characteristics, driving practices, rules of roads and
traffic behavior is necessary for safe traffic operations.

3. Psychological Factors

Psychological factors affect the reaction of the road user to traffic

situations. These reactions include anger, fear, superstition,
impatience, anxiety, etc. This affects traffic performance.

4. Environmental Factors

Atmospheric conditions, traffic facilities, the traffic stream

characteristics are the various environmental factors that govern
the behavior of the road. The traffic stream can be heavy traffic or
mixed traffic which may limit the ability to overtake. Hence, the
behavior of the road user changes with the traffic streams

2- Vehicular characteristics
is classified as two types as follows. Static characteristics involving the vehicular
dimensions (length, wheel base, width, and center clearance) and the dynamic
characteristics (speed, power, acceleration) with the breaking characteristics.