Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011 Vol II

WCE 2011, July 6 - 8, 2011, London, U.K.

Passenger Car Unit Value for Trucks using Fuzzy

Model
Praveen Aggarwal

Abstract—In developing countries including India, mixed values, to be used for different types of highway facilities;
traffic condition prevails on roads and highways. There is a i.e. two-lane highways, multilane highways, and freeways.
wide variation in the static and the dynamic characteristics of Since the introduction of PCE concept in 1965, many
different types of traffic. The only way of accounting for this researchers have tried to quantify the effect of heavy
non-uniformity for any traffic analysis in traffic stream is to vehicles on traffic flow by developing HCM like PCE
convert all vehicles into a common unit and the most accepted factors using different methodologies and equivalency
unit for this purpose is passenger car unit (PCU). PCU value
for a vehicle varies with traffic and roadway condition around.
criteria [4] – [11]. A few of these studies utilized field data
A number of factors have been identified affecting PCU values. but most of the studies used traffic simulation to derive the
The current study aims at developing a fuzzy based model for PCU values under a wide range of traffic and geometric
the estimation of PCU value for trucks. Fuzzy based model is of conditions. From the available literature it is observed that
importance because of a number of independent affecting PCU value for a vehicle vary with highway geometric and
factors. Results of developed fuzzy MATLAB based model are traffic characteristics around. A number of factors affecting
compared with the quoted results and are found with high PCU value include roadway width, type of shoulders,
degree of correlation. direction split, percentage of slow moving traffic and
Index Terms—Passenger Car Unit, fuzzy model surface condition etc. [12]. None of the literature is available
in which combined effects of all these affecting parameters
are considered. An accurate and easy estimation of PCU
I INTRODUCTION factors for different vehicles are useful in determination of
traffic volume/capacity and level of service (LOS), which

BETTER infrastructure is a backbone to the economic

growth of any country. India is a developing country,
with second largest road network in the world after
can make the decision of future expansion of highways and
roads (widening and improvement) more constructive.
Therefore these factors affecting PCU values should be
America. The total road length is over 3.4 million km. Even incorporated suitably for accurate estimation of traffic
with this high volume of road length we have crowded and volume.
congested roads in poor condition, certainly not justifying In this present study a fuzzy based model is developed
the vehicular requirements of Indian traffic. considering some of known affecting factors as input and
Traffic survey is carried out on roads, at the time of PCU value for truck as output. Results are compared with
design or at the time of up-gradation. Based on this traffic the quoted values and are found to be in consonant with
survey and highway capacity, level of service is assessed. each other.
To arrive at a common type of vehicle, concept of Passenger
Car Unit (PCU) sometimes also known, as “Passenger Car
II METHODS OF CALCULATING PCU VALUE
Equivalent” (PCE) was first introduced in HCM-1965 to
account for the effect of trucks and buses in the traffic Since the publication of HCM-1965, a number of studies
stream [1]. The PCU definition in the most recent version of have been taken up all over the world to determine PCU
the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) is ‘‘the number of values for different types of vehicles in varying roadway and
passenger cars that are displaced by a single heavy vehicle traffic conditions. Key methods on estimation of PCU
of a particular type under prevailing roadway, traffic, and values include Walker’s method, Headway method,
control conditions’’ [2]. Highway capacity, as defined by Multiple linear regression method, Simulation method,
the HCM [3], is the maximum flow rate achievable at a Density method (used by HCM 2000) and the method
specific location on a roadway under prevailing roadway, proposed by Chandra [10].
traffic, and control conditions. Traffic on Indian roads is of Out of various available methods, the one proposed by
heterogeneous nature with a wide variation in the static and Chandra [10] is most suitable for mixed traffic condition
the dynamic characteristics. One class of vehicles cannot be prevailing in India [13]. According to Chandra PCU value
considered equal to any other class. The only way of for different vehicles under mixed traffic situation is directly
accounting for this non-uniformity in traffic stream is to proportional to the speed ratio and inversely proportional to
convert all vehicles into a common unit and the most the space occupancy ratio with respect to the standard
accepted unit for this purpose is PCU. In mixed traffic design vehicle that is car [10].
condition traffic volume/capacity is calculated by adding
different vehicles after multiplying them by their respective PCUi = (Speed ratio of the car to the ith vehicle)/ (Space
PCU values. The HCM provides different sets of PCE ratio of the car to the ith vehicle)

Vc Ac
PCU i =
Author is in Civil Engineering Department of National Institute of Vi Ai
Technology, Kurukshetra, Haryana, INDIA; phone: 91 1744-233-358; fax: Where
91 1744 238-050; e-mail: praveen_agg@hotmail.com PCUi passenger car unit value of the ith vehicle

ISBN: 978-988-19251-4-5 WCE 2011

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011 Vol II
WCE 2011, July 6 - 8, 2011, London, U.K.

Vc/ Vi speed ratio of the car to the ith vehicle explained on the basis of speed differential. A better
Ac/ Ai space ratio of the car to the ith vehicle shoulder provides an additional usable width to a vehicle
The variable of speed ratio in the equation is a function whereas inferior shoulder may even restrict the use of the
of roadway and traffic conditions. Any change in these available carriageway of the road. Thus a better shoulder
conditions will affect the speed of vehicles, which is duly can effectively increase the width of the carriageway and,
reflected by the changes in the speed ratio. The speed of any therefore, results in higher PCU value for different vehicles
vehicle type will be true representation of overall interaction due to more speed differential between car and a truck/bus.
of vehicle type due to presence of other vehicles of its own The qualitative categorization of shoulders i.e. surfaced,
category and of other type. The second variable of space good, average and poor which are assigned 5, 10, 15 and 20
ratio represents pavement occupancy and indicates numerical values respectively in the present study.
maneuverability of a vehicle with respect to car is a constant
C. Effect of Surface Characteristics
for a particular class of vehicle.
The irregularity in the road surface is universally known as
surface unevenness, or road roughness. The road roughness
III FACTORS AFFECTING PCU VALUE affects the dynamics of a moving vehicle, increases the wear
Factors identified affecting PCU value includes pavement on the vehicle parts and, hence, has an appreciable impact
width, shoulder condition, percentage of direction split in on vehicle operating cost (VOC), safety, comfort, and speed
two way traffic, percentage of slow moving traffic, grade of travel. The pavement condition that substantially affects
and its length, surface characteristics etc [12]. A brief the operating speeds can have substantial economic
review of these studies is presented in this section. implications in terms of extra user time, discomfort, cost,
and low capacity. Karan et al. established the relationship
A. Effect of Pavement Width between speed and roughness for rural highways [22].
Leong in New South Wales [14], Farouki and Nixon in Watanatada et al. also studied the relation between road
suburban roads in Belfast [15] observed the effect of lane roughness and vehicle speeds [23]. Another study in Canada
width on speed and it was found that the mean-free speed of found that free-flow vehicle speeds are even influenced at a
cars increases linearly with the carriageway width over a slightly lower level of roughness of the order of 5 to 6 m/km
certain range of width from 5.2 to 11.3 m. Yagar and Aerde IRI. Kadiyali and Vishwanathan developed several
found that speed changes exponentially with the change in relationships on the economic evaluation of highway
lane width [16]. Nakamura has suggested speed adjustment projects for Indian conditions, which included the
factors for lane width less than 3.25 m as [17] relationship between vehicle speed and road roughness,
measured with a high-speed profilometer [24]. Chandra has
YL = 0.24WL + 0.22 identify the effect of road roughness on the free speed of a
Where vehicle and thereby capacity of a two-lane road [25]. He
YL speed adjustment factor for lane width WL. collected the roughness and free-flow speed (FFS) data for
Hossain and Iqbal studied the vehicular free speed various two-lane highways. These data were analyzed to
characteristics on two-lane national highways in Bangladesh establish the relationships between the roughness and the
[18]. It has been found that increase in speed with width is free speed of different vehicle types. It was observed that the
more in cars as compared to that of trucks/buses resulting in FFS was influenced by roughness but only at relatively high
higher PCU value for buses or trucks. speeds.
Sachdeva also studied the effect of pavement width on The studies have shown that the FFS of vehicle
PCU value for single lane, two lane and four lane roads [19]. decreases with the roughness of the road surface. The effect
In general he observed an increase in PCU value with of roughness is more apparent on the speed of passenger
increase in lane width of for all category of vehicles, for all cars than of heavy vehicles resulting in decrease in PCU
other identified influencing factors (shoulder condition, value with increase in unevenness index. The speed–volume
directional split and percentage of slow moving traffic) relationships drawn at different sections of two-lane rural
remaining constant. This may be attributed to more freedom roads indicate that the capacity decreases with an increase in
of movement experienced by the individual vehicle at wider the road roughness.
road.
D. Effect of Directional Split
B. Effect of Shoulder Condition Yager and Aerde have shown the operational
Turner found that the conversion of a shoulder to an characteristics of two-lane rural highways to be a function of
additional travel lane could be expected to increase the directional volume [16]. Speeds were generally insensitive
average speed of a two-lane highway by about 5% for to volume for a large practical range of volume, and
volumes exceeding 150 vehicles/hour [20]. Chandra and percentile speed tends to converge as main line directional
Kumar studied the effect of shoulder condition on the speed volume is increased.
of different types of vehicles [21]. They found that the HCM (1994) states that at an even split in each direction
average speed of a vehicle on a two-lane highway decreases the capacity of a two-lane road under ideal condition is 2800
by 5 to 8.5% depending upon the class of vehicle, when passenger car units per hour (PCU/h). It reduces to 2000
shoulder condition changed from bad to worse. Sachdeva PCU/h when all traffic is in one direction only. The capacity
performed a study to observe the effect of shoulder on PCU has now been revised to 3200 PCU/h in the 2000 edition of
values [19]. He classified the shoulders into four categories HCM. Chandra and Sinha concluded in a study conducted
namely surfaced, good, average and poor shoulder. From the on two-lane roads in India that capacity reduces as the split
study it is observed that PCU value of a vehicle on a road moves away from 50 / 50 [26]. The capacity of a two-lane
increases with increase in quality of shoulder. This may be road at even split in two directions is estimated as 2920

ISBN: 978-988-19251-4-5 WCE 2011

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011 Vol II
WCE 2011, July 6 - 8, 2011, London, U.K.

PCU/h, which is less than the value specified in HCM

(2000).
Sachdeva also studied the effect of direction split on
PCU value on two lane, intermediate lane and single lane
roads and observed that PCU value for a vehicle decreases
as the directional split of traffic deviates from 50/50 [19]. As
the traffic increases the overtaking requirements also
increases but the overtaking opportunities depend upon the
traffic from the opposite direction. If the traffic is not
balanced in two directions then the overtaking opportunities
will sharply reduce and vehicles will be forced to travel at
low speed. This will result in overall low speed of traffic
stream with less speed differential with car and hence low
PCU value for a vehicle.
E. Effect of Slow Moving Traffic
Slow moving vehicles being part of developing countries Figure 2 Rule Editor of Output Passenger Car Unit
traffic stream only, its effect has not been studies that
thoroughly. It is found that capacity decreases as the
proportion of slow-moving vehicles in the traffic stream V MATERIALS AND METHODS
increases. Botma developed a macroscopic model to study
the effect of a slow-moving vehicle on traffic operation [27]. i. All the inputs and outputs were fuzzified.
Sachdeva also studied the effect of slow moving vehicle in ii. All possible combination of inputs was considered which
traffic stream with large variation from less then 10% to leads to 8 sets. The PCU in all 8 cases of combinations is
50% and concluded that PCU value for bus and truck classified as low and high. These lead to formation of 8
increases with increase in percentage of slow moving rules for the fuzzy model and some of them are shown
vehicle [19]. below:

1. If (Pavement Width is low) then Passenger car Unit is

IV PROPOSED FUZZY MODEL low.
Proposed fuzzy model have four inputs namely Pavement 2. If (Pavement Width is high) then Passenger car Unit is
Width, Shoulder Condition, Directional Split and Slow high.
Moving Traffic. The output is a crisp value of passenger car ......
unit (PCU) for truck using the Rule Base. 4. If (Shoulder condition is very excellent) then
All inputs are classified into fuzzy sets viz. Low and Passenger car Unit is high.
High. The output i.e. PCU is also classified as Low and …..
high. In order to fuzzify the inputs membership functions 8. If (percentage of slow moving traffic is high) then
are chosen. Similarly the output variable i.e. Passenger Car Passenger car Unit is also high.
Unit has two membership functions. Rule view and rule
editor of the output Passenger Car Unit are shown in Fig 1 iii. All eight rules are inserted and a rule base is created.
and Fig 2 respectively. Depending on a particular set of inputs, a rule will be fired.
iv. Mamdani style of inference is used.
v. Using the rule viewer, output i.e. Passenger Car Unit for
truck is observed for a particular set of inputs using the
MATLAB Fuzzy toolbox.
vi. The output is compared with the quoted results.

VI RESULTS
Results of the developed model are compared with the
quoted passenger car unit value for truck by different
researchers under varying affecting parameters, shown in
Table 1.
Degree of correlation between the modeled and observed
results are also calculated and it is observed that a high
degree of correlation exit between the modeled and quoted
results.

VII CONCLUSIONS
In heterogeneous traffic condition to bring down different
Figure 1 Rule View of Output Passenger Car Unit categories of vehicle a common unit Passenger Car Unit is
used world wide. The accurate estimation of PCU in itself is
a complex task as there are different independent parameters

ISBN: 978-988-19251-4-5 WCE 2011

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)
Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering 2011 Vol II
WCE 2011, July 6 - 8, 2011, London, U.K.

affecting PCU value of a vehicle. A number of methods are [9] Krammes, R. A., and Crowley, K. W. (1986) Passenger car equivalents
available for the estimation of PCU value for different for trucks on level freeway segments. Transportation Research
vehicles such as Walker’s Method, Headway Methods, Record, 1091, Transportation Research Board, National Research
Multiple linear Regression Methods, Simulation Technique Council, Washington, D.C., 10–16.
and Density method etc. In the present study a MATLAB [10] Chandra, Satish., Kumar, V. and Sikdar, P. K. (1995) Dynamic PCU
based fuzzy model is developed using four well identified and Estimation of Capacity of Urban Roads. Indian Highways, 23(4),
affecting factors (width of pavement, type/quality of Indian Roads Congress, New Delhi.
shoulder, directional split and traffic composition/ [11] Webster, N., and Elefteriadou, L., (1999) A simulation study of truck
passenger car equivalents (PCE) on basic freeway sections. Journal of
percentage of slow moving traffic) for estimation of PCU
Transportation Research, Part B, 33 (5), 323–336.
value of standard vehicle Truck. This is of special
[12] Aggarwal Praveen “Passenger Car Unit Concept, Significance and
significance as trucks contribute a major component in
Affecting Factors” Accepted for publication in Journal of Indian
traffic volume on roads and highways The results so
Highways, to be published.
obtained are compared with the quoted results in the [13] Chandra, S., and Kumar, U. (2003) Effect of lane width on capacity
literature and high degree of correlation is observed. This under mixed traffic conditions in India. Journal of Transportation
will open a new direction for the traffic engineers for Engineering, 129 (2), 155–160.
accurate easy estimation of PCU value and hence traffic [14] Leong, H. J. W. (1968) Distribution and trend of free speed on two-
volume, capacity and level of service in any situation giving lane two way rural highway in New South Wales. Proceeding, 4th
due weightiness to different affecting parameters. ARRB Conference, Part 1, Australian Road Research Board, pp. 791–
814.
[15] Farouki, O. T., and Nixon, W. J. (1976) The effect of width of
TABLE 1 suburban roads on the mean-free speeds of cars. Traffic Engineering
CORRELATION BETWEEN THE QUOTED AND MODELED PCU Control, 17(12), 518–519.
VALUE FOR STANDARD VEHICLE TRUCK
[16] Yagar, S., and Aerde, M. V. (1983) Geometric and environmental
Level of correlation effects on speeds of two-lane highways. Journal of Transportation
between Quoted and Research, 17A(4), 315–325.
Variable
Modeled PCU value for [17] Nakamura, M. (1994) Research and application of highway capacity in
Truck Japan. Proceeding, 2nd International Symposium on Highway
Pavement Width Capacity, Sydney, Australia, pp. 104–111.
0.978
(Sachdeva, 2004) [18] Hossain, M., and Iqbal, G. A. (1999) Vehicular headway distribution
Pavement Width (Chandra and free speed characteristics of two-lane two-way highway of
0.961 Bangladesh. Institute of Engineers (India), 80, 77–80.
and Kumar, 2004)
[19] Sachdeva, S.N. (2004) Speed-Flow Relationship and Capacity
Shoulder Condition 0.892 Analysis for an Identified Intercity Road Network. Ph.D. thesis,
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India.
Direction split 0.957 [20] Turner, D. S., Rogness, R. O., and Fambro, D. B. (1982) Shoulder
upgrading alternatives to improve the operational characteristics of
Percentage of slow moving
0.712 two-lane highway. Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting,
traffic
Washington, D.C.
[21] Chandra, S., and Kumar, P. (1996) Effect of shoulder condition on
highway capacity. Proceeding International Seminar on Civil
REFERENCES Engineering Practices in Twenty First Century, Roorkee, India, pp.
[1] Highway Research Board (1965)., Highway Capacity Manual, National 512–519.
Research Council. Department of Traffic and Operations, Special [22] Karan, M. A., Hass, R., and Kher, R. (1978) Effect of pavement
Report 87, Committee on Highway Capacity, Washington, DC. roughness on speeds. Transportation Research Record, 602,
[2] Transportation Research Board. (2000) Highway Capacity Manual, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council,
fourth ed. National Research Council, Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., 122– 127.
[3] Transportation Research Board. (1994) Special Report 209, Highway [23] Watanatada, T., Paterson, W., Bhandari, A., Harral, C., Dhareshwar,
Capacity Manual, third ed. National Research Council, Washington, A., and Tsunokawak, K. (1987) Description of the HDM III model.
DC. (1997 update). Vol. 1, The international bank for reconstruction and development,
[4] St. John, A.D., (1976) Nonlinear truck factor for two-lane highways. World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Transportation Research Record, 615, TRB, National Research [24] Kadiyali, L. R., and Viswanathan, E. (1992) Study for updating road
Council, Washington, DC. user cost data. Journal Indian Roads Congress, 54 (3), 645–731.
[5] Werner, A., and Morall, J. F. (1976) Passenger car equivalencies for [25] Satish Chandra (2004) “Effect of road roughness on capacity of two
trucks, buses and recreational vehicles for two lane rural highways. lane roads” Transportation Engineering, ASCE, 130(3), 360-64.
Transportation Research Record, 615, Transportation Research [26] Chandra, Satish. and Sinha, S. (2001) Effect of directional split and
Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 10–17. slow moving vehicles on two lane capacity. Road & Transport
[6] Huber, M. (1982) Estimation of passenger car equivalents of trucks in Research, 10(4), ARRB, Australia, 33 – 41.
traffic stream. Transportation Research Record, 869, TRB, National [27] Botma, H. (1988) Effect on traffic operation of a slow moving vehicle
Research Council, Washington, DC. on two lane rural roads. Proceeding 14th ARRB Conference.
[7] Van Aerde, M., Yagar, S., (1984) Capacity, speed, and platooning Canberra, pp. 48-55.
vehicle equivalents for two-lane rural highways. Transportation
Research Record, 971, TRB, National Research Council, Washington,
DC.
[8] Sumner, R., Hill, D., and Shapiro, S., (1984) Segment passenger car
equivalent values for cost allocation on urban arterial roads. Journal
of Transportation Research, Part A, 18 (5), 399–406.

ISBN: 978-988-19251-4-5 WCE 2011

ISSN: 2078-0958 (Print); ISSN: 2078-0966 (Online)