PERFORMANCE

INDICATOR
OF
TRAFFIC FLOW
PREPARED BY:
KERR C. SUMALPONG
5 – BSCE – A
 PERFORMANCE INDICATOR OF
TRAFFIC FLOW
Popular performance indicators used by traffic
engineers when assessing the quality of traffic operations.
Topics to being discussed:
A. Peak Hour Factor
B. Reliability of Travel Times
C. Level of Service (LOS)
D. Measure of Efficiency of the Road
A. Peak hour factor
It is a factor during high flow periods in the peak hour, a possible
indicator for traffic flow fluctuations. It is calculated for one day as the
average flow during the hour with the maximum flow, divided by the
peak flow rate during one quarter hour within this hour.
Example Problem
Quarter Time Interval No. of vehicles per
quarter hour
7:00-7:15 3500
7:16-7:30 6600
7:31-7:45 6200 0.78
7:46-8:00 4500
Total 20800
Average 5200
Note:
That some manuals express the peak 15 minute
flow rate as the number of vehicles during that quarter
hour, necessitating an extra multiplication by 4 in the
denominator of equation to convert the flow rate to an
hourly rate.
B. Travel times and their reliability
To know how long a specific journey will take.

- Travel time definitions

- Queuing delays
- Travel time estimation using cumulative plots
- Reliability and robustness properties
Travel time can be calculated in a formula:

Where:
K = road section length
vs(t0) = space mean speed
Queuing delays
 Traffic congestion nearly always leads to the build up of
queues, introducing an increase (i.e., the delay) in the experienced travel
time. The congestion itself can have originated due to traffic demand
exceeding the capacity, or because an incident occurred (e.g., road
works, a traffic accident).
3.) Estimation using Cumulative plots
a. using vehicle probe (actual)
b. using historical data
Example of a result table
Reliability and Robustness properties
There is an increased interest in the reliability of complete transportation
networks, and their robustness against incidents.
B. Level of Service (LOS)
Measures based on road characteristics such as speed, travel time and
driver’s perception of comfort and convenience. It is represented as a grading
system using one of six letters (A – F). Levels A through D are representative for
free-flow conditions whereby LOS A corresponds to free flow, LOS B to
reasonable free flow, LOS C to stable traffic operations, and LOS D to bordering
unstable traffic operations. LOS E is reminiscent of near-capacity flow conditions
that are extremely unstable, whereas LOS F corresponds to congested flow
conditions (caused by either structural or incidental congestion) .
 Different levels of service in Table I (based on [97], in similar form
originally published in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) of 1985 as
the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) special report #209
D. Efficiency
The ability of a motorway to overcome the operation during the
periods of high demands.

VDT = total vehicle distance travelled

VHT = total vehicle hours travelled
= 60 miles per hour/97 kilometre per hour
Where:
q = the flow
K = length of the
road section
= the space-
mean speed
 So, the final formula is,

The efficiency is expressed as a percentage, and it can rise above 100% when the
recorded average speeds surpass the sustained speed vsust. In general, the discussed
efficiency can also easily be calculated for a complete road network and an arbitrary
time period. It can furthermore be seen as the ratio of the actual productivity of a road
section (the output produced by this section during one hour), to its maximum possible
production (the input to the section) under high flow conditions.
TRAFFIC FLOW REGIMES
1.Free flow traffic
2.Capacity-flow traffic
3.Congested
1. Free flow traffic
Under light traffic conditions, vehicles are able to
freely travel at their speed.
2. Capacity-flow traffic
The actual traffic density reaches the design capacity
of the road.
3. Congested
The actual traffic density exceeds the design capacity
of the road. Also will if sometimes it will lead to like stop-
and-go traffic then may end to jammed traffic