Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport

Department of Transport Planning

----------------o0o-----------------

An Introduction to Road Network Planning and

Planning Principles
by
Huy Huu Nguyen. PhD

Ho Chi Minh City, 10 Feb 2020

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 Introduction

The road network and blood system

Table 1.1 Blood system function in
comparison to blood flow

Taken from Hans-Joachim Vollpracht, PIARC Road Safety Seminar, 2006

Taken from Hans-Joachim Vollpracht, PIARC Road Safety Seminar, 2006

Figure 1. The comparison of the blood system and road network

An efficient and safe road network is organized

like our blood system (Brumec and Bricelj, 2010).

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 Introduction

Road network functions like the blood system of human body!

Roadways are the capillaries, veins, and arteries of life, carrying road users to their
intended destinations.

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 Introduction
Concept of Mobility and Accessibility

Principal arterials
Mobility
Minor arterials

Major collectors

Minor collectors
Access
Mobility
Local roads and streets

 Mobility = the ability to travel to many

different destinations
 Accessibility = the ability to gain entry
to a particular site or area
Accessibility
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 Introduction

 All roads serve a dual purpose:

(1) Travel mobility, to allow traffic to
travel between zones and
destinations, and
(2) Access to property, to allow traffic to
enter neighborhoods and access
businesses.

 In Figure 2.5, it is evident the higher

functional classes such as arterials
generally serve a predominant mobility
Figure 1.1 Relationship of
functionally classified highway
purpose, local roads predominately
systems in serving traffic mobility
and land access.
serve a land-access purpose, and
Source: Adapted from FHWA,
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/pub collectors tend to balance the two.
lications/flexibility/ch03.cfm

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 Planning principles

 Lines of travel desire are straight lines connecting trip

origins and destinations (circles).
 The widths of the lines indicate the relative amounts of
travel desire.
 The sizes of the circles indicate the relative trip-
generating and attracting power of the places shown.

 In this scheme, the functional hierarchy is also seen to

be related to the hierarchy of trip distances served by the
network.

Figure 1.2 Channelization of trips

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 Planning principles

Figure 1.3 Schematic illustration of a functionally

classified rural highway network
Figure 1.4 Schematic illustration of a portion of a
sub-urban and urban street network

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 Planning principles

Figure 1.5. Road categorization in US

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 Planning principles

High speed through road

(Interregional)

Medium speed through road

(Interregional)

Distributor road
(Regional)

Source: Matena S. (2005), RIPCORD-ISEREST

Figure 1.6 Road categorization in Germany Access road (Local)

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 Planning principles

 Arterial & Sub-Arterial roads: highways, motorways, and freeways;

 Collector and Distributor roads;
 Local roads.

Arterial Road

Distributor
Local Road

Collector

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 Planning principles

Table 1.2 Design Classes and Design Characteristics -> Rural roads

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 Road Hierarchy and Articulation of Road Network

Source: Matena S. (2005), RIPCORD-ISEREST

Source: Access Management Guidebook, 2001 Figure 1.6 Road categorization in Germany
Figure 1.5 Road categorization in US Provincial Road carry traffic
from small cities and access
to National Highways
Communal Road
Local streets with slow
speed, pedestrians

District Road
carry no traffic
external to living area
Source: Access Management Guidebook, 2001
National Highway Class-1
carry through traffic external
Figure 1.8 The highway system to living area National Highway Class-2
Carry traffic between
medium cities
One key weakness of the Vietnamese road network Source: JICA (2008), VITRANSS
is the poor articulation of road hierarchy. Figure 1.9 Concept of the application of road
hierarchy in Vietnamese context

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 Planning principles
Bảng 2.1 Kết nối giữa các loại đường/điều khiển giao thông ở Đức

Source: Weber, BAST (2006)

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 Planning principles

Intersection Planning (3)

 The angle of intersection should be as close as possible to 90 degrees. Angles other than
90 degrees cause the following safety problems:

 The area of conflict increases

 The visibility is limited

 Larger turning roadways are

required

 The exposure time through the

intersection increases
Source: SWOV, 2001
Figure 2.1 Areas of conflict at intersections with
different angles

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 Planning principles

Figure 2.2 Re-aligning multi-leg intersections

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 Planning principles

Figure 2.3 Conflict points at signalized intersection and modern

roundabout

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 Planning principles

Figure 2.5 Potential conflict points at T-junctions

 03 Crossing conflict points

Figure 2.4 Potential conflict points at roundabouts  03 Merging conflict points
 03 Diverging conflict points
 00 Crossing conflict points
 04 Merging conflict points
 04 Diverging conflict points

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 Planning principles

Figure 2.6 Potential conflict points at 4-leg intersections Figure 2.7 Potential conflict points at 5-leg intersections

 16 Crossing conflict points  50 Crossing conflict points

 08 Merging conflict points  20 Merging conflict points
 08 Diverging conflict points  20 Diverging conflict points

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 Planning principles

Intersection Planning (4)

Examples of realigning of skew intersections

Source: SWOV, 2001

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 Planning principles

Figure 2.8 Intersection types and major conflict points of each type

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 Planning principles

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 Planning principles

Highway functional classification system

Location

Function
Source:http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy

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 Planning principles

Roads/Streets and Patterns

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 Planning principles

Junctions (Intersections) Types

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 Planning principles

Street Network Types

Source: adapted from Marshall, W.E. and N.W. Garrick (2010) "Street Network Types and Road Safety", Urban Design International,
10.1057/udi.2009.31, April 21 2010.

https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch6en/conc6en/street_network_types.html

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 Planning principles

The cellular township in US The cellular township in

Singapore

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 Planning principles

Network Shapes
(1) Grid network structure
Table 2.2 Score of three network structure on three indicators

Grid network Limited access Organic network

Indicators
(1) network (2) (3)

Road safety - + ++
(2) Limited access network Accessibility ++ + -

Costs - ++ +
Source: SWOV, 2001

 The score ‘-‘ indicates that an aspect has scored badly:

(3) Organic network structure high costs, many accidents, poor accessibility

 The suitability of the three different network structures

can be judged by three indicators: Road safety,
accessibility, and costs.

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 Planning principles

Highway functional classification system

Location

Function
Source:http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy

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 Planning principles

Hierachy of movement Relationship of functionally

classified highway systems in
serving traffic mobility and land
access.

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 Planning principles
Definitions of Urban and Rural Areas

 Urban & rural areas have different characteristics with regard to density and types of land
use, density of street and highway networks, nature of travel patterns.
 Urban areas are those places within boundaries set by the responsible state and local
officials having a population of 5,000 or more.
 Urban areas are further subdivided into urbanized areas (population of 50,000 and over) &
small urban areas (population between 5,000 and 50,000).
 Rural areas are those areas outside the boundaries of urban areas.

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 Planning principles

Functional Systems for Rural Areas

 Rural roads consist of facilities outside of urban areas.

 The names provided for the recognizable systems are principal arterials (roads), minor
arterials (roads), major and minor collectors (roads), and local roads.

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 Planning principles
I. Rural principal arterial system

 The rural principal arterial system consists of a network of routes with the following service
characteristics:

1. Corridor movement with trip length and density suitable for substantial statewide or
interstate travel.
2. Movements between all or virtually all urban areas with populations over 50,000 and a
large majority of those with populations over 25,000.
3. Integrated movement without stub connections except where unusual geographic or traffic
flow conditions (e.g., international boundary connections or connections to coastal cities).

 The principal arterial system includes most (if not all) existing rural freeways.

 The principal arterial system is stratified into the following three classifications: (1) Interstate
highways, (2) other freeways and expressways, and (3) other principal arterials.

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 Planning principles

II. Rural minor arterial system

 The rural minor arterial road system, in conjunction (working) with the rural principal arterial
system, forms a network with the following service characteristics:

1. Linkage of cities, larger towns, and other traffic generators (such as major resort areas)
that are capable of attracting travel over similarly long distances.
2. Integrated interstate and intercounty service.
3. Internal spacing consistent with population density, so that all developed areas of the state
are within reasonable distances of arterial highways.
4. Corridor movements consistent with items (1) through (3) with trip lengths and travel
densities greater than those predominantly served by rural collector or local systems.

 Minor arterials therefore constitute routes that should provide for relatively high travel speeds
and minimum interference to through movement.

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 Planning principles
III. Rural collector system
 The rural collector routes generally serve travel of primarily intracounty rather than statewide
importance and constitute those routes on which predominant travel distances are shorter
than on arterial routes. Consequently, more moderate speeds may be typical.
 The rural collectors system is sub-classified according to the following criteria:

 Major collector roads—These routes (1) serve county seats not on arterial routes, larger
towns not directly served by the higher systems, and other traffic generators of equivalent
intracounty importance, such as consolidated schools, shipping points, county parks, and
important mining and agricultural areas; (2) link these places with nearby larger towns or
cities, or with routes of higher classifications; and (3) serve the more important intracounty
travel corridors.
 Minor collector roads—These routes should (1) be spaced at intervals consistent with
population density to accumulate traffic from local roads and bring all developed areas
within reasonable distances of collector roads; (2) provide service to the remaining smaller
communities; and (3) link the locally important traffic generators with their rural hinterland.

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 Planning principles
IV. Rural local road system

 The rural local road system, in comparison to collectors and arterial systems, primarily
provides access to land adjacent to the collector network and serves travel over relatively
short distances.
 The local road system constitutes all rural roads not classified as principal arterials, minor
arterials, or collector roads.

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 Planning principles
Extent of Rural Systems
Table 2.3 Guidelines on extent of rural functional systems

Source:AASHTO Green Book 6th Edition (2011)

Table 2.4 Road density and distance to roads

Source: http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod

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 Planning principles

Functional Highway Systems in Urbanized Areas

The four functional highway systems for urbanized areas are (1) urban principal arterials (streets), (2)
minor arterials (streets), (3) collectors (streets), and (4) local streets.

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 Planning principles
I. Urban principal arterial system
 The urban principal arterial system serves the major centers of activity of urbanized areas,
the highest traffic volume corridors, and the longest trip desires.
 Because of the nature of the travel served by the principal arterial system, almost all fully and
partially controlled access facilities are usually part of this functional class.
 To preserve the identification of controlled-access facilities, the principal arterial system
should be stratified as follows: (1) interstate, (2) other freeways, and (3) other principal
arterials (with partial or no control of access).
 The spacing between principal arterials (in larger urban areas) may vary from less than 1.6
km [1 mi] in the highly developed central business areas to 8 km [5 mi] or more in the
sparsely developed urban fringes.
 For facilities within the subclass of other principal arterials in urban areas, mobility is often
balanced against the need to provide direct access as well as the need to accommodate
pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.

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 Planning principles

II. Urban minor arterial street system

 The urban minor arterial street system accommodates trips of moderate length at a
somewhat lower level of travel mobility than principal arterials do.
 The urban minor arterial street system includes all arterials not classified as principal.
 Such a facility may carry local bus routes and provide intracommunity continuity but ideally
does not penetrate (go through) identifiable neighborhoods.
 The system includes urban connections to rural collector roads where such connections have
not been classified as urban principal arterials for internal reasons.
 The spacing of urban minor arterial streets may vary from 0.2 to 1.0 km [0.1 to 0.5 mi] in the
central business district to 3 to 5 km [2 to 3 mi] in the suburban fringes but is normally not
more than 2 km [1 mi] in fully developed areas.

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 Planning principles
III. Urban collector street system

 The urban collector street system provides both land access service and traffic circulation
within residential neighborhoods and commercial and industrial areas.
 It differs from the urban arterial system in that facilities on the collector system may penetrate
residential neighborhoods, distributing trips from the arterials through the area to their
ultimate destinations.
 Conversely, the urban collector street also collects traffic from local streets in residential
neighborhoods and channels it into the arterial system.
 In the central business district, and in other areas of similar development and traffic density,
the urban collector system may include the entire street grid.
 The urban collector street system may also carry local bus routes.

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 Planning principles
IV. Urban local street system
 The urban local street system comprises all facilities not in one of the higher systems.
 It primarily permits direct access to abutting lands and connections to the higher order
systems.
 It offers the lowest level of mobility and usually contains no bus routes.
 Service to through-traffic movement usually is deliberately discouraged!

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 Planning principles
Length of roadway and travel on urban systems

Table 2.5 Guidelines on extent of urban functional systems

Source:AASHTO Green Book 6th Edition (2011)

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 Planning principles
Functional classification as a design type

 Under a functional classification system, design criteria and level of service (LOS) vary
according to the function of the highway facility. Volumes serve to further refine the design
criteria for each class.
 Arterials are expected to provide a high degree of mobility for the longer trip length.
Therefore, they should provide as high an operating speed and LOS as practical within the
context of the project area. Since access to abutting property is not their major function,
some degree of access control is desirable to enhance mobility.
 The collectors serve a dual function in accommodating the shorter trip and feeding the
arterials. They should provide some degree of mobility and also serve abutting property.
Thus, an intermediate design speed and LOS are appropriate.
 Local roads and streets have relatively short trip lengths, and, because property access is
their main function, there is little need for mobility or high operating speeds. This function
is reflected by use of a lower design speed and LOS.

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 Planning principles

TYPE OF AREA AND APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF SERVICE (LOS)

Source:Geometric Design of Roads Handbook (2015)

Intersections
(Junctions) 

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 FUNCTIONAL ROAD SYSTEMS IN GERMANY

High speed through road

(Interregional)

Medium speed through road

(Interregional)

Autobahn/Motorway/
Freeway

Distributor road
(Regional)

Access road (Local)

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In Germany one distinguish between following types of roads

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  Outside built-up (urban) areas:
- Motorways / Autobahnen
- Highways

 Intside built-up (urban) areas:

- Arterial roads (non built-up)
- Arterial roads/streets (built-up)
- Collector/habitation roads/streets
- Pedestrian use

 Roads of the road network are

categorized according to the
level of connection function:
- Continental
- Spaciuos
- Overreginal
- Regional
- Close area
- Small-sized area

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Outside built-up area – the application area of intersections & roundabouts is limited as follows:

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Intside built-up area – the application area of intersections & roundabouts is limited as follows:

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Planning &
Design
Standards

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Functional Road Systems in Germany

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The objectives of highway planning are:
(1) Planning a highway network for safe, efficient and fast movement of people and goods;
(2) Keeping the overall cost of construction and maintenance of the roads in the network to a
minimum;
(3) Planning for future development and anticipated traffic needs for a specific design period;
(4) Phasing road development programmes from considerations of utility and importance as
also of financial resources; and
(5) Evolving a financing system compatible with the cost and benefits.

To fulfill these objectives, the following principles have to be borne in mind:

i. The proposed road links should be a part of the planned road network for the state/nation;
ii. The importance of the road shall be based on the traffic demand, and hence its type should
fall under the standard classification;
iii. The maintenance needs of the roads should receive prompt attention by setting aside funds
for this purpose; and
iv. Statutory (mandatory) provisions for traffic regulation should be in place.

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Thank You
Nguyen Huu Huy. PhD
Department of Transport Planning

Contact:
Phone: +84 939.098.090
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: https://ut.edu.vn/
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