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    Saturation Flow Rate and Capacity

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    Abu Zafor
    Saturation flow rate is defined as the maximum number of vehicles that can pass through an intersection in one hour under ideal conditions with continuous green time. Saturation flow rate depends on factors like lane width, number of turning vehicles, and vehicle type. Capacity takes into account the actual signal timing and is calculated as the percentage of saturation flow rate based on the effective green time. Capacity represents the maximum hourly traffic flow that can be discharged from a lane under prevailing traffic, roadway, and signal conditions. It is used to evaluate current intersection performance by comparing the actual traffic flow to the capacity.

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    Saturation Flow Rate and Capacity

    Uploaded by

    Abu Zafor
    139 views2 pages
    Saturation flow rate is defined as the maximum number of vehicles that can pass through an intersection in one hour under ideal conditions with continuous green time. Saturation flow rate depends on factors like lane width, number of turning vehicles, and vehicle type. Capacity takes into account the actual signal timing and is calculated as the percentage of saturation flow rate based on the effective green time. Capacity represents the maximum hourly traffic flow that can be discharged from a lane under prevailing traffic, roadway, and signal conditions. It is used to evaluate current intersection performance by comparing the actual traffic flow to the capacity.

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    aturation Flow Rate and Capacity

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    Saturation flow rate is defined as the maximum number of vehicles that can pass through an intersection in one hour under ideal conditions with continuous green time. Saturation flow rate depends on factors like lane width, number of turning vehicles, and vehicle type. Capacity takes into account the actual signal timing and is calculated as the percentage of saturation flow rate based on the effective green time. Capacity represents the maximum hourly traffic flow that can be discharged from a lane under prevailing traffic, roadway, and signal conditions. It is used to evaluate current intersection performance by comparing the actual traffic flow to the capacity.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    139 views2 pages

    Saturation Flow Rate and Capacity

    Uploaded by

    Abu Zafor
    Saturation flow rate is defined as the maximum number of vehicles that can pass through an intersection in one hour under ideal conditions with continuous green time. Saturation flow rate depends on factors like lane width, number of turning vehicles, and vehicle type. Capacity takes into account the actual signal timing and is calculated as the percentage of saturation flow rate based on the effective green time. Capacity represents the maximum hourly traffic flow that can be discharged from a lane under prevailing traffic, roadway, and signal conditions. It is used to evaluate current intersection performance by comparing the actual traffic flow to the capacity.

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    Saturation Flow Rate and Capacity

    Saturation Flow Rate


    Saturation Flow Rate can be defined with the following scenario: Assume that an
    intersections approach signal were to stay green for an entire hour, and the traffic was
    as dense as could reasonably be expected. The number of vehicles that would pass
    through the intersection during that hour is the saturation flow rate.
    Obviously, certain aspects of the traffic and the roadway will effect the saturation flow
    rate of your approach. If your approach has very narrow lanes, traffic will naturally
    provide longer gaps between vehicles, which will reduce your saturation flow rate. If
    you have large numbers of turning movements, or large numbers of trucks and busses,
    your saturation flow rate will be reduced. Put another way, the saturation flow rate (s)
    for a lane group is the maximum number of vehicles from that lane group that can
    pass through the intersection during one hour of continuous green under the prevailing
    traffic and roadway conditions. The saturation flow rate is normally given in terms of
    straight-through passenger cars per hour of green. Most design manuals and textbooks
    provide tables that give common values for trucks and turning movements in terms of
    passenger car units (pcu).
    Determining the saturation flow rate can be a somewhat complicated matter. The
    saturation flow rate depends on roadway and traffic conditions, which can vary
    substantially from one region to another. Its possible that someone in the area has
    already completed a measurement of the saturation flow rate for an approach similar
    to yours. If not, you'll need to measure it in the field. One other possibility, which is
    used quite frequently, is to assume an ideal value for the saturation flow rate and
    adjust it for the prevailing conditions using adjustment factors. A saturation flow rate
    of 1900 vehicles/hour/lane, which corresponds to a saturation headway of about 1.9
    seconds, is a fairly common nominal value. Design manuals usually provide
    adjustment factors that take parameters such as lane-width, pedestrian traffic, and
    traffic composition into account.
    Capacity
    Capacity is an adjustment of the saturation flow rate that takes the real signal timing
    into account, since most signals are not allowed to permit the continuous movement of
    one phase for an hour. If your approach has 30 minutes of green per hour, you could
    deduce that the actual capacity of your approach is about half of the saturation flow
    rate. The capacity, therefore, is the maximum hourly flow of vehicles that can be
    discharged through the intersection from the lane group in question under the

    prevailing traffic, roadway, and signalization conditions. The formula for calculating
    capacity (c) is given below.
    c = (g/C) s
    Where:
    c = capacity (pcu/hour)
    g = Effective green time for the phase in question (sec)
    C = Cycle length (sec)
    s = Saturation flow rate (pcu/hour)
    Capacity can be calculated on several levels, depending on the amount of information
    you want to obtain. You could calculate the capacity for each individual lane, or you
    could lump the lanes together and find the capacity of an entire approach. You need to
    decide what makes sense for your situation.
    Capacity can be used as a reference to gauge the current operation of the intersection. For
    example, let us assume that you know the current flow rate for a lane group and you also know
    the capacity of that lane group. If the current flow rate is 10% of the capacity, you would be
    inclined to think that too much green time has been allocated to that particular lane group. You'll
    see other uses for capacity as you explore the remaining signal timing design concepts.

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