TR 323 TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND

MANAGEMENT

Week 2:

(1)The Traffic Stream

OBJECTIVES OF THE LECTURE

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The Lecturer:
To introduce types of traffic flow and the basic

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parameters describing the traffic stream and
their relationship
The Learner should be able to:
 Describe a traffic stream using the basic
parameters and derived concepts.
 Explain how the parameters and derived
concepts are measured in the field

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 Reading tasks:
 Textbook:Traffic Engineering chapter 5

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 TRB (2010) HCM Vol 1 - Chapter 4: Traffic Flow
and capacity concepts
 Tutorial tasks: To be issued this Friday

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1. TRAFFIC STREAM – AN OVERVIEW

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 A traffic stream consists of vehicles
traversing highways and streets

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 It is different from a purely physical system
like water flowing in pipes because individual
drivers exhibit different behaviours – cannot
be exactly predicted at any point
 Traffic engineers know the normal range of
behaviour of drivers for a given facility

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………….TWO TYPES OF TRAFFIC
STREAM

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 Traffic facilities are grouped in two classes
 Interrupted flow facilities: External devices like

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signals controls/interrupts flow e.g. urban
network
 Un-interrupted flow facilities: No external
interruption to flow, all interruptions is from
within interaction e.g. freeways

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………………………..UN-INTERRUPTED
FLOW
 The obvious example is on freeways.
 Another example is on a rural road where flow

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from driveways is so low that it does not disturb
the traffic along the road.

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 Even for roads with signalised junctions when the
spacing of the junctions exceed 3 km,
uninterrupted flow can occur .
 Within a platoon the relations describing un-
interrupted flow apply but cannot capture the
nature of the interruptions

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………………INTERRUPTED FLOW

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 Occurs in networks with closely spaced
intersections
 The important aspects of flow occurs at

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intersections
 Control at junctions is by signals or stop/yield
sign or give way rule
 At signals platoons are generated
 Coordinated signals allow platoons to move
in a green window

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……LIST OF TRAFFIC STREAM
PARAMETERS
 Traffic engineers have defined parameters by

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which traffic streams are described and
understood, namely:

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 Macroscopic parameters – the stream as a whole
 Volume
 Density

 Speed

 Microscopic parameters – individual veh. W.r.t. each

other
 Headway
 Spacing

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….APPLICATION OF TRAFFIC STREAM
PARAMETERS

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 Traffic engineers describe, analyse, evaluate and
plan facilities improvement on the basis of these
parameters and derived concepts.

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2. TRAFFIC VOLUME AND FLOW

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 Volume: Number of vehicles/pedestrians that
pass a given point on a
roadway/lane/footpath/sidewalk during a

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specified time interval.
 Unit: vehicles or pedestrians often expressed
per unit time
 Flow: Equivalent hourly rates of flow for
volumes observed for less than one hour

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DAILY VOLUMES

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 Volumes counted for the whole day
 Used for:

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 Highway planning (measured, projected)
 Observation of trends

 Common daily volume parameters

 AADT
 ADT

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HOURLY VOLUMES
 Needed for design and operational analysis since

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there is great variation of traffic during the day
 The single hour during the day with the highest

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traffic is referred to ‘peak hour’
 PHV Data is obtained and analysed in directions; It
is of greatest interest to traffic engineers –
operational analysis and design

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PHV - USE

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 Design – Roadways and intersections are
designed to accommodate Peak Volume (PV)
in the peak direction of flow.

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 Operational analysis e.g. for imposition of
control measures, safety or capacity must
address conditions existing during peak hour.
 Sub-hourly flows are also relevant

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ESTIMATION OF PHV FOR DESIGN
 Estimated from projected AADT

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 DDHV = AADT X K X D
DDHV = directional design hourly volume - vph

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AADT = average annual daily traffic – vpd
D = proportion of peak traffic travelling in peak direction
– decimal
K = proportion of daily traffic occuring during the peak
hour – decimal. About 0.07 to 0.12 for urban, 0.12 to
0.15 suburban, 0.15 to 0.25 for rural

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EXAMPLE

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 Consider a suburban highway with projected
AADT IN 20 YRS at 30,000 vpd

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 It is known that D = 70% and K = 15%

 DDHV = 30,000 x 0.15 x 0.70 = 3,150 vph

 Use this volume to consider the type and size

of facility!
 Proposals? Single carriageway multilane or
dual carriageway of expressway or freeway?

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SUB HOURLY VOLUMES AND RATES
OF FLOW

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 Variation of flow within the PH is of interest
since a facility designed for the PHV may fail
due to short term peaks within the hour.

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 Volumes observed for periods less than one
hour are generally expressed in equivalent
hourly rates of flow.
 E.g. 500 veh counted in 15 minutes would be
expressed as 2000 vph.

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SUB HOURLY VOLUMES AND RATES OF
FLOW…
Time Vol. for Rate of Flow
interval interval vph

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7:00 – 7:15 1000 4000

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am
7:15 – 7:30 1100 4400
am
7:30 – 7:45 1200 4800
am
9:45 - 8:00 900 3600
am
7:00 – 8:00 4200 vph = Hourly 17

am volume
SUB HOURLY VOLUMES AND RATES OF
FLOW…
 A facility designed for 4200 vph will fail during
7:15 – 7:45 am intervals.

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 Maximum rate of flow within the peak hour must
be considered in the design of many facilities.

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 HCM recommends a period of 15 minutes for most
design and operational analyses.
 Shorter intervals are used in research but for
practice minimum interval is 15 minutes

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PEAK HOUR FACTOR PHF

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 The relationship between the maximum rate
of flow within the hour and the hourly volume
is defined by the peak hour factor (PHF):

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PHF = hourly
volume/maximum rate of
flow
PHF = V/4xV15

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EXAMPLE

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 For the sample volumes given above:
 PHF = 4200/1200x4 = 0.875

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 Norma range of values is 0.70 to 0.98

 When all the volumes during the 15 minute

intervals are equal the PHF is 1.0
 When all the traffic occurs in one interval the
PHF 0.25

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APPLICATION

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 When the PHF is known it is used to convert
the hourl volume to peak flow rate for use in
design and operational analyses – v =PHV/PHF

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 Exercise: PHV = 2000 vph, 15% trucks, (given
1 truck is equivalent to 3 pcu, PHF = 0.97.
Compute peak flow rate in pcu. (Note: What is
the basis of truck passenger car equivalence?)
 One of the factors influencing the PHF is the
development density: facilities in highly
developed urban centres exhibit PHF close to
one.
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Break?
3. SPEED AND TRAVEL TIME

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 The second macroscopic parameter used to
describe traffic stream.

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 For a given distance speed and travel time
are inversely related.
 Motorists relate easily with this parameter:
 Used in the description of level of service - ATS
for links
 Control delay (related to lower speed due to
TCD) at signalized intersections

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SPEED AND TRAVEL TIME …
 Speed = Distance/time.
 In a traffic stream we observe a distribution of

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individual vehicle speeds.
 Average values are used to characterize the Traffic

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Stream:
 Time mean Speed: The average speed of all
vehicles passing through a point on a roadway
over a specified time period. - A point measure
 Space mean speed : average speed of all vehicles
occupying a given section of a roadway over a
specified time. A space measure!

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SPEED AND TRAVEL TIME …

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TRAVEL TIME AND RUNNING TIME

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 Travel Time – include delays
 Running time – exclude stopped delays

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 Average travel speed – based on travel time

 Average running speed – based on average

running time
 Exercise: What information can a traffic
engineer get by comparing the two?

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OPERATING AND PERCENTILE SPEED

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 Design speed
 Operating speed always less than design

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speed
 Percentile speed

 Max. reasonable speed – 85th percentile

 Min. reasonable speed – 15th percentile

 Speed or travel time measures the quality of

traffic services

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4. DENSITY
 Number of vehicles occupying a given length of a

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roadway or lane
 Units: Vehicles per Km

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 May be computed from speed and volume thus D
= V/S where S is the space mean speed
 Density is the indicator of traffic demand and
Quality (spacing – freedom of movement –
psychological comfort)

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5. TRAFFIC FLOW DESCRIBED

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 Basic Equation of Flow: D=V/S or V=DxS for
stable traffic conditions

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 Graph of Flow vs Density, Flow vs Speed and
Density vs speed describes the relationship
as a two dimensional plot

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GRAPHS
THE FLOW/DENSITY GRAPH

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 Volume cannot be used to describe the
quality of traffic stream since two radically
different operating conditions have the same

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volume.
 Speed and density do describe quality of the
traffic stream.
 Speed and density are also discernible to the
driver while volume is not.

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SPEED – FLOW GRAPH
 Free flow speed – zero density, maximum safe
speed on a road section (design speed)

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 Zero flow - density too high flow stops - jam
density

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 Capacity – maximum rate of flow, peak of the
flow-density and flow-speed graphs.
 Critical density and critical speed are the speed
and flow at which capacity occurs

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SPEED – FLOW GRAPH

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 At capacity there are no usable gaps in the
stream and any interruption cannot be easily
dissipated = Unstable flow.

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 Forced flow conditions = speed is less than
critical speed, density exceeds critical
density
 Forced flow condition = LoS F

 At/near capacity LoS = E

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6. SPACING AND TIME HEADWAY

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 Microscopic measures apply to individual
vehicles within the traffic stream

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 Spacing: distance between successive
vehicles in a traffic lane measured from a
common reference point
 Headway: Time between successive vehicles
as they pass a point along a lane. Use a
common reference point.

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APPLICATIONS:

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 Allows various vehicle types in a traffic
stream to be isolated e.g. by observing pairs
of PC or HGV.

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 Data volume obtained in a short time is high.

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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MICRO AND MACROSCOPIC
PARAMETERS

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 Average values of spacing and headway are
related to the macroscopic parameters:

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 D(ensity) = 1000/d(average)

 V(olume) = 3600/h(average)

 S(peed) = d/h (mean values)

 Where d= average spacing in m and h is

average headway in secs

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CLASS EXERCISE: IMPACT OF PHF ON DESIGN

A volume of 900 vph is observed at an

intersection approach. Plot peak rate of flow

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within the hour as PHF varies from 1.0 to 0.75.
Discuss implications to junction and signal

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
design:
 When only two lanes are available show implications on
signal design
 When there is fixed time allocated to the approach show

implications on geometric design or congestion

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CLASS EXERCISE: TRAVEL TIME

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 What information can a traffic engineer get
by comparing average running speed with
average travel time? For example if (s)he

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compares the average travel speed and
running speed between Ubungo and Akiba
along Morogoro Rd!
 How can such information be used?

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 08/05/20
Thank you for

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your active
participation
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