Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

Module – 1
Scope of Traffic Engineering
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• Traffic engineering is a branch of Civil Engineering that uses engineering techniques to
achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on roadways.
• It focuses mainly on research and construction of the infrastructure necessary for safe and
efficient traffic flow, such as road geometry, sidewalks and crosswalks, segregated cycle
facilities, shared lane marking, traffic signs, road surface markings and traffic lights.
• It is the phase of transportation engineering that deals with the planning, geometric design
and traffic operations of roads, streets and highways, their networks, terminals, abutting
lands, and relationships with other modes of transportation.

Traffic Characteristics
Road user characteristics:
The various factors which affect road user characteristics are classified as,
o Physical
o Mental
o Psychological
o Environmental

Physical Characteristics
These includes vision, hearing, strength, and general reactions to traffic situations.
Vision plays important role. These include the acuity of vision, peripheral vision and eye
movement, glare vision, glare recovery and depth judgement. Hearing helps drivers in a way.
It is also important for pedestrians and cyclists. Strength is a parameter matters while parking
particularly heavy vehicles. The reaction to traffic situation depends on the time required to
perceive and understand the situation and to take appropriate action. The driver reaction time
is illustrated by PIEV theory.

PIEV Theory
According to this theory, the total reaction time of driver is split into four parts,
1) Perception time: is time required for the sensations received by the eyes or ears of the
driver to be transmitted to the brain through the nervous system & spinal cord or it is the time
required to perceive an object or situation.
2) Intellection time: is the time require for the driver to understand the situation it is also the
time required for comparing the different thoughts.
3) Emotion time: is the time elapsed during emotional sensational and other mental
disturbance such as fear, anger or any other emotional feeling superstition etc.
4) Volition time: is the time taken by the driver for the final action such as brake application.
The PIEV theory time of a driver depends on several factors such as physical and
psychological characteristics of the driver, type of the problem involved, environmental
condition and temporary factors like travel speed, motive of the trip, fatigue and consumption
of alcohol. The PIEV theory has been illustrated in Fig (1.1).

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

It is also possible that the driver may apply brakes or take any avoiding action by the reflex
action, even without thinking.

Fig(1.1) PIEV theory

Mental Characteristics
Knowledge, skill, intelligence, experience affects the road user characteristics.
Knowledge of vehicle characteristics, traffic behavior, driving practice, rules of roads and
psychology of road users will be useful.
Psychological Characteristics
The emotional factors such as attentiveness, fear, anger, superstition impatience,
attitude towards traffic and regulations comes under this.
Environmental Characteristics
These factors include, traffic stream characteristics, facilities to the traffic,
atmospheric conditions and the locality. The traffic stream consists of mixed traffic whereas
facilities to overtake may be limited. It also includes factors like, weather visibility and other
atmospheric conditions.
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING (15CV561)
Vehicular Characteristics
The vehicle characteristics that are concern to the traffic engineer are,
o Dimensions and weight
o Power of vehicle
o Turning capability
o Braking system
o Acceleration and deceleration
o Vehicle lighting system
o Features of the vehicle body
o Tyres
A vehicle has three dimensions: length, width, height. The height of vehicles ismore
important considered in placing of signals and designing over passes and under passes.
Weight of the vehicle plays an important role in design of both flexible and rigid pavements.
The weight of vehicle is transferred through axle;it is important to design a pavement.
The power of the heaviest vehicles and their loaded weights justifies the permissible
and limiting values of gradient on roads.
o Human powered vehicles – cycles, rickshaw have low powered to weight ratio and
their acceleration characteristic, speed on slopes are low.

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

o Motorized vehicle - have high power to weight ratio

o Heavy vehicles- have poor power to weight ratio.
Power to Weight ratio is important factors as it relates to operating efficiency of vehicles.
Turning radius and turning path
Minimum turning radius is the radius of the circle that will be traced by the front
wheel if the vehicle moved with its steering maximum extended. Big vehicle has bigger
turning radius and small vehicle have smaller radius. Since wheel turns the rear wheel are
fixed and the vehicle body extend beyond the tyres, the effective width of vehicle on a turn is
increases the width of the road on curves is increased in order to accommodate the increase
effective width of vehicle.
Hydrocarbons react with nitrogen oxide in the presence of sunlight to produce ozone.
It releases major components of nitrogen which is the main causes of acid rain.
Carbon monoxide reduces the flow of blood streams. Greenhouse gases also emitted-
carbon dioxide. Noise pollution-age of vehicle, tyre type etc. Physiological problems - sleep,
concentration. Selection of design vehicle can have a good effect on use of roadway facilities
such as turning radius, turning pocket length, U-turn from left-turn-bay, and design of
parking.
Determination of length of acceleration lane when merging, dual objectives of
greater power and improved fuel efficiency. Acceleration characteristics of a vehicle are
important in the design of intersection elements and overtaking sight distance.

POWER PERFORMANCE OF VEHICLES

Power performance of vehicle is required to determine the vehicle running costs and
geometric design elements like grades
Resistance to motion of a vehicle
The power developed by the engine (Pp) should be sufficient to overcome all
resistance to motion at a desired speed and to accelerate at any desired rate to the desired
speed.
Following forces have to be overcome for this purpose,
1. Rolling resistance
2. Air resistance
3. Grade resistance
4. Inertia forces during acceleration and deceleration
5. Transmission losses

Rolling Resistance
There are forces within the vehicle itself that offer resistance to motion. These forces
are due mainly to frictional effect on moving parts of the vehicle, but they also include the
frictional slip between the pavement surface and the tires. The sum effect of these forces on
motion is known as rolling resistance. The rolling resistance depends on the speed of the
vehicle and the type of pavement. Rolling forces are relatively lower on smooth pavements
than on rough pavements.

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

Fig(1.2) Forces acting on a vehicle

When the vehicle wheels roll over the road surface, the irregularities and roughness of
the surface causes deformation of the tyres, and sometimes the road surface may go
deformation.

Rolling resistance Pf = m x f x g
Where, m = mass of the vehicle in kg
f = coefficient of rolling resistance
Pf = rolling resistance in N
G = acceleration due to gravity in m /sec2
Table (1.1) Values of coefficient of rolling resistance

Rolling resistance depend on speed also

fv= fo [ 1 + 0.01 (V-50)]
Where fv = coefficient of rolling resistance at speed V
V = speed in K.P.H
fo= coefficient of rolling resistance, constant upto a speed of 50 KMPH and can be taken
from Table (1.1).
Table(1.2) Values of coefficient of rolling resistance from Indian studies

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

Air Resistance
A vehicle in motion has to overcome the resistance of the air in front of it as well as the
force due to the frictional action of the air around it. The force required to overcome these is
known as the air resistance and is related to the cross-sectional area of the vehicle in a
direction perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the square of the speed of the
vehicle.
Pa = Ca x A x V2
Where, Pa = air resistance in N
A= projected front area
V= velocity of speed in m/sec
Ca = coefficient of air resistance
G = acceleration due to gravity 9.81 m/sec2
Table(1.3) Values of frontal area and co – efficient of air resistance

Grade Resistance
When a vehicle moves up a grade, a component of the weight of the vehicle acts
downward, along the plane of the highway. This creates a force acting in a direction opposite
that of the motion. This force is the grade resistance. A vehicle traveling up a grade will
therefore tend to lose speed unless an accelerating force is applied. The speed achieved at any
point along the grade for a given rate of acceleration will depend on the grade.
Pi= (m x i x g) /100 (+ or -)
Where, Pi = grade resistance

Inertia Force During Acceleration and Deceleration

When the speed of a moving vehicle needs to be increased, some additional power is
needed to accelerate. When the vehicle has to gather a desired speed from a stopped position,
additional force is required.

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

This is given by,

Force = mass x acceleration
Pj = m x a = m x (dv/dt)
Where, m = mass of vehicle in kg
Pj = Inertia force

Transmission Losses
Losses in power from the engine to gear system. The vehicle has a system of gear to
alter the speed. At starting of vehicle high power is needed and speed is low. For high power
engine for climbing a hill the speed is reduced

POWER REQUIREMENT OF A VEHICLE

The mechanical power developed by the engine is transmitted to the driving wheels
by transmission system.
Rear axle torque
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING (15CV561)
Ta = k x Tc x G t x G a
Where Tc = engine torque
Gt = transmission gear ratio
Ga =rear axle gear ratio = 0.80 to 0.90
K = efficiency of transmission system
Pp = (rear axle torque/radius of rolling tyre)
Pp = tractive force
Pp = (K x Te x Gt x Ge) / rw
Power output = Pp x v
v= speed in m/sec
v = (V x 1000)/3600=V/3.6
Power output = (Pp x V)/3.6

Power output = (Pv x 0.377 x rw x n)/(Gt x Ga)

Engine power in watts = (Pv x 0.377 x rw x n)/(Gt x Ga x k)

Tractive resistance
Pp= Pf+ Pa+Pi+Pj

Where, Pa = Air resistance in N

Pf = Rolling resistance in N
Pi = grade resistance
Pj=inertia force due to acceleration and de acceleration.

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Traffic Engineering – 18 CV 654 Faculty: Chethan Kumar N T

Off Tracking
When a four or six wheeled vehicle negotiates a horizontal curve at low speed, the
rear wheels do not trace the same path as the corresponding front wheels. At low speeds
when the centrifugal force developed is lesser than the counteracting forces due to
superelevation and transverse friction, the rear wheels follow paths on the inner side of
horizontal curve as compared with the path followed by the corresponding set of front
wheels.
This difference is distance between the curved wheel paths of front and rear wheels, is
called off – tracking or mechanical widening.
Off tracking depends on,
(i) The length of wheel base
(ii) The turning angle.

Table(1.4)

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