CVE 520 ASSIGNMENT

Question 1
On a road, the speed-density relationship is u = 70 – 0.7k. The traffic on the road was moving at
a speed of 40 km/h when it was stopped by a flag-person (say, at time t 0). Movement on the
stream was stopped for 5 minutes. At time (t 0 + 5) minutes the vehicles were released from their
stopped condition and moving at 30 km/h. For the above conditions:
(a) Draw a neat schematic diagram for the distance-time plots of the vehicles moving on this
road.
(b) Identify all the shock waves on the diagram that are created on this road due to the
interruption caused by the flag-person.
(c) Determine the speed of all the shock waves
(d) Locate the starting point of the platoon forming shock wave.
(e) Locate the starting point of the platoon dissipating shock wave.
(f) Locate the end points of the platoons in (d) and (e) above
(g) Determine the maximum length of the platoon
(h) Determine the time it takes for the platoon to dissipate
(i) Plot the location of the front of the platoon and the rear of the platoon versus time
Plot the length of the platoon versus time.
Question 2
The table below gives data on accepted and rejected gaps of vehicles on the minor roads of an
unsignalized intersection. If the arrival of major road vehicles can be described by the Poisson
distribution, and the peak hour volume is 1100 veh/h, determine the expected number of
accepted gaps that will be available for minor road vehicles during the peak hour.
(10 marks)
Gap (t) (s) Number of rejected Number of accepted
Gaps > t Gaps >t
1.5 92 3
2.5 52 18
3.5 30 35
4.5 10 62
5.5 2 100

Question 3
The data shown below were obtained on a highway. Use regression analysis to fit these data to
the Greenshields and Greenberg models, compare the models, and determine (a) the mean free
speed (b) the jam density (c) the capacity, and (d) the speed at maximum flow

Speed (km/h) Density

(veh/km)
22.9 85
38.8 70
48.8 55
64.5 41
81.4 20
88.5 15