International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

Volume: 08 Issue: 09 | Sep 2021 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

“PCU Estimation on Two-lane Undivided National Highway”

Raghava.B1, Umapathi2, Dr.Rajendra Khatavkar3
1Post Graduation student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, J.N.N. College of Engg, Shivamogga
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, J.N.N.College of Engg, Shivamogga
3Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, J.N.N.College of Engg, Shivamogga, Karnataka, India

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Abstract - There are two types of traffic conditions complicated than the homogeneous traffic and it acts
homogeneous and heterogeneous traffic. Homogeneous traffic completely different compare to homogeneous traffic.
has similar categories of vehicles. In developing countries like
India has heterogeneous traffic, it has the different categories 1.1 Passenger Car Unit
of vehicles class like two wheelers, three wheelers, car, LCV, There are several classes of vehicles in heterogeneous traffic
bus, trucks, cycle etc., having the different speed, acceleration conditions like car, bike, auto, bus, truck etc., their impact on
ability, dimensions and weight will share the same lanes of the the traffic flow will also varies due to variation in size,
road. The PCU values of the different type of vehicles are shape, acceleration, capacity, speed. It is difficult to consider
varying with the composition of vehicles, time, situation, one category of vehicles as the standard vehicle for the
location and their interaction. Because of the heterogeneity in planning and designing point of view. Hence, a standard
nature of the traffic the PCU values are not only depends on vehicular type has been considered known as Passenger Car
the static nature of the vehicles like dimensions and weight, Unit (PCU). In other words Passenger Car Unit is the factors
also depends on the dynamic nature of the vehicles like speed which will convert a vehicle type into standardised car units.
of the vehicles, occupancy time of the vehicle, headway, lateral For example if the truck has the PCU values of 3 which
clearance and geometry of the roads. In this study the two means that a single truck is equivalent to the 3 standardised
lanes NH having mixed traffic condition is selected. For car units. The PCU values of a particular vehicle class may be
determination of the dynamic PCU values of various categories considered as the ratio of the capacity of a roadway when
of the vehicles the Chandra’s method and the IRC method are there are passenger cars only to the capacity of the same
used. roadway when there are vehicles of that class only. Factors
which affect the PCU are
Key Words: PCU, Chandra’s method, IRC method.
 Static parameters of the vehicles like width and length.
1. INTRODUCTION  Dynamic characteristics of the vehicles like speed,
power, acceleration and occupancy time.
Transportation plays a vital role in the development of the  Transvers and longitudinal gap/space between two
country. Also it plays an important role in socio-economic moving vehicles.
growth of the country. Transport is important because it  Traffic stream characteristics like different vehicle
enables trade between people which is essential for composition, mean speed.
development of civilization.  Road geometrics.
 Environmental and climatic condition.
India has the second largest road network in the world (3.3
million km). Current affair of the Indian highways total As mentioned in the factors of PCU value not only depends
length is 55,000 km in that which 66% of roads are two lane on the static parameters like vehicular dimensions but also
facilities with varying lane width but still India is facing depends on the dynamic characteristics of the vehicles like
enormous difficulties in providing better vehicular traffic speed of the vehicle, occupancy time of the vehicle. And also
flow and operations. The main source of transportation in depends on the longitudinal and transverse gap between two
India is by road. Rapid and continuous increase population is moving vehicles which depends on speed of the vehicles,
major problem for highway engineers. driver characteristics and vehicle class.

There are two types of traffic conditions homogeneous 1.2 Objective

traffic and heterogeneous traffic. Homogeneous traffic has Objective of the research is
similar categories of vehicles. In developing countries like • Determining PCU values of mixed traffic condition at
India has heterogeneous traffic, it has different categories of selected NH based on the dynamic characteristics of the
vehicles like two wheelers, three wheelers, car, LCV, bus, vehicles by using Chandra’s method and IRC method.
truck, cycles, tractor, animal drawn etc., with different speed,
accelerating ability, dimensions and weight, will share the
same lanes of road. Heterogeneous traffic is more

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW [7] “Capacity estimation of urban roads under mixed traffic
conditions” by Pratik U.Mankar, Dr.B.V.Khode.
[1] “Dynamic PCU & Estimation of Capacity of Urban Roads” The intension of this work is to analyze capacity for urban
by Satish Chandra, Kumar, P.K.Sikdar. roads in heterogeneous condition and it is relatively tough to
In this paper, the authors are found the PCU factors for Indian estimate traffic volume on the road. The problem of
roads because which consists heterogeneous traffic through measuring flow may addressed by using Dynamic PCU values.
concept of Dynamic passenger car unit (Dynamic PCU) which The Capacity of urban roads is find out by green shield model
is more appropriate. And also the speed-flow relationships and the results are compared with Microscopic simulation
and estimation of road capacities also discussed. model. The sudden increase in width of lane on the road is
[2.] “Capacity Estimation procedure for two lane roads under checked and result shows that with the increase in road
mixed traffic conditions” by Satish Chandra. width Capacity of road also increases.
Here the author has selected more than 40 sections on two [8] “Capacity estimation for two lane undivided carriageway
lane road in different parts of country for analysis. On those – A case study for national highway 63” by Hemanth
selected sections he studied the effect of different parameters M.Kamplimath.
like gradient, lane width, shoulder width, traffic composition, Roadway capacity estimation involves traffic volume counts
directional split, slow moving vehicles and pavement surface and analysis, origin and destination studies, analysis of socio-
conditions on capacity is evaluated and a suggested a economic variables, estimation of traffic growth rate, traffic
systematic procedure for evaluation of heterogeneous traffic forecasts and finally capacity estimation. In this present
under Two-lane road. paper, the complete process of Capacity Estimation for
[3] “Impact of lane width of road on PCU & Capacity under National Highway-63 has been expressed through a case
mix traffic condition in cities on congested highways” by study. The results obtained from capacity estimation suggests
A.R.Khanorkar, S.D.Ghodmare, Dr.B.V.Khode. the year at which the road may reach its maximum capacity.
This study is done to determine the pcu value under mixed This result of capacity estimation can be used to prioritize the
traffic condition on congested highways. This study is done in up gradation of the highway under study.
Nagpur highway where 5 locations selected and data is [9] “Effect of mixed traffic on capacity of two lane roads: A
collected through digital video recorder. The main aim of the case study on Indian Highways” by Nabanita Roy, Rupali Roy,
study is do find out the PCU value for different class of vehicle Hitesh Talukdar, Pritam Saha.
there by increasing the width of shoulder so that the area will This paper focuses on effects of mixed traffic on capacity of
increase which is useful in linearly movement of vehicles. He two-lane roads. On the basis of field data collected on Indian
also suggested that the capacity of highway will increase in highways, the present paper makes it clear that capacity
increasing in shoulder area. reduces if the proportion of slower vehicles increases in the
[4] “Highway capacity research on inter-urban highways in traffic stream. Since such vehicles are responsible for the
India” by Satish Chandra. formation of platoons, their increasing proportion in traffic
This paper represents the overview for the researches that would accordingly increase the equivalency factor of vehicles,
took place from last four decades. The capacities of Indian thereby, resulting in variation in capacity. The present study
highways like one lane, intermediate lane, two lanes, therefore explicates the need of introducing the concept of
multilane and inter urban highways, expressways and dynamic passenger car unit and anticipates that this would
freeways are studied. It helps the designer for developing the alleviate the current implication on capacity standards of
capacity manual for Indian conditions, since due to the such roads under mixed traffic
heterogeneous traffic conditions because of there is no lane
disciple is maintained in Indian highways. 3. METHODOLOGY
[5] “Estimation of PCU for heterogeneous traffic in
Visakhapatnam” by Dadi. Vasavi Shwetha. The present work is going to have a three phases. The first
This paper mainly deals with study of PCU variation in static phase involves determining the study area next road
and dynamic characteristics for different traffic stream. In inventory, vehicle count and speed studies. Later in second
this paper we study three different methods for PCU phase we have calculation part and that involves in which
heterogeneous traffic those are Modified density method, PCU is determined by using Chandra’s method and Modified
Homogenization coefficient method and Time head way density method. Later in the final phase it includes a
method. comparison between these above mentioned methods under
[6] “Comparative study of methods used for a capacity the section of results.
estimation of road” by Pratik U.Mankar, Dr.B.V.khode.
This paper discuss and review the Capacity estimation of 3.1. Data Collection
roads under heterogeneous traffic condition by various The data collection is the important step which is very
authors and the factors influencing the capacity of roads and necessary to carry out the project. The traffic data is
parameters affect the capacity of roads is reviewed and collected for a period of 12hours from morning 7.00am to
studied. This Paper can be used for analyzing different evening 7.00pm for three days on a selected stretch of
methods used for Capacity analysis of roads to improve the national highway, also the speed of vehicles are noted.
roadway and traffic condition.

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3.6 Speed Studies

Speed is one of the most important characteristics of traffic
and its measurement is a frequent necessity in traffic
engineering studies. Speed is the rate of movement of traffic
or of specified components of traffic and is expressed in
metric units in kilometer hour (kph).

3.7 Types of Speed

1. Spot Speed
Spot speed is the instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a
specified location.
It is given by
Spot Speed = Distance covered / Time taken

2. Running Speed
Fig 1. Google Earth image of location It is the average speed maintained by vehicle over a given
course while the vehicle is in motion. It is significant to note
the clause ‘while the vehicle is in motion’ i.e., by the running
time which excludes that part of the journey time when the
vehicle suffers delay. Thus,
Running speed = (Length of course) / (Running time)
= (Length of course) / (Journey time - Delay)

3. Journey Speed
It is also known as overall travel speed, is the effective speed
of vehicle between two points and is the distance between
two points and divided by the total time taken by vehicle to
Fig 2. Vehicle movements in Location
complete the journey, including all delays incurred en route.
It is given by
3.2 Study Area
Journey speed = Distance / Total journey time
The study is carried at a village called M.C Halli in between
Bhadravathi and Tarikere on National Highway-206 which
3.8 Methods of Measuring Spot Speeds
connects Tumkuru to Shivamogga.
The methods which are used for measuring the spot speed
Lane width – 7.20m
are
Pavement material – Bituminous
1. Stopwatch Method that requires observations of the time
Shoulder width – 2.00m
taken by a vehicle to cover a known distance.
2. Radar meter method, which automatically records the
3.3 Traffic Survey
instantaneous speed.
The traffic survey is most important in designing the road
3. Photographic method.
characteristics. One of the most important characteristics of
4. Moving observer method.
a stream of traffic is its ‘flow’ i.e., the number of vehicles
which pass a fixed point in unit time. This is commonly
Table 1. Average spot speed from Bhadravathi to Tarikere
referred as ‘volume’. Its direct measurement by counting
direction
vehicles is there fundamental to any systematic approach.

3.4 Types of Traffic Surveys Speed

Vehicle Type
Some techniques that are used to count traffic are m/s Km/h
1. Manual surveys Bike 19.70 70.91
2. Automatic traffic counts (ATCs) Car/Jeep 18.07 65.04
3. Video surveys
Bus 16.64 59.92
3.5 Classified Traffic Volume Count Survey Truck 15.21 54.76
For the present study manual count method has been MAV 13.54 48.76
adopted and the side traffic counts are taken for selected Tractor 11.47 41.30
stretch. 12 hour traffic data collected for 3 different days a Goods Auto 10.64 38.32
week.

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Table 2. Average spot speed from Tarikere to Bhadravathi Table 3. Rectangular area of Vehicles
direction
Lengt Width Area
Speed Category Vehicle
h(m) (m) (m2)
Vehicle Type
m/s Km/h Standard Passenger car,
3.72 1.44 5.36
Bike 20.01 72.04 car taxi
Car/Jeep 18.40 66.24 Two Scooter, motor
1.87 0.64 1.20
Bus 17.44 62.78 wheeler cycle
Truck 15.65 56.34 Three
Auto rickshaw 3.20 1.40 4.48
MAV 13.90 50.04 wheeler
Tractor 11.79 42.44 Mini bus, van,
LCV 6.10 2.10 12.81
Goods Auto 10.90 39.24 mini truck
Bus Bus 10.10 2.43 24.54
4. ANALYSIS Truck 2 & 3 axle 7.50 2.35 17.63
HCV Multi axle vehicle 15.24 2.44 37.19
4.1 Determination of PCU Tractor Tractor with
Traffic in many parts of the world is heterogeneous, where 7.40 2.20 16.28
trailer trolley
road space is shared among many traffic modes with
Cycle Bicycle 1.90 0.45 0.86
different physical dimensions. Loose lane discipline prevails,
car following is not the norm this complicates computing of
PCU. Some of the methods for determining passenger car Table 4. Dynamic pcu values for Bhadravathi to Tarikere
units (PCU) are follows. direction
 Modified Density Method
Vehicle type PCU values
 Chandra’s Method
 Method Based on Relative Delay Bike 0.21
 Headway Method Car / jeep 1.00
 Multiple Linear Regression Method Bus 4.83
 Simulation Method Truck 3.87
MAV 9.19
4.2 CHANDRA’S METHOD Tractor 4.74
The PCU of a particular vehicle category can be expressed as Goods auto 1.41
the amount of interaction of that vehicle type to the traffic
stream with respect to passenger car. This interaction gets
Table 5. Dynamic pcu values for Tarikere to Bhadravathi
changed with both traffic volume & proportion composition
direction
of traffic stream. It will vary with the length & weight to
horsepower ratio of the vehicle. There interactions are
Vehicle type PCU values
reflected in speed of a vehicle type therefore speed is
considered as one of the basic parameter for estimation of Bike 0.20
PCU factors. Car / jeep 1.00
In the present study the PCU of a particular vehicle category Bus 4.97
‘i’ is estimated by using equation, Truck 3.91
MAV 9.26
PCUi = (Vc/Vi ) / (Ac/Ai )
Tractor 4.79
Where,
Goods auto 1.42
Vc = Speed of passenger car (m/s)
Vi = Speed of vehicle type i (m/s)
Ac = Projected rectangular area of car (m2) Table 6. Calculated ADT values from Chandra’s method
Ai = Projected rectangular area of vehicle type i on the road
(m2) Direction ADT
Bhadravathi to
6651pcu/12hrs
Tarikere
Tarikere to
6698pcu/12hrs
Bhadravathi

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4.3 PCU CALCULATION BY USING IRC STANDARDS Table 10. ADT values comparison
When the traffic is composed of a number of
vehicles, the flow will be converts into passenger car unit ADT
(PCUs) by using specified equivalency factors (IRC 86) for Direction Chandra’s
each type of vehicles. The flow is then expressed as PCU for IRC method
method
urban area as per IRC 86:1983 geometric design standards Bhadravathi to
for urban roads in plain. 554 pcu/hr 459 pcu/hr
Tarikere
Tarikere to
Table 7. PCU factors from IRC 86:1983 558 pcu/hr 457 pcu/hr
Bhadravathi

PCU  From the above tables, we can clearly observe that there is
Sl difference in dynamic pcu factors as well as ADT values that
VEHICLE TYPE EQUIVALENCY
No. are obtained from Chandra’s method when comparing with
FACTOR
IRC method.
1. Motorcycle, Scooter and Cycle 0.5
Passenger Car, Tempo, Auto 6. CONCLUSIONS
2. Rickshaw, Jeep, Van or 1.0
Agricultural Tractor From the above study we drawn to these conclusion
3. Cycle Rickshaw 1.5 1. PCU values are dynamic in nature and depend on traffic
volume and traffic composition on the road. It was observed
Truck, Bus or Agricultural that significant variation is created in PCU value of a vehicle
4. 3.0
Tractor Trailer under low and high volume levels as well as different
5. Horse drawn vehicle 4.0 proportion of the same or other vehicle categories in the
6. Hand Cart 6.0 traffic stream.
7. Bullock Cart 8.0 2. In Chandra’s method the PCU values of the vehicles are
inversely proportional to the speed of the vehicle.
5. In IRC 86-1983 the PCU values are given by considering all
These are the equivalent PCU factors based on composition
the relevant factors and the values are same for all the
as given in Table 3 of “IRC 86:1983 Geometric design
condition.
standards for urban roads in plains” is been used to convert
3. Since the PCU values in Chandra’s method will change
vehicle counts to PCUs.
depending on speed so the considering of IRC values will be
better for the design aspect.
Table 8. Calculated ADT values from IRC method
7. REFERENCES
Direction ADT
Bhadravathi to [1.] Chandra, S., and Kumar, U. 2003. “Effect of lane width on
5509pcu/12hrs
Tarikere Capacity under Mixed Traffic Condition in India.” DOI:
Tarikere to 10.1061/~ASCE 0733-947X~2003 129: 2-155.
5489pcu/12hrs
Bhadravathi
[2.] Khanorkar, A. R., Ghodmare, S. D., and VKhode, B. 2014.
“Impact of Lane Width of Road on Passenger Car Unit
5. RESULT Capacity under Mix Traffic Condition in Cities on
Comparative Study of Methods Used for a Capacity
Table 9. Dynamic PCU Values comparison Estimation on Two Lane Undivided National Highways
37 Congested Highways.” IJERA 4 (5): 180-4.
Vehicle Type PCU Value
[3.] Kamplimath, H. M. 2016. “Capacity Estimation for a Two
Chandra's Method IRC Method Lane Undivided Carriageway—A Case Study for National
Bike 0.20-0.21 0.5 Highway -63.” May 15, 2016, ISBN: 978-81-932074-8-2
Car/Jeep 1 1.0 (ICSTM-16), IIC New Delhi.
[4.] Mathew, T. V. 2014. (IIT Bombay -2014) “Estimation of
Bus 4.83-4.97 3.0
Point.” Transportation Systems Engineering.
Truck 3.87-3.91 3.0
[5.] Fitzpatrick, K., Schneider IV, W. H., and Park, E. S. 2018.
MAV 9.19-9.26 4.5
“Summary of Comparison of Crashes on Rural Two-Lane
Tractor 4.74-4.79 4.5 and Four-Lane Highways.”
Goods Auto 1.41-1.42 1.0

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