UEMX 3813

HIGHWAY AND
TRANSPORTATION
Lecture 2: Fundamentals of
Traffic Flow and Queuing Theory

Ir. Dr. Khoo Hooi Ling

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Three basic parameters:
Volume, Speed, Density
 Traffic count vs traffic volume
 Traffic count: counts of vehicles pass through a point during a
specified time period
 Ex: 100 vehicles pass through UTAR gate from 8.00am to
8.30am
 Traffic volume: the rate where vehicles pass through a
specific point over the time period of an hour
n
q=
t
q: traffic flow rate (veh/time unit)
n: number of vehicle passing the designated roadway point
during time t
t: duration of time interval 2/38
Flow (cont’d)
 Time headway: time separation between two
successive vehicles

Time headway, h

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Flow (cont’d)
 The time headway is related to t, defined as:
n
t = ∑ hi
i =1
where
t: duration of time interval
hi: time headway of the ith vehicle (the elapsed
time between the arrivals of vehicles I and i-1)
n: number of measured vehicle time headway at
some designated roadway point
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Flow (cont’d)
Can you show how
 Average time headway h to derive this from
n
q=
t
1
q=
h
 Example: Sevi counted 112 cars and 56
trucks in front of UTAR gate in 10 minutes.
Compute the following:
1. The traffic volume that pass through UTAR main
road
2. The average time headway of the particular traffic
stream
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Flow (cont’d)
 Solution:
1. The traffic volume is:
168
q= × 60 = 1008 vph
10

2. The average time headway is:

1 1
h= = =× 9.92 10−4 hr =
3.57s
q 1008

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Speed
1. Time mean speed/spot speed
n

∑u i
ut = i =1
n

ut : time mean speed in unit distance per

unit time
ui : spot speed (the speed of the vehicle at
the designated point on the highway,
obtained by radar gun) of the ith vehicle
n : number of measured vehicle spot speed 7/38
Speed (cont’d)
2. Space mean speed
 Determine based on the time necessary for a
vehicle to travel some known length of a
roadway
l 1 n
 Defined as: u s = and t = n ∑ ti
t i =1
where:
ti : time necessary for vehicle i to travel the roadway
section length of l
n : number of measured vehicle travel times
t : Average travel time
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Speed (cont’d)
 Space mean speed is the harmonic mean
speed of individual speed
1 Can you show
us =
1
n
1 how to derive
n∑ u 
i =1  i 
this?

 Usually, space mean speed<time mean

speed, unless all vehicles are traveling with
the same speed
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Speed (cont’d)
 Example:
3 vehicles pass through a stretch of road
measured 100km. The spot speed of these
vehicles are 50km/hr, 25km/hr and 100km/hr
respectively. Calculate the time mean speed
and the space mean speed of these vehicles.

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Speed (cont’d)
1. The time mean speed is:
50 + 25 + 100
V = = 58.33
3
2. The space mean speed is:
time taken for vehicles to pass through the
stretch of road= 2hr, 4hr, 1hr.
 Average travel time= 2 + 43 + 4 = 7 / 3
 Average speed= 100/ (7/3)
= 42.85
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Density
 Traffic density measured the number of
vehicles on the roadway segment
 Density, k = n
l
n : number of vehicles occupying some length of
roadway at some specified time
l : length of roadway
 Unit: veh/km or veh/km/lane

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Density (cont’d)
 Space headway: the spacing of the
successive vehicles

s
Space headway, s

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Density (cont’d)
The space headway is related to l, defined as:
n
l = ∑ si
i =1
where
l : the roadway length
si: spacing of the ith vehicle (the distance between
the vehicles I and i-1)
n: number of measured vehicle spacing

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Density (cont’d)
 Average spacing:
1
k=
s

 Example: A snapshot of GPS photo from DBKL

shows that there are 15 trucks, 60 cars and 2 buses
on a 2-lane 500m long Federal highway. Compute
the density of the roadway. What is the average
spacing of the vehicles?

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Density (cont’d)
 Solution:
The density of the roadway is:
15 + 60 + 2
=k = 77veh/km/lane
0.5 × 2

The average spacing is:

1
s = × 1000 =12.98m
77

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Occupancy
 Defined as the proportion of time a detector is
“occupied”, or covered, by a vehicle in a
defined time period
 Measured density indirectly.

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Relationships among Flow,
Speed and Density
 The relationship between traffic flow, speed
and density is:
q = ku

q : flow (veh/hr)
u : speed (km/hr)
k : density (veh/km)

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Example
 Vehicle time headway and spacing were
measured at a point along a highway, from a
single lane, over the course of an hour. The
average values were calculated as 2.5s/veh
for a headway and 60 m/veh for spacing.
Calculate the average speed of the traffic.
Ans: 24 m/s

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Basic Traffic Stream Models
 Speed-density model
 k 
=u u f 1 −
uf  k 
 j 
u f : free flow speed
Speed

k j : jam density

kj
Density

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Basic Traffic Stream Models
(cont’d)
 Flow-density Model  k2  Assumption: Linear relationship
=q uf k −  of speed-density relationship
 k j 

qcap
kj
kcap = kcap : density at capacity
2
Flow

uf
ucap = ucap : speed at capacity
2
kcap kj
uf kj
Density qcap = qcap : flow at capacity
4

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Basic Traffic Stream Models
(cont’d)
 Speed-flow model
 u 
=k k j 1 − 

 uf 
uf

 u2 
Speed

=q kj u −
ucap  uf 
 

qcap
Flow

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q, v, k – Greenshield’s

 vf 
v = vf − k
k 
 j 

Free flow
(measured)

v
Jam Density
(measured)
k
q, v, k – Greenshield’s

 kj  2
q = k jv −  v
v 
 f 

Free flow
(measured)
Max
v v Flow
Jam Density
(measured)
k q
 q, v, k – Greenshield’s
Max Flow  vf  2
q = vf k − k
k 
q  j 
qm
tan θ = = vm
km Density at
k Capacity

Free flow
(measured)
Max
v v Flow
Jam Density
(measured)
k q
q, v, k – Greenshield’s
• How do you asses quality of service?
• What region possesses better quality of
service?

Capacity

Same flow!
Example
A section of highway is known to have a free-
flow speed of 90km/hr and a capacity of 3300
veh/hr. In a given hour, 2100 vehicles were
counted at a specified point along this
highway section. If the linear speed-density
relationship is assumed, what would you
estimate the space-mean speed of those
2100 vehicles to be?
Ans: Kj=146.67 veh/km;
2
1.6296u − 146.67u + 2100 =
0
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Models of traffic flow:
Deterministic
 Uniform distribution: assume that the vehicle
arrival is equally or uniformly spaced
 Example: assume that 10 vehicles arrive at
every 5 minutes for a duration of one hour.

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Models of traffic flow:
Stochastic
 Poisson model
 Traffic arrival is a random process
 Define a distribution to describe the random process
 Why Poisson?
 Events are random, independent, no memory
 Event rate remains constant for the duration of the analysis
 The probability that a single event will occur during a short
time interval is proportional to the length of the time interval:
probability for short arrival duration is low
 Limitations
 Only applicable when the traffic flow condition is less than
500 veh/hr
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 Poisson model
 Poisson distribution takes the form:
( λ t ) e − λt
n

P (n) =
n!
t : duration of time interval
P ( n ): probability that exactly n vehicles arrive in time
interval t
λ : arrival rate or average flow rate (veh per unit time)
 When the vehicle arrival is assumed as Poisson
model, the time headway is exponential distributed.

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Poisson model
 Example: A total of 101 vehicles arrived
within the 15-minutes, collected in 60-second
intervals at a specific highway. Calculate the
probability of 0,1,2,3,4,5 vehicles arrive at the
highway. What is the probability that six or
more vehicles will arrive in each of the next
three 60-second time intervals.

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Queuing Theory
 Dimensions of queuing models
 Arrival pattern: uniform, Poisson
 Number of available departure channel/server
 Highway lanes, toll booths
 Queue discipline: FIFO
 Notation:
Arrival rate assumption/departure rate
assumption/number of server
Ex: D/D/1; M/M/2
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Queuing Theory
 D/D/1 Queuing
 Example: Vehicles arrive at an entrance to a
recreational park. There is a single gate ( at which
all vehicles must stop), where a park attendant
distributes a free brochure. The park opens at 8am,
at which time vehicles begin to arrive at a rate of
480veh/hr. After 20 minutes the arrival flow declines
to 120veh/hr, and it continues at that level for the
remainder of the day. If the time required to
distribute the brochure is 15 seconds.

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Queuing Theory (cont’d)
 M/D/1 Queuing

ρ=
λ ρ :Traffic intensity
µ

Q=
ρ2 Q : Average length of queues
in vehicles
2 (1 − ρ )

ρ w : Average waiting time in

w= queue
2 µ (1 − ρ )

t =
2−ρ t : Average time spent in the
2 µ (1 − ρ ) system

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M/D/1 Queuing
 Example:
Consider the entrance to the recreational
park discussed in the previous example. If
the average arrival rate is 180veh/hr and
Poisson distributed over the entire period
from park opening time (8am) until closing at
dusk. Compute the average length of queue
(in vehicles), average waiting time in the
queue, and average time spent in the system.
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Queuing Theory (cont’d)
 M/M/1 Queuing

ρ2
Q= Q : Average length of queues
1− ρ in vehicles

w=
λ w : Average waiting time in
µ (µ − λ ) queue

1
t : Average time spent in the
t = system
µ −λ

t= w + 1
µ

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M/M/1 Queuing
 Example:
Assume that the park attendant in the previous
example takes an average of 15 seconds to
distribute brochures, but the distribution time varies
depending on whether park patrons have questions
relating to park operating policies. Given an average
arrival rate of 180veh/h, compute the average length
of queue (in vehicles), average waiting time in the
queue, and average time spent in the system.

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 Reference: Chapter 5: Fundamentals of
traffic flow and queuing theory. Principles of
Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis;
Mannering, F.L., Kilareski, W.P., Washburn,
S.S.; 3rd edition

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