Transportation Letters

The International Journal of Transportation Research

ISSN: 1942-7867 (Print) 1942-7875 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ytrl20

Estimation of passenger car unit for

heterogeneous traffic stream of urban arterials:
case study of Kolkata

Satyajit Mondal, Sandip Chakraborty, Sudip Kumar Roy & Ankit Gupta

To cite this article: Satyajit Mondal, Sandip Chakraborty, Sudip Kumar Roy & Ankit Gupta (2017):
Estimation of passenger car unit for heterogeneous traffic stream of urban arterials: case study of
Kolkata, Transportation Letters, DOI: 10.1080/19427867.2017.1293313

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19427867.2017.1293313

Published online: 20 Feb 2017.

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 Transportation Letters, 2017
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19427867.2017.1293313

Estimation of passenger car unit for heterogeneous traffic stream of urban

arterials: case study of Kolkata
Satyajit Mondala, Sandip Chakrabortyb, Sudip Kumar Royb and Ankit Guptaa
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, India; bDepartment of Civil Engineering,
Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah, India

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Rapid urbanization increases the number of vehicles on a road section significantly throughout the Capacity; heterogeneous
country. Traffic in India is generally heterogeneous consisting of variety of vehicles which comprise traffic; passenger car unit;
wide range of static and dynamic characteristics. To estimate volume of such heterogeneous traffic it traffic stream parameters;
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is essential to convert the different types of vehicles into equivalent passenger cars and express the urban arterials
volume in terms of Passenger Car Unit (PCU) per hour. The equivalency unit is universally adopted
for measurement of traffic volume and the value is obtained by taking the passenger car as the
‘Standard Vehicle.’ The present study has been concentrated on four and six lane divided urban
arterials in Kolkata. The PCU of vehicles have been presented for both categories of urban roads and
the values are found to be higher than the values given in IRC: 106-1990. It has also been observed
that, PCU values of different types of vehicles have been found to be different for different ranges of
volume, composition and v/c ratio. Mathematical relationships have been developed on the basis
of the variation of PCU with traffic stream parameters. The relationships are developed to forecast
the PCU for several vehicular categories that have been statistically validated for different ranges of
traffic stream parameters.

Introduction of vehicles is also necessary for design of different traffic

facilities, operational analysis of roadway facilities, man-
India is a developing country with a great network that
agement of traffic regulation and control of traffic.
makes it the second largest road network in the world.
There are many studies available in literature to esti-
Urban arterials serve the major traffic carrying corridor in
mate the PCU of different categories of vehicles under
a metropolitan city. Rapid urbanization increases the num-
heterogeneous traffic conditions in India and other coun-
ber of vehicles on a road section significantly throughout
tries. The term PCU was first introduced in the Highway
the country. But the traffic in India is generally heterogene-
Capacity Manual (1965) and reported for grades of spe-
ous (Arasan and Krishnamurthy 2008). The traffic stream
cific length and percent, proportion of trucks, and LOS
in India has variety of vehicles like cars, heavy vehicles such
(A-E). In the Highway Capacity Manual (2000), PCE is
as buses, trucks, light commercial vehicles, motorized two
defined as ‘the number of passenger cars displaced by a
wheelers and three wheelers and non-motorized vehicles
single heavy vehicle of a particular type under specified
which comprise wide range of static and dynamic charac-
roadway, traffic, and control conditions.’
teristics. If traffic data of metropolitan cities is observed
Chandra and Kumar (2003) studied the effect of lane
during peak hours a clear dominance of one vehicle at
width on PCU values and also on the capacity of a two-
specific locations can be observed. The analysis of such
lane road under mixed traffic conditions. PCUs were esti-
heterogeneous traffic stream is simple if the relative effect
mated at ten road sections for nine categories of vehicles.
of each vehicle type can be expressed in terms of some
They found that PCU for a vehicle type increases linearly
common units. The Passenger Car Unit (PCU) or passen-
with the width of carriageway. Al Kaisy, Jung, and Rakha
ger car equivalent (PCE) is the universally adopted unit of
(2005) worked on developing passenger car equivalency
measurement of traffic volume or capacity and the value
factor for heavy vehicles during congestion. A set of PCE
is derived by taking the passenger car as the ‘Standard
factors for oversaturated traffic conditions was developed
Vehicle.’ The estimation of PCU of different categories

CONTACT Satyajit Mondal satyajitm.rs.civ@itbhu.ac.in

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 2  S. MONDAL ET AL.
for use in traffic analyses. Cao and Sano (2012) worked
on estimating capacity and motorcycle equivalent units
on urban roads in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nonlinear regression
analysis was employed to calculate the mean effective
space for particular type of vehicle from the correlation
between the effective spaces of subject vehicle and the
speed of motorcycle in the front of the subject vehicle.
Satyanarayana, Durga, and Gopala (2012) worked
on development of PCU factors and capacity norms
at mid-blocks of rural highways in Visakhapatnam.
Dhamaniya and Chandra (2013) worked on the concept
of stream equivalency factors for heterogeneous traffic
on urban arterial roads. They converted heterogene-
ous traffic volume in vehicle per hour to homogeneous
PCU per hour without determining PCU factors for
each and every individual vehicles type by making use
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of stream equivalency factors (SEF). Paul and Sarkar
(2013) determined dynamic PCU of different types of
vehicles on urban roads. The effects of proportion of
Non-Motorized Traffic (NMT) and heavy vehicles on
PCU of different categories of vehicles were studied and
the effect of stream speed on PCU was presented in
form of mathematical equations.
Khanorkar et al. (2014) studied on impact of lane width
of road on PCU capacity under mix traffic condition in
cities on congested highways. It was found that the PCU
for a vehicle type increases with increasing lane width.
Adnan (2014) studied on PCE in heterogeneous traffic
environment. Four different methods were used to esti-
mate the PCU of vehicles. They found that the method
incorporated with vehicles speed along with their pro-
jected area provided appropriate estimate of PCE values.
Dhamaniya and Chandra (2014) worked on midblock
capacity of urban arterial roads in India. They considered
the speed and size of the vehicle as the prime variables for
determination of PCU. The variation in PCU for differ-
ent types of vehicles was established graphically. Mondal
et al. (2017) estimated capacity using the dynamic PCU
of vehicles on four and six lane divided urban arterials.
A model was developed based on the variation of PCU at
different volume ranges of the traffic stream.
Indian traffic stream consisting of a variety of vehi-
cles with a wide range of static and dynamic charac-
teristics, traveling in a same stretch without any lane
discipline. Therefore, to estimate the capacity of any
road section having the heterogeneous traffic stream, it
is needed to convert the different types of vehicles into
an equivalent unit. Generally, passenger cars are found
to be the dominating vehicle in Indian traffic stream.
This study is an attempt to find out the dynamic PCU to
convert the heterogeneous traffic into a homogeneous
traffic and also to develop PCU models for different
traffic stream parameters.
Objective and study area
This study has been concentrated on finding the values
of PCU for different categories of vehicles under hetero-
geneous traffic conditions on mid-block section in urban
arterials and also to analyze the variation of PCU val-
ues with respect to different traffic stream parameters.
Mathematical relationships have been developed based
on the variation of PCU which have been further validated
using the statistical analysis.
Two study sections have been selected on four lane
divided urban arterial and one study section on six lane
divided urban arterial based on various criterion such as,
the section should have wide variation in proportion of
different categories of vehicles, free from the effects of
road side friction, intersection, parking facilities, bus stop,
pedestrian movements, curvature, gradient and median
opening etc. The selected study sections have been shown
in Figure 1. A straight mid-block section of the selected
urban roads has been selected for the data collection pur-
pose. The details of study sections are shown in Table 1.
Research methodology
The present study has adopted the method proposed by
Chandra and Sikdar (2000) to estimate the PCU values of
vehicles. In a heterogeneous traffic stream, speed of the
vehicles is mostly affected among the other traffic stream
parameters. In their methodology speed is considered as
the basic parameter for determination of PCU. Hence,
their methodology has been adopted as proposed meth-
odology. In this study Standard Car (CS) is considered
as the standard design vehicle. According to Chandra’s
method PCU of any vehicle type can be obtained by using
the following relationship.
Vc ∕Vi
PCUi = (1)
Ac ∕Ai
In Equation 1, the variables Vc and Vi denote the mean
speed of standard car and vehicle type i respectively and Ac
and Ai denote their respective projected rectangular area
(length × width) on the road. The numerator in the above
equation is the function of composition of traffic stream
as the speed of any vehicle type depends upon its cate-
gory, own proportion and proportion of other vehicles.
Therefore, speed of any vehicle type is true representation
of overall interaction of a vehicle type due to presence
of other vehicle of its own category and of other types.
The denominator represents the carriageway occupancy
with respect to standard car. The physical size of different
types of vehicles have been adopted from the Chandra and
Kumar (2003) (Table 2).
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Figure 1. Location of the selected study sections.

Table 1. Details of study sections. photography technique has been used to record the
Carriageway movements of vehicular traffic in one direction of
Study sections width (m) Road geometry Location travel by considering a trap length of 60 m for the
VIP road 10.8 Six lane divided Lat: N22˚35ʹ53.924ʺS determination of traffic volume and composition of
C/W Lon: E88˚24ʹ15.026ʺW
Kona arterial 7.0–8.5 Four lane Lat: N22˚35ʹ12.238ʺS the traffic stream. Tru- speed laser gun has been used
divided C/W Lon: E88˚16ʹ32.988ʺW to collect the spot speed data of different categories
E. M. bypass 7 Four lane Lat: N22˚31ʹ17.977ʺS
divided C/W Lon: E88˚23ʹ52.856ʺW
of vehicles travelling in the trap length for a sample
Note: C/W – Carriageway.
size of 50%.

Table 2. Vehicle categories and their average dimensions (Chan- Data extraction and processing
dra and Kumar 2003).
The collected field data have been brought to a work
Average dimension
Projected rectangular station to extract different traffic stream parameters
Category Length (m) Width (m) area on ground (m2) such as:
Standard car (Maru- 3.72 1.44 5.36
ti800, Alto etc.)
Big car (Honda city, 4.58 1.77 8.11 Classified traffic volume and composition
Skoda etc.)
Truck 7.5 2.35 17.62
LCV 6.1 2.10 12.81 Classified traffic volume count has been carried out by
Bus 10.1 2.43 24.74 playing the recorded video at the work station. All vehi-
Two wheeler 1.87 0.64 1.2
Three wheeler
cles in the traffic stream have been grouped and divided
3.2 1.40 4.48
into seven categories. The classified vehicle count has
been done manually at every 5 min interval (Dhamaniya
and Chandra 2014) and it has been converted into hourly
Field data collection traffic volume. Figure 2(a–c) show the hourly variation
Field data have been collected on a weekday during of traffic volume and composition of traffic stream of
8 am to 8 pm at Kona arterials and VIP road and the selected study sections. Figures also show that all the
during 8 am to 1 pm at E.M.Bypass in Kolkata to selected study sections are consisting of high percentage
determine the traffic volume, speed of different types of different categories of vehicles, make the study sections
of vehicles and composition of traffic stream. Video more heterogeneous condition.
 4  S. MONDAL ET AL.
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Figure 2. Variation of traffic volume and proportion of different classes of vehicles on (a) Kona Arterial Road, (b) E. M. Bypass and (c) VIP
Road.

Speed data
The time mean speed of the individual vehicle has been
obtained by using the laser gun technique. The obtained
time mean speed has been converted into space mean
speed by using the relationship between time mean speed
and space mean speed as
SD
us = ut −
ut
where,
us = space mean speed
ut = time mean speed
SD = standard deviation
Data analysis and estimation of PCU
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Variation in speed with traffic volume
The variation in speed of individual vehicle type has been
studied by determining the speed of individual vehicle
type at different volume levels shown in Figures 3 and 4
respectively.
Figure 3. Variation in speed of individual vehicle type with traffic
volume on four lane divided urban arterial.
Figure 4. Variation in speed of individual vehicle type with traffic
volume on six lane divided urban arterial.
TRANSPORTATION LETTERS  5
From the Figures 3 and 4, a flatter speed variation is
observed for small size vehicles with traffic volume due
to their higher maneuverability characteristics whereas
a steep speed variation is observed for large size vehicles
with traffic volume due to their lesser maneuverability
characteristics with respect to standard car.
(2) Estimation of PCU values
In order to develop a proper speed – flow equation to
estimate capacity and design of traffic facilities for heter-
ogeneous traffic, it is necessary to convert the heteroge-
neous traffic into homogeneous by using a common unit,
which is termed as PCU. Chandra’s model has been used
to determine the PCU of different vehicle categories. It
has been observed that speed of the individual vehicle
class is different at different volume levels. So, a range of
PCU values of different categories of vehicles have been
determined for limited range of traffic volume for both the
urban roads, presented in the Tables 3 and 4.
Estimation of capacity
This study has adopted the Greenshield’s model for esti-
mation of capacity by considering the average PCU value
of individual vehicle type on four lane and six lane divided
urban arterials. Therefore, the speed – flow model which
follows the parabolic relationship, developed by using
regression technique has been considered. A scatter dia-
gram has been developed by plotting the speed (u) and
flow (q) of the urban arterials shown in Figures 5 and 6
respectively where R2 gives a high value represents less
variability of the actual data points with the Greenshield’s
model. It has been observed that the speed – flow curve
fits nicely with the observed data, indicating the validity
of the field data for highly heterogeneous traffic flow. The
capacity of four lane and six lane divided urban arterial,
under heterogeneous traffic conditions is estimated as
about 4465 PCU/hour and 6264 PCU/hour respectively.
Variation of PCU values
PCU at different traffic volume on four and six lane
divided urban arterials
The effect of traffic volume on PCU has been studied by
determining the PCU of different types of vehicles at dif-
ferent volume levels.
It is observed from Figure 7(a) that PCUs of large size
vehicles such as Big Car (CB), LCV, Bus and Truck are
increasing and for small size vehicles such as TW and
M3W, it is decreasing with increase in traffic volume on
four lane road. In a road section, as the traffic volume
increases corresponding density will increase. So, the
 6  S. MONDAL ET AL.

Table 3. PCU of different categories of vehicles for four lane divided urban arterial.

Traffic volume (veh/hr)

>0–500 500–1000 1000–1500 1500–2000
Type of vehicle Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max
Big car (CB) 1.47 1.49 1.51 1.53 1.53 1.56 1.56 1.58
Two wheeler (TW) 0.27 0.28 0.26 0.27 0.24 0.26 0.21 0.24
Motorized three wheeler (M3W) 1.31 1.34 1.21 1.25 1.08 1.15 1.02 1.06
LCV 2.801 2.82 2.814 2.842 2.826 2.865 2.838 2.88
Bus 5.05 5.23 5.14 5.28 5.21 5.32 5.26 5.39
Truck 4.42 4.49 4.47 4.53 4.51 4.58 4.55 4.66

Table 4. PCU of different categories of vehicles for six lane divided urban arterial.

Traffic volume (veh/hr)

1000–2000 2000–3000 3000–4000 4000–5000
Type of vehicle Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max
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Big car (CB) 1.48 1.51 1.52 1.57 1.56 1.59 1.58 1.64
Two wheeler (TW) 0.256 0.261 0.235 0.254 0.223 0.241 0.21 0.228
Motorised three wheeler (M3W) 1.17 1.24 1.03 1.15 0.97 1.05 0.88 0.92
LCV 2.41 2.57 2.58 2.64 2.67 2.76 2.78 2.84
Bus 4.92 5.13 5.08 5.27 5.32 5.44 5.46 5.63

vehicles will move at a lower speed. In case of large vehi-

cles, they require more space to move in traffic stream and
also have less maneuverability with respect to Standard
Car (CS). But for small size vehicles like 2 and M3W, they
require less space and move to any lateral space available
between any large size vehicles in the traffic stream and
also have better maneuverability with respect to Standard
Car (CS). Therefore, the speeds of the small size vehicles
are not affected by the increase in traffic volume. So, the
speed difference between Standard Car (CS) and small size
vehicle decreases and for larger vehicles increases as the
volume increases and corresponding PCU values for Big
Car, LCV, Bus and Truck increases and for 2 and M3W
Figure 5. Speed-flow relationship for four lane divided urban it decreases.
arterial. It is also observed from Figure 7(b) that, the variation
of PCU values of different categories of vehicles with traf-
fic volume on six lane road follows the same trend as it
is on four lane road. PCUs of large size vehicles such as
Big Car (CB), LCV and Bus are increasing and for small
size vehicles such as TW and M3W, it is decreasing with
increase in traffic volume.

PCU at different traffic composition on four and six

lane divided urban arterial
Traffic composition is a basic parameter of a traffic stream
which may change widely with traffic volume and also at
different time interval of a day. A wide variation of traffic
composition has been observed on both the urban arte-
rials at different volume levels.
It is observed from Figure 8(a–e) that, the PCU of a
vehicle type increases with increase in its own proportion
Figure 6. Speed-flow relationship for six lane divided urban in the traffic stream. Basically increase in proportion of
arterial. vehicles in a traffic stream will make it more heterogeneous

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Figure 7. Variation in PCU of vehicles with traffic volume on (a) Four lane road, (b) Six lane road.
and consequently the speed will decrease. It results more
speed difference between Standard Car (CS) and any vehi-
cle type and hence PCU values for a vehicle type increases
with increase in its own proportion in the traffic stream.
It is also observed from Figure 9(a–e) that the variation
of PCU follows the same pattern similar to that of four
lane road i.e. PCU of a vehicle type increases with increase
in its own proportion in the traffic stream.
PCU at different v/c ratio on four and six lane divided
urban arterial
Volume to capacity ratio is the basic parameter of a traffic
stream which is generally taken as an effective parameter
for assessment of level of service (LOS). In the evaluation
of v/c ratio the average PCU value has been considered.
A good variation of v/c has been found over the study
sections. The effect of v/c ratio on PCU was studied by
determining the PCU values of different types of vehicles
at different ranges of v/c ratio. It is observed from Figures
10(a–c) that PCUs of large size vehicles such as Big Car,
LCV, Truck and Bus are increasing and for small size vehi-
cles such as 2 and M3W, it is decreasing with the increase
in v/c ratio. In a traffic stream when v/c ratio is increasing,
TRANSPORTATION LETTERS  7
it implies the increase in traffic volume and when volume
reaches to capacity then the corresponding v/c ratio is
equal to 1. It denotes that, with the increase in traffic vol-
ume the corresponding v/c ratio will also increase. So, the
variation in PCU with v/c ratio is same as it varies with
traffic volume.
The variation of PCU values of different categories of
vehicles on six lane divided urban road shown in Figure
11(a–c) follow the same trend as it is in four lane divided
urban road.
The PCU of different categories of vehicles has been
found to change linearly with increase in traffic volume
and v/c ratio whereas it is changed exponentially with traf-
fic composition on both urban arterials. The developed
mathematical models may be used to depict its variation
with different volume levels, composition and volume to
capacity ratio. The general forms of these models are given
in the following equations, respectively:
PCU = a(10−b )q + c (3)
PCU = def ×p (4)
 8  S. MONDAL ET AL.
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Figure 8. Variation in PCU of (a) CB, (b) LCV, (c) Bus, (d) Truck, (e) TW with composition on four lane road.

Validation of PCU values and models

PCU = ix + j (5)
In order to check the accuracy of the PCU values and also
where,
for validation of the obtained mathematical relationship
q = Traffic Volume in veh/hr
for both the urban roads, field data have been collected
p = Composition
at one more four lane and six lane divided urban arterial.
x = volume to capacity ratio
Required data have been extracted from the collected
a, b, c, d, f, i and j = Constant
field data. The obtained models have been used to esti-
The value of constants for different categories of vehi-
mate the PCU values of the newly selected study sections.
cles for both urban arterial are given in the Tables 5 and
Therefore, the suggested (given in Tables 3 and 4) and
6 respectively.

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Figure 9. Variation in PCU of (a) CB, (b) LCV, (c) Bus, (d) TW, (e) M3W with composition on six lane road.
estimated (obtained using Equation (3–5) PCU values of
vehicles on four lane and six lane divided urban arterials
have been compared to observe the statistical significance
between these two sets of PCU values using statistical
two tail t-test. Tables 7–12 shows the results of t-test per-
formed for comparing mean PCU of different categories
of vehicles. The calculated value of t-statistics against the
critical value at 95% level of confidence is higher for every
categories of vehicles. It implies that there is no significant
difference between suggested and estimated PCU values
TRANSPORTATION LETTERS  9
of vehicles which further validated the obtained mathe-
matical relationship.
Conclusions
In the present study the dynamic PCUs have been esti-
mated for both the urban arterials. This study considers
speed and size of the vehicle as prime variables for estima-
tion of PCU factors. The calculated PCUs of vehicles are
larger than the values given in IRC: 106-1990. A range of
 10  S. MONDAL ET AL.
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Figure 10. Variation in PCU of (a) CB and LCV, (b) Truck and Bus and (c) TW and M3W with v/c ratio on four lane road.

Figure 11. Variation in PCU of (a) CB, LCV and Bus and (b) TW and M3W with v/c ratio on six lane road.

Table 5. Values of constants for four lane divided urban arterial.

Volume (veh/hr) Composition v/c ratio
Vehicle category a b c d f i j
Big car 3 05 1.4694 1.4616 0.0012 0.0928 1.4723
LCV 6 05 2.801 2.6085 0.0056 0.082 2.801
Bus 1 04 5.0804 5.201 0.0016 0.3725 5.0909
Truck 7 05 4.4358 3.8595 0.0162 0.2359 4.4401
TW −3 05 0.2951 0.1803 0.0136 −0.1099 0.2969
M3W −2 04 1.4391 – – −0.3373 1.2884
 TRANSPORTATION LETTERS  11

Table 6. Values of constants for six lane divided urban arterial.

Volume (veh/hr) Composition v/c ratio
Vehicle category a b c d f i j
Big car 4 05 1.4699 1.3509 0.0063 0.342 1.3027
LCV 1 04 2.3218 2.5913 0.0132 0.8614 2.0618
Bus 2 04 4.597 5.08 0.0048 1.4376 4.1477
TW −1 05 0.2743 0.1953 0.0078 −0.0969 0.3088
M3W −9 05 1.3478 0.8626 0.0207 −0.6123 1.4733

Table 7. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on four lane divided urban road with traffic volume.
Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks
Big car Suggested value 1.52 1.185 2.365 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.50
Truck Suggested value 4.55 1.223 2.365
Estimated value 4.50
Bus Suggested value 5.26 1.617 2.365
Estimated value 5.18
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LCV Suggested value 2.84 0.511 2.365

Estimated value 2.82
TW Suggested value 0.25 −2.052 2.365
Estimated value 0.26
M3W Suggested Value 1.16 −2.14 2.365
Estimated value 1.23

Table 8. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on four lane divided urban road with composition.
Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks
Big car Suggested value 1.56 −1.87 2.365 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.62
Bus Suggested Value 5.24 0.297 2.365
Estimated value 5.22
LCV Suggested Value 2.72 −1.252 2.365
Estimated value 2.90
TW Suggested Value 0.235 1.01 2.365
Estimated value 0.224

Table 9. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on four lane divided urban road with v/c ratio.
Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks
Big car Suggested value 1.52 −1.63 2.36 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.54
Truck Suggested value 4.54 −1.63 2.36
Estimated value 4.61
Bus Suggested value 5.27 −0.544 2.36
Estimated value 5.35
LCV Suggested Value 2.84 2.154 2.36
Estimated value 2.66
TW Suggested value 0.25 2.019 2.47
Estimated value 0.23
M3W Suggested Value 1.14 −1.182 2.45
Estimated value 1.092

Table 10. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on six lane divided urban road with traffic volume.
Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks
Big car Suggested value 1.56 −0.1999 2.57 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.57
Bus Suggested value 5.24 −2.073 2.57
Estimated value 5.36
LCV Suggested value 2.72 0.234 2.57
Estimated Value 2.703
TW Suggested value 0.235 −0.165 2.57
Estimated value 0.236
M3W Suggested value 1.01 0.0253 2.57
Estimated value 1.004
 12  S. MONDAL ET AL.

Table 11. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on six lane divided urban road with composition.

Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks

Big car Suggested value 1.56 −1.873 2.57 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.62
Bus suggested value 5.24 0.297 2.57
estimated value 5.21
LCV suggested value 2.72 −1.25 2.57
estimated value 2.905
TW suggested value 0.235 1.015 2.57
estimated value 0.224

Table 12. Results of t-test for comparing PCU of vehicles on six lane divided urban road with v/c ratio.
Vehicle type Mean t0.05 tcritical (two-tailed) Remarks
big car Suggested value 1.56 2.16 2.57 There is no significant difference
Estimated value 1.52
Bus suggested value 5.24 2.308 2.57
Estimated Value 5.15
LCV suggested value 2.72 2.07 2.57
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estimated value 2.56

TW suggested value 0.235 −1.708 2.57
estimated value 0.245
M3W suggested value 1.01 −1.464 2.57
estimated value 1.12

PCU values have been estimated for each category of vehi-
cles for limited range of traffic volume for both the urban
arterials. Capacity of four lane and six lane divided urban
arterials have been found to be 4465 PCU/hr and 6264
PCU/hr using the Greenshield’s model. IRC 106:1990
suggests the capacity of four lane and six lane divided
urban road as 3600 PCU/hr and 5400 PCU/hr. This varia-
tion is obtained due to higher operating speed and higher
PCU values of vehicles. It has also been found that per
lane capacity decreases as the number of lane increases.
The PCU value of Big Car, LCV, Bus and Truck increases
linearly with the increase in traffic volume and v/c ratio.
But for Two Wheeler and Motorized Three Wheeler it
decreases linearly with increase in traffic volume and v/c
ratio. The PCU value of Big Car, LCV, Bus, Truck, Two
Wheeler and Motorized Three Wheeler increases expo-
nentially with the increase in composition of vehicles in
the traffic stream. Mathematical relationship has been
developed based on the variation of PCU values. Two tail
t-test has been used for the validation of the suggested
PCU values. It has been observed that the calculated value
of t-statistics against the critical value at 95% level of con-
fidence is higher for every category of vehicles. It implies
that, there is no significant difference between suggested
and estimated PCU values of vehicles which further vali-
dated the obtained mathematical relationship.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to CSIR-Central Road Research Insti-
tute (CRRI), New Delhi for giving opportunity to undertake
the present study as it is a part of the CSIR Sponsored Pro-
ject titled, ‘Development of Indian Highway Capacity Manual
(Indo-HCM)’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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