TR 310 Traffic Engineering and

Management
Lecture 4: Traffic Studies
•Volume Studies
•Spot Speed Studies
•Travel Time and Delay Studies
•Accident Studies
•Parking Studies

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 Introduction: Traffic Engineering
Studies
Purpose
• Managing the physical system :
inventories - condition assessment of
TCD
• Investigating trends over time:
volume, speeds, accidents

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• Assessing the effectiveness of an
improvement (before/after)
• Assessing system performance
• Calibrating basic relationships or
parameters: PRT, headways, lane
utilization, friction coefficient

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Common Traffic Engineering Studies

–Volume Studies: to quantify traffic

demand
•Turning Movement Counts and Peak
Hour Factor at intersections (Peak 15
minutes flow rate)
•Daily volumes on links (classified, both
directions) – ADT, AADT (Planning)
•Hourly volumes (directional) – PHV,
DHV for design or operational analysis
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– Speed Studies – A critical input to
design, control and safety aspects
– Travel Time and delay Studies – The
primary measure of traffic congestion /
Establishes the amount of stopped
delay along a route or specific location
– Density – may be computed from volume
and speed
– Headway and spacing studies

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– Intersection Delay Measurement
– Saturation Flow Rate
– Origin Destination Studies
– Level of Service Analysis
– Accident Studies
– etc

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• Special Studies – derived from
secondary data sources, interviews
i. Accident studies – frequency, location
ii. Parking studies – Demand, supply,
duration etc
iii. Pedestrian studies – volume, speed,
O-D,
iv. Goods movement – esp. for CBD
v. Transit/PT usage
vi. Calibration studies
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 Modern Technology in TE Studies
• Advances in computing and
telecommunication has impacted data
collection and analysis for Traffic Studies
– Basic intersection counters are special
purpose computers – delivers data in
computer readable format
– Spreadsheets and application software –
analysis and presentation of the data/results

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 Technology - types
1) Area sensing – video, infrared sensors
used at Traffic Management Centres
2) Imaging – capture image for latter
analysis – using software
3) Wireless communication – sensors in
traffic lanes to roadside receivers and
home base

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 Technology – Remarks
1) Size of sensors getting smaller
2) Computing costs are going down
3) Basic/manual technology still in use when data
collection is not extensive, where labour is
cheap and also for training purposes.
4) With current technology we can collect more
data more quickly and
5) Do comprehensive analysis and presentation
at a lower cost!
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• Data collection technique:
1) Short term counts: hand counts using field
sheets or hand held counters is ok.
2) Official records of field data should include:
– Location name
– Specific movements
– Classification
– Weather / roadway conditions – note any unusual
condition

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 4.1) Speed Studies: Purpose:
• Determination of trends – study location
on mid-block or straight level sections of
rural roads
• For solution of a specific problem – at
relevant location e.g. investigation of high
accident location
• Speed limit studies – new or evaluation of
compliance of existing ones
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• Specific design applications – speed
performance related to vertical and
horizontal alignments
• Specific control applications – timing of
yellow and all red time

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 Definitions
• Covered in a previous lecture including:
– Time mean speed
– Space mean speed
– Average running speed
– 85th and 15th percentile speed

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 Techniques and practical
considerations
• Use of radar guns – must be concealed
from driver view
• Use of closely spaced detectors – e.g.
speed cameras enforcement
• Use of stop watch to measure time taken
between two lines marked on the
pavement
• Gadgets placed on the or in the travelled
lane
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 Common errors
• Systematic errors – spotting the fastest
vehicles when measuring speed
• Disproportionate inclusion of trucks in the
sample
• Measuring several vehicles in a platoon
• Solution: measure every nth vehicles

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 Analysis – Cumulative frequency
curve
• Speed = trap length/time
• Form speed groups
• Observed frequency
• Percentage of vehicles in the group
• Cumulative frequency
• Cumulative frequency curve

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 Tabulation
Lower Upper Middle No. of Percen Cumul
speed speed speed vehicle t of ative
s in the Veh. In vehicle
group the %
group

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 Analysis: Application of normal
distribution
• Speed distributions tend to be normal
• The distribution may be used to estimate
required sample size:
• N = X2S2/e2
– N = minimum number of observations
– X = 1.96 for95% Confidence level or 3.00 for 99.7%
confidence
– S = Standard deviation, may be based on previous
study or 5 km/hr assumed
– e = tolerance – indicates precision
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 Example
• For 95% confidence and +/- 1.0 km/hr
precision, sample size required if s = 5
km/hr, N = 1.962 (52)/1.02 = 96 (speed
measurements / samples must be done)
• If required confidence is 99.7% is required
for the same precision level we need 225
samples

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 4.2) Travel time Studies
• General
– Purpose: Evaluation of Extent and causes of
congestion
– Involves significant facility/roadway length
– Coordinated with delay observations
• The following may be computed:
– Average travel time
– Average running time

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 Field techniques
• Running field car through test section while
making observation of intermediate running time
and stopped time/delay
• Strategies:
– Floating car – average condition of the traffic stream –
the driver of the test car passes as many vehicles as
passes him – relevant for two-way two-lane roads
– Maximum car technique - approximate the 85th
percentile speed – drive as fast as possible without
exceeding the design speed
– Average car technique – driver drives at what he/she
perceives to be the average conditions (own
judgement)
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 4.3) Intersection Delay Studies
• At a particular signalized intersection,
results from test car measurements do not
give a good estimate of delay.
• Delay at signalized intersection is a
measure of effectiveness
• Control delay defines the LoS _ HCM
1997, 2000

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 Measurement Methodology
• Stopped vehicle on an intersection
approach are counted at intervals (10 or
15 or 20 secs)
• It is assumed that any vehicle counted as
stopped during one of these intervals will
be stopped on average for the length of
the interval
• Typical field sheet is shown below

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Minute Seconds into the Minute Vehicles Vehicles
into 00 15 30 45 Arriving Discha
collect rged
ion

Totals 25
 Steps of the Field Technique
• Observe max. queue length. Observers
must be able to count all stopped vehicles
in a queue
• Set the count interval: 10, 15 or 20
seconds
• Observe and record all stopped vehicles at
each interval within the study period
• Count discharge volume for the study
period or each 15 minutes
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 Example
• The table below is a sample observation
• Total stopped vehicle = 33 + 34 + 31 + 24
= 122
• On average each of the vehicles stopped
for the duration of the counting interval i.e.
15 secs.
• Aggregate delay = 122 x 15 = 1830
vehicle-seconds
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Minute Seconds into the Minute Vehicles Vehicles
into 0 Sec 15 sec 30 45 sec Arrivi Dischar
collecti se ng ged
on c

4.00 2 4 1 3
4.01 3 5 3 0
4.02 6 3 2 1
4.03 4 5 4 3
4.04 2 2 6 4
4.05 4 4 1 1
4.06 5 2 5 5
4.07 1 3 3 3
4.08 4 5 2 2
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4.09 2 1 4 2
• Since the total exiting volume was 100,
then the average delay per stopped
vehicle was 1830/100 or 18.3 sec/veh
• If residual queue is steadily growing,
discharge volume is not a good estimate
of stopped vehicle and entering vehicles
should be used instead to compute
average delay per veh.

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 4.4) Volume Studies
• Involves counting of vehicles, passengers
and pedestrians
• The measures produce estimates of :
• Volume / flow rate
• Demand (desire of people to travel
past a point during a specified period)
• Capacity – volume when a roadway is
operating at capacity -characteristic a
roadway section
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• Data collection technique:
1) Short term counts: hand counts using field
sheets or hand held counters is ok.
2) Official records of field data should include:
– Location name
– Specific movements
– Classification
– Weather / roadway conditions – note any unusual
condition

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 Field technique …
Official records of field data should include:
– Observer’s name and title
– Date and time of study
– Counting periods – linked to clock time
– Page numbers …x of y
– Sufficient space for clear data entry

See: Manual for Transportation engineering studies,

ITE 1994 or latter and www.Transport-Links.org

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 Field technique …
• Methods:
Short term counts:
– Manual – field sheets/electronic data loggers
– Hand-mechanical counters (have to write
summary)
Long term counts:
– Roadside counters – activated by pressure on
tubes across the road
– Wire loops – electromagnetic counter

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 Field technique …
• Current technology:
– Video images + software algorithms
– Electronic detectors placed on each lane
– Use of Radar
– Data loggers + software

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 Intersection Volume Count
• Usually counts by movement and vehicle
classification as well pedestrian volumes
are required
• For a four leg intersection there are 3 x 4 =
12 vehicle movements
• Passenger cars, HGV + Buses and cycles
must be countered separately
• Plus the Four pedestrian movements
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 Intersection Volume Count …
• This is more than 12 x 4 or 48 data pieces
• Required minimum of four observers per
session
• Depending on volume and signalization
less than four may be enough

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 Intersection Volume Count …
• Departure volumes must be recorded to
be sure of direction/movement
• Arrival volumes establish demand
• Note that usually there are dynamic
queues which creates observation
problems

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 Intersection Volume Count
• Presentation:-
– By movement on the sketch of the
intersection
– Tabular format
– Peak hour conditions or total volumes over a
given period may be presented graphically

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 Peak Flow rate and PHF,
E.g. Table 4 TEB (manual)
Count No. of Flow rate Peak Flow
Period Vehicles (vph) Rate
7:00 – 7:15 35 140 140

7:15 – 7:30 28 112

7:30 – 7:45 20 80

7:45 – 8:00 15 60

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 Def. and Application of PHF in
Design / operational Analysis
• Total Hourly volume = 35 + 28 + 20 + 15 =
98 veh/hour
• Peak (15 minutes) flow rate = 140 (design
for this value)
• PHF = Total Hourly volume/Peak 15 min.
volume X 4
• In our case: 98/140 = 0.7
• Peak Flow Rate = DHV = Hourly
Volume/PHF = 98/0.7 = 140
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Thank you

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