Transportation Systems Engineering

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow

Chapter 1 Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow

1.1 Overview 1
each other. Thus a ow of trac through a street of dened characteristics will vary both by location and time corresponding to the changes in the human behavior. The trac engineer, but for the purpose of planning and design, assumes that these changes are within certain ranges which can be predicted. For example, if the maximum permissible speed of a highway is 60 kmph, the whole trac stream can be assumed to move on an average speed of 40 kmph rather than 100 or 20 kmph. Thus the trac stream itself is having some parameters on which the characteristics can be predicted. The parameters can be mainly classied as : measurements of quantity, which includes density and ow of trac and measurements of quality which includes speed. The trac stream parameters can be macroscopic which characterizes the trac as a whole or microscopic which studies the behavior of individual vehicle in the stream with respect to each other. As far as the macroscopic characteristics are concerned, they can be grouped as measurement of quantity or quality as described above, i.e. ow, density, and speed. While the miFebruary 14, 2013

Trac engineering pertains to the analysis of the behavior of trac and to design the facilities for a smooth, safe and economical operation of trac. Trac ow, like the ow of water, has several parameters associated with it. The trac stream parameters provide information regarding the nature of trac ow, which helps the analyst in detecting any variation in ow characteristics. Understanding trac behavior requires a thorough knowledge of trac stream parameters and their mutual relationships. In this chapter the basic concepts of trac ow is presented.

1.2

Trac stream parameters

The trac stream includes a combination of driver and vehicle behavior. The driver or human behavior being non-uniform, trac stream is also non-uniform in nature. It is inuenced not only by the individual characteristics of both vehicle and human but also by the way a group of such units interacts with Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

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Transportation Systems Engineering croscopic characteristics include the measures of separation, i.e. the headway or separation between vehicles which can be either time or space headway. The fundamental stream characteristics are speed, ow, and density and are discussed below.

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow gestion are the modern elds of trac engineer, which uses spot speed data as the basic input. Spot speed can be measured using an enoscope, pressure contact tubes or direct timing procedure or radar speedometer or by time-lapse photographic methods. It can be determined by speeds extracted from video images by recording the distance travelling by all vehicles between a particular pair of frames.

1.3

Speed

Speed is considered as a quality measurement of travel as the drivers and passengers will be concerned more about the speed of the journey than the design aspects of the trac. It is dened as the rate of motion in distance per unit of time. Mathematically speed or velocity v is given by, d (1.1) v= t where, v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s, d is distance traveled in m in time t seconds. Speed of dierent vehicles will vary with respect to time and space. To represent these variation, several types of speed can be dened. Important among them are spot speed, running speed, journey speed, time mean speed and space mean speed. These are discussed below.

1.3.2

Running speed

Running speed is the average speed maintained over a particular course while the vehicle is moving and is found by dividing the length of the course by the time duration the vehicle was in motion. i.e. this speed doesnt consider the time during which the vehicle is brought to a stop, or has to wait till it has a clear road ahead. The running speed will always be more than or equal to the journey speed, as delays are not considered in calculating the running speed

1.3.3

Journey speed

1.3.1

Spot Speed

Spot speed is the instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a specied location. Spot speed can be used to design the geometry of road like horizontal and vertical curves, super elevation etc. Location and size of signs, design of signals, safe speed, and speed zone determination, require the spot speed data. Accident analysis, road maintenance, and conDr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

Journey speed is the eective speed of the vehicle on a journey between two points and is the distance between the two points divided by the total time taken for the vehicle to complete the journey including any stopped time. If the journey speed is less than running speed, it indicates that the journey follows a stopgo condition with enforced acceleration and deceleration. The spot speed here may vary from zero to some maximum in excess of the running speed. A uniformity between journey February 14, 2013

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Transportation Systems Engineering and running speeds denotes comfortable travel conditions.

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow cles/hour is given by nt (1.2) t Flow is expressed in planning and design eld taking a day as the measurement of time. q=

1.3.4

Time

mean

speed

and

space mean speed

Time mean speed is dened as the average speed of all the vehicles passing a point on a highway over some specied time period. Space mean speed is dened as the average speed of all the vehicles occupying a given section of a highway over some specied time period. Both mean speeds will always be different from each other except in the unlikely event that all vehicles are traveling at the same speed. Time mean speed is a point measurement while space mean speed is a measure relating to length of highway or lane, i.e. the mean speed of vehicles over a period of time at a point in space is time mean speed and the mean speed over a space at a given instant is the space mean speed.

1.4.1

Variations of Volume

1.4

Flow

There are practically two ways of counting the number of vehicles on a road. One is ow or volume, which is dened as the number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway or a given lane or direction of a highway during a specic time interval. The measurement is carried out by counting the number of vehicles, nt , passing a particular point in one lane in a dened period t. Then the ow q expressed in vehiDr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

The variation of volume with time, i.e. month to month, day to day, hour to hour and within a hour is also as important as volume calculation. Volume variations can also be observed from season to season. Volume will be above average in a pleasant motoring month of summer, but will be more pronounced in rural than in urban area. But this is the most consistent of all the variations and aects the trac stream characteristics the least. Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays will also face dierence in pattern. But comparing day with day, patterns for routes of a similar nature often show a marked similarity, which is useful in enabling predictions to be made. The most signicant variation is from hour to hour. The peak hour observed during mornings and evenings of weekdays, which is usually 8 to 10 per cent of total daily ow or 2 to 3 times the average hourly volume. These trips are mainly the work trips, which are relatively stable with time and more or less constant from day to day.

1.4.2

Types of volume measurements

Since there is considerable variation in the volume of trac, several types of measurements February 14, 2013

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Transportation Systems Engineering of volume are commonly adopted which will average these variations into a single volume count to be used in many design purposes. 1. Average Annual Daily Trafc(AADT) : The average 24-hour trac volume at a given location over a full 365-day year, i.e. the total number of vehicles passing the site in a year divided by 365. 2. Average Annual Weekday Trafc(AAWT) : The average 24-hour trac volume occurring on weekdays over a full year. It is computed by dividing the total weekday trac volume for the year by 260. 3. Average Daily Trac(ADT) : An average 24-hour trac volume at a given location for some period of time less than a year. It may be measured for six months, a season, a month, a week, or as little as two days. An ADT is a valid number only for the period over which it was measured. 4. Average Weekday Trac(AWT) : An average 24-hour trac volume occurring on weekdays for some period of time less than one year, such as for a month or a season. The relationship between AAWT and AWT is analogous to that between AADT and ADT. Volume in general is measured using dierent ways like manual counting, detector/sensor counting, moving-car observer method, etc. Mainly the volume study establishes the importance of a particular route with respect to Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow the other routes, the distribution of trac on road, and the uctuations in ow. All which eventually determines the design of a highway and the related facilities. Thus, volume is treated as the most important of all the parameters of trac stream.

1.5

Density

Density is dened as the number of vehicles occupying a given length of highway or lane and is generally expressed as vehicles per km. One can photograph a length of road x, count the number of vehicles, nx , in one lane of the road at that point of time and derive the density k as, nx k= (1.3) x This is illustrated in gure 1:1. From the gure, the density is the number of vehicles between the point A and B divided by the distance between A and B. Density is also equally important as ow but from a dierent angle as it is the measure most directly related to trac demand. Again it measures the proximity of vehicles in the stream which in turn aects the freedom to maneuver and comfortable driving.

1.6

Derived tics

characteris-

From the fundamental trac ow characteristics like ow, density, and speed, a few other parameters of trac ow can be derived. Signicant among them are the time headway, February 14, 2013

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Transportation Systems Engineering

B A

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow

1.6.2

Distance headway

Figure 1:1: Illustration of density distance headway and travel time. They are discussed one by one below.

Another related parameter is the distance headway. It is dened as the distance between corresponding points of two successive vehicles at any given time. It involves the measurement from a photograph, the distance from rear bumper of lead vehicle to rear bumper of following vehicle at a point of time. If all the space headways in distance x over which the density has been measured are added,
nx

si = x
1

(1.6)

1.6.1

Time headway

But the density (k ) is the number of vehicles nx at a distance of x, that is k= nx = x nx

nx 1

The microscopic character related to volume is the time headway or simply headway. Time headway is dened as the time dierence between any two successive vehicles when they cross a given point. Practically, it involves the measurement of time between the passage of one rear bumper and the next past a given point. If all headways h in time period, t, over which ow has been measured are added then,
nt

si

1 sav

(1.7)

Where, sav is average distance headway. The average distance headway is the inverse of density and is sometimes called as spacing.

1.6.3

Travel time

hi = t
1

(1.4)

But the ow is dened as the number of vehicles nt measured in time interval t, that is, q= nt = t nt
nt 1

Travel time is dened as the time taken to complete a journey. As the speed increases, travel time required to reach the destination also decreases and viceversa. Thus travel time is inversely proportional to the speed. However, in practice, the speed of a vehicle uctuates over time and the travel time represents an average measure.

hi

1 hav

(1.5)

where, hav is the average headway. Thus average headway is the inverse of ow. Time headway is often referred to as simply the headway. Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

1.7

Time-space diagram

Time space diagram is a convenient tool in understanding the movement of vehicles. It February 14, 2013

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Transportation Systems Engineering

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow increasing with respect to the origin as time progresses. The vehicle is moving at a smooth condition along the road way. In gure 1:2(b), the vehicle at rst moves with a smooth pace after reaching a position reverses its direction of movement. In gure 1:2(c), the vehicle in between becomes stationary and maintains the same position. From the gure, steeply increasing section of x(t) denote a rapidly advancing vehicle and horizontal portions of x(t) denote a stopped vehicle while shallow sections show a slowmoving vehicle. A straight line denotes constant speed motion and curving sections denote accelerated motion; and if the curve is concave downwards it denotes acceleration. But a curve which is convex upwards denotes deceleration.

distance

time (a) distance

distance time

(b)

time (c)

Figure 1:2: Time space diagram for a single vehicle shows the trajectory of vehicles in the form of a two dimensional plot. Time space diagram can be plotted for a single vehicle as well as multiple vehicles. They are discussed below.

1.7.1

Single vehicle

1.7.2

Multiple Vehicles

Taking one vehicle at a time, analysis can be carried out on the position of the vehicle with respect to time. This analysis will generate a graph which gives the relation of its position on a road stretch relative to time. This plot thus will be between distance x and time t and x will be a functions the position of the vehicle for every t along the road stretch. This graphical representation of x(t) in a (t, x) plane is a curve which is called as a trajectory. The trajectory provide an intuitive, clear, and complete summary of vehicular motion in one dimension. In gure 1:2(a), the the distance x goes on Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

Time-space diagram can also be used to determine the fundamental parameters of trac ow like speed, density and volume. It can also be used to nd the derived characteristics like space headway and time headway. Figure 1:3 shows the time-space diagram for a set of vehicles traveling at constant speed. Density, by denition is the number of vehicles per unit length. From the gure, an observer looking into the stream can count 4 vehicles passing the stretch of road between x1 and x2 at time t. Hence, the density is given as k= 4 vehicles x2 x1 (1.8)

1.6

February 14, 2013

Transportation Systems Engineering We can also nd volume from this time-space diagram. As per the denition, volume is the number of vehicles counted for a particular interval of time. From the gure 1:3 we can see that 6 vehicles are present between the time t1 and t2 . Therefore, the volume q is given as q= 3 vehicles t2 t1 (1.9)

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow

x2

spacing (s) distance headway(h)

x1

t1

t Time

t2

Again the averages taken at a specic location (i.e., time ranging over an interval) are called time means and those taken at an instant over a space interval are termed as space means. Another related denition which can be given based on the time-space diagram is the headway. Space headway is dened as the distance between corresponding points of two successive vehicles at any given time. Thus, the vertical gap between any two consecutive lines represents space headway. The reciprocal of density otherwise gives the space headway between vehicles at that time. Similarly, time headway is dened as the time dierence between any two successive vehicles when they cross a given point. Thus, the horizontal gap between the vehicles represented by the lines gives the time headway. The reciprocal of ow gives the average time headway between vehicles at that point.

Figure 1:3: Time space diagram for many vehicles Time-space diagram also can be used for determining these parameters. Speed and ow of the trac stream can be computed using moving observer method.

1.9

References

1. Highway Capacity Manual. Transportation Research Board. National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2000. 2. L. R Kadiyali. Trac Engineering and Transportation Planning. Khanna Publishers, New Delhi, 1987. 3. Adolf D. May. Fundamentals of Trac Flow. Prentice - Hall, Inc. Englewood Cli New Jersey 07632, second edition, 1990. 4. William R McShane, Roger P Roesss, and Elena S Prassas. Trac Engineering. Prentice-Hall, Inc, Upper Saddle River, New Jesery, 1998. February 14, 2013

1.8

Summary

Speed, ow and density are the basic parameters of trac ow. Dierent measures of speed are used in trac ow analysis like spot speed, time mean speed, space mean speed etc. Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay 1.7

Transportation Systems Engineering 5. C. S Papacostas. Fundamentals of Transportation Engineering. Prentice-Hall, New Delhi, 1987.

1. Fundamental Parameters of Trac Flow

Dr. Tom V. Mathew, IIT Bombay

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February 14, 2013