FUNDAMENTALS OF

TRAFFIC FLOW 1
CHAPTER 3
KA34802
 Introduction

Traffic flow is the study of interactions between travellers, vehicles and infrastructure with the
aim of understanding and developing an optimal transport network with efficient movement
of traffic towards sustainable transportation system.

Basically, road traffic systems consists of:

1. Travellers/Road Users (Pedestrian, Drivers, Passengers)

2. Vehicles (Transportation modes)
3. Road infrastructures (Signage,

It is important to study each of these elements for the planning, design and analysis of the of
an efficient, safe road traffic system.
Road Users

Consist of drivers, passengers, motorcyclist, cyclist, pillions and pedestrians.

Characteristics and behaviour of a driver are influenced by three factors:

● Physical [perception-reaction time (influenced by age, fatigue etc.)

& vision (glare and recovery)]
● Environment [weather and lighting (dark, glare), traffic volumes,
road geometry (curve, gradient, lane width etc.)]
● Psychology [motive of the journey (business, leisure),
emotion (impatience, attentiveness)]

Driver behavior is something that cannot be predicted with one-hundred percent certainty.
Fortunately, drivers tend to behave within a reasonably consistent range and, thus, traffic
streams tend to have some reasonable consistency and can be roughly represented
mathematically (wikibook).
Vehicles

Characteristics of vehicles on roads vary in terms of shape, dimension, performance, etc.

(turning radius, acceleration, braking, height)

However, road must be designed to cater

almost all kinds of vehicles.
Road Network

Varies in terms of standards and geometry- Urban and Rural (i.e expressway, highway,
primary, arterial and collectors)

Categorised into 5 for administrative purposes:

1. Toll highway
2. Federal highway
3. Stated road
4. Municipal/local council road
5. Private/small road

Road network also can be categorized into two facilities:

● Uninterrupted flow
● Interrupted flow
Uninterrupted Flow Facilities

● No external interruptions/no obstructions to

the movement along the road
● Primarily on freeways
● In peak hours also freeways are uninterrupted

Interrupted Flow Facilities

● External interruptions exists/condition when the traffic flow

on the road is obstructed
● Most frequent are signals, stop/yield signs
● The vehicle will have to stop or sometimes to reduce its speed.
Some other facilities are facilities for pedestrians, bicycles, bus-transit, rail transit etc. Example
for pedestrian facility is a provision of subway exclusively for the use of pedestrians.
 Traffic Stream Parameters
Traffic stream can be divided into two categories:

Macroscopic

● Traffic flow/Volume
● Speed
● Density

Microscopic

● Speed of individual vehicles

● Headway
● Spacing
Traffic flow

Traffic flow / volume is defined as the number of vehicles passing a point

on highway or a given lane or direction of a highway in a specific time

● Unit: vehicles per unit time

● Usually expressed as vehicles / hour
● Denoted as veh/hr

q = n/t , where:

q = traffic flow/volume
n = number of vehicles passing the point
t = time (duration of time interval)

Flow is often measured over the course of an hour, in which case the resulting value is
typically referred to as volume. Thus, when the term “volume” is used, it is understood
that the corresponding value is (veh/hr)
Data Collection Method

1. Manual - simple, accurate, comprehensive

Tally counter, form, stationary, tiring, manpower,

Classification

2. Automatic - pneumatic tube, radar, infrared,

video, inductive loop, magnetic, radio frequency,
microwave, acoustic, GPS.

Connect to data logger, computer, classify based

on length

3. For road with many access point/junction-

Moving observed method, plate matching
(able to study speed, delay)
● Vehicular traffic consists of various
types of vehicle - i.e various sizes,
performance and characteristics.

● All vehicles are converted into their

Equivalent Passenger Car unit (PCU)
for consistency in interpreting
road traffic performance,
congestion, road geometry and
traffic signal analysis and design

● Traffic is expressed in passenger

cars per lane per hour (pc/ln/hr)
● Example application of PCU values:
● Traffic volumes on Jalan UMS during morning peak hour is 500 veh/h and during the
evening peak hour is also 500 veh/h
● Can you comment on the traffic flow conditions for both situations? (for instance, which
peak hour traffic would you think is the busiest or congested condition compare to the
other)?
It would be difficult for us to say which peak hour representing the
congested situation as both traffic volumes are equal in terms of veh/h
Now,

If information of traffic compositions for both peak-hours are available as follows:

For AM Peak: 50% cars, 20% medium lorries, 10% buses and 20% m/cycles.
For PM Peak: 30% cars, 25% medium lorries, 15% heavy lorries, 15% buses, 15% m/cycles.

Can you describe the differences between the two peak hour traffic in term of traffic flow
conditions?

Let us express the peak hour traffic in term of pcu

AM Peak: (0.5*1 + 0.2*2.5 + 0.1*3.0 + 0.2*1)*500 = 1.5*500 = 750 pcu/h

PM Peak: (0.3*1 + 0.25*2.5 + 0.15*3.0 + 0.15*3.0 + 0.15*1)*500 = 1.97*500 = 988 pcu/h

This shows that the evening peak hour traffic is busiest compare to the morning.
Average Daily Traffic (ADT) Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)

The average 24 hour volume at a given location The average 24 hour weekday volume at a given
over a defined time period less than a year. location over a defined period less than one year.

Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)

The average 24 hour volume at a given location The average 24 hour volume at a given location
over a full 365 day year. Avg. 24-hour volume at a occurring on weekdays over a full 365 day year.
site over a full year Usually 260 days week days per year

Hourly Volume

● Measured in volume/hour
● Used for design and operational purposes
● The hour with highest volume is referred as “Peak hour”
● Peak hour volume is stated as directional
volume
Traffic flow is usually collected to obtain factual data concerning the movement of vehicles at
selected points on the street, for instance:

Average Annual Traffic

● To compute crash rates

● To indicate trends in volume

Average Daily Traffic

● To measure present demand

● To programme capital
Improvements

Hourly Traffic

● To determine peak periods

● To establish controls
● To determine geometric design parameters
Peak Hour Factor

● 15 minutes is considered to be minimum period of time over which traffic can be

considered statistically stable
● Peak hour factor (PHF) represents the uniformity of flow in the peak hour.

PHF = V

4 *Vm15
where :
V = hourly volume,vehs
Vm15 = max 15 min volume within
the hour,vehs

Based on Table 5.3,

PHF = 4200/(4*1200) = 0.875

● Peak hour factor lie between 0.25-1

● 0.25 when all traffic is concentrated in one 15 minute period
● 1.0 when traffic on all 15 minute period are same
● Under very congested conditions PHF~1
● Practical studies show that – PHF~0.7 for rural roadways – PHF~0.98 in dense urban roadways
SPEED

Speed is defined as the distance travelled per unit time.

Speed is usually used to describe the quality of journey and the performance of road network
in accommodating traffic demand.

Speed depends on:

● Driver characteristics
● Vehicle
● Traffic composition
● Area type
● Environment, weather
Speed

Speed and travel time are inversely related

S = d/t

Where
● S=speed in km/hr;
● d=distance traversed in km
● t=time to traverse distance d in hr

Type of speed:

● Spot speed
● Journey speed
● Running speed
● TMS (time mean speed)
● SMS (space mean speed)
Spot Speed

The instantaneous speed of a vehicle passing a point on the roadway. Data represent the
speed characteristics of vehicles passing the site.Spot speed studies are conducted to
estimate the distribution of speeds of vehicles in a stream of traffic at a particular location on
a highway. The speed of a vehicle is defined as the rate of movement of the vehicle; it is
usually expressed in miles per hour (mi/h) or kilometers per hour (km/h).

Typical use:

● To establish speed trends

● Traffic control planning- speed limits, safe speed
● Accident analysis
● Geometry design

Sample Size

The calculated mean (or average) speed is used to represent the true mean value of all vehicle
speeds at that location. The accuracy of this assumption depends on the number of vehicles
in the sample. The larger the sample size, the greater the probability that the estimated mean
is not significantly different from the true mean.
Spot Speed Study Values
Average Speed

where:
ui = speed of the ith vehicle
N = number of observed values

Median Speed

Media speed is the speed at the middle value in a series of spot speeds that are arranged in ascending order.
50 percent of the speed values will be greater than the median; 50 percent will be less than the median.

Standard Deviation of Speeds

SD is a measure of the spread of the individual speeds. It is estimated as

where
S = standard deviation arithmetic mean
uj = jth observation
N = number of observations
Spot speed measurement

1. Enoscope
2. Pneumatic tubes
3. Video recording
4. Radar gun/camera

Key steps for spot speed study

● Select proper location and placement of radar meter

● Determine an appropriate selection strategy
● Record observation on radar meter spot speed study data form
● Generate frequency distribution table and determine speed percentiles
Journey speed

The distance divided by total journey time. Total journey time includes all delays due to traffic.

Journey speed = distance/total journey time

Running speed

The distance divided by running time, i.e. total journey time minus delays. (Running time is
the time that the vehicle is actually in motion.)

Running speed = distance/(total journey time-delays)

Both speeds are usually as a result of travel time and delay study - used to evaluate road
performance
Time mean speed

● Arithmetic mean of all instantaneous vehicle speeds at a given point on a roadway

section

Space mean speed (u)

● The mean travel speed of vehicles traversing a roadway segment of a known distance (d)
● More useful for traffic applications. It is a harmonic mean

Space mean speed is always less than time mean speed

TMS and SMS

Time Mean Speed (TMS)

Space Mean Speed (SMS)

Where
d = distance traversed, km
n = number of observed vehicles
ti = time for vehicle “i” to traverse the distance d
Density
Density is defined as the number of vehicles occupying a given length of highway or lane,
generally expressed as vehicles per mile or vehicles per mile per lane.

Difficult to measure directly and it is often computed from speed and flow rate.

Density is an important measure of the quality of traffic flow, as it is a measure of the

proximity (nearness in space, time, or relationship) of other vehicles, a factor which influences
freedom to maneuver and the psychological comfort of drivers.

Density formula: Also refer as:

D = 5280/da v= SxD
Where Where
D = density, veh/mi/ln v= rate of flow, veh/h or veh/h/ln
da = average spacing between S= space mean speed mi/h
vehicles in the lane,ft D= density, veh/mi/ln
Spacing

Spacing is defined as the distance (m or ft) between successive vehicles in a traffic lane,
measured from some common references point on the vehicles, such as the front bumper or
front wheels. The averages spacing in a traffic lane can be directly related to the density of the
lane:

D = 5280/da
Where
D = density, veh/mi/ln
da = average spacing between
vehicles in the lane,ft
Headway

Headway is defined as the time interval between successive vehicles as they pass a point
along the lane, also measured between common reference points on the vehicles. The
average headway in a lane is directly related to the rate of flow:

v = 3600/ha

Where
V = rate of flow, veh/h/ln
ha = average headway in the lane, s

Average speed

S = 0.68 (da/ha)

da=average spacing,ft
ha= average headway,s
Sample Problem

Traffic in a congested multilane Pan Borneo is observed to have an average spacing of 200ft,
and an average headway of 3.8s. Calculate the rate of flow, density and speed of traffic in this
lane.

Solution:

v = 3,600/ha = 3600/3.8 = 947 veh/h/ln

D = 5280/da = 5280/200 = 26.4 veh/mi/ln

S = 0.68(da/ha) = 0.68 (200/3.8) = 35.8 mi/hr