TRAFFIC FLOW

FUNDAMENTALS
TRAFFIC FLOW

Traffic flow theory involves the development of mathematical relationships

among the primary elements of a traffic stream: flow, density, and speed.

These relationships help the traffic engineer in planning, designing, and

evaluating the effectiveness of implementing traffic engineering measures on
a highway system.
PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF
TRAFFIC FLOW
o Flow (q)

- is the equivalent hourly rate at which vehicles pass a point on a highway during a
time period less than 1 hour. It can be determined by:

𝒏 ∗𝟑𝟔𝟎𝟎
may be expressed as : q=
𝑻

where:
q = equivalent hourly flow
n = number of vehicles passing a point in the roadway
T = observation period, s
EXAMPLE

Suppose a 15 minutes count of vehicles bounds for Bacolod was conducted at a

particular location on Lacson Street. A summary is shown in the table below.

TYPE 15-Minute Count

Car/Van 420
Jeepney 300
Bus 16
Truck 28

420+300+16+28
q= 1 = 3,056 veh/hr
15∗
60
o Speed (u)
- is the distance traveled by a vehicle during a unit of time. It can be expressed
in kilometers per hour (km/hr).

There are two types of mean speeds: time mean speed and space mean speed.
• Time Mean Speed (ut)

- also known as spot speed, time mean speed is the arithmetic mean of the
speeds of vehicles passing a point on a highway during a given interval of time
and is found by
𝟑.𝟔𝑳
ui = 𝒕𝒊
where:
ui = speed of vehicle i, in kph
L = trap length, in meters
ti = time it takes to traverse trap length, in seconds
• Time Mean Speed (ut)

𝟏 𝒏
ut = 𝒏 𝒊=𝟏 𝒖𝒊

where:
ut = individual speed of vehicles observed within time, t
n = number of measured vehicles
EXAMPLE

The speeds of 25 cars were observed. 10 cars were noted to travel at 35kph, 8 cars
at 40 kph, 5 cars at 45kph and 2 cars at 50kph. Assuming that each car was traveling
at constant speed, determine the time mean speed.

10∗35 + 8∗40 + 5∗45 +(2∗50)

ut = 25
= 39.8 kph
• Space Mean Speed (us)

- also known as harmonic mean speed, is the rate of movement of vehicles

passing a point on a highway during an interval of time.
𝒏
us = 𝒏 𝟏
𝒊=𝟏𝒖
𝒊
where:
us = individual speed of vehicles observed within time, t
ui = speed of vehicle i, in kph
n = number of measured vehicles
EXAMPLE

The speeds of 25 cars were observed. 10 cars were noted to travel at 35kph, 8 cars
at 40 kph, 5 cars at 45kph and 2 cars at 50kph. Assuming that each car was traveling
at constant speed, determine the space mean speed.

25
us = 10 8 5 2 = 39.3 kph
35
+ 40
+ 45
+ 50
The time mean speed is always higher than the space mean speed. The difference
between these speeds tend to decrease as the absolute values of speeds increase. It has
been shown from field data that the relationship between time mean speed and space
mean speed can be given as:

𝝈𝟐
ut = us + 𝒖𝒔
or

ut = 0.966us + 3.541
o Density (k)
- sometimes referred to as concentration, is the number of vehicles traveling over
a unit length of highway at an instant point in time. The unit length is usually 1
kilometer thereby making vehicles per kilometer (veh/km) the unit of density.

𝒏
k=
𝒍
where:
k = traffic density in vehicles per unit distance,
n = number of vehicles occupying some length of roadway at some specified time
l = length of roadway, km
o Time Headway (ht)

- is the difference between the time the front of a vehicle arrives at a point on the
highway and the time the front of the next vehicle arrives at that same point. Time
headway is usually expressed in seconds.

𝟏
ht = 𝒒
EXAMPLE

During morning peak hour, the average time headway of UNO-R jeepney is estimated
at 5 minutes. If the passenger demand during the same period is 240, determine
whether there is a need to increase the number of jeepney units (or shorten the
headway) for this route. Assume that passenger demand is evenly distributed within
that period and the average load/occupancy is 14 passengers per jeepney.
𝟔𝟎
qj = = 12 jeepneys per hour Supply = 14*12 = 168 passengers
𝒉𝒕

Therefore, there is a need to increase the number of jeepney units during peak period.
o Space Headway (hs)

- is the distance between the front of a vehicle and the front of the following vehicle
and is usually expressed in meter.

𝟏
hs = 𝒌

hs = us * ht
EXAMPLE

On a 1.2 kilometer roadway segment of Lacson Street, 50 passenger cars

were observed for a 10 minute period. Determine the Space Headway.

𝒏 𝟓𝟎 𝒗𝒆𝒉
k= = = 41.7
𝒍 𝟏.𝟐 𝒌𝒎

𝟏 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝒎
hs = k = = 24
𝟒𝟏.𝟕 𝒗𝒆𝒉
• Jam Density (kj)

- the density reaches its maximum, the flow must be 0 because vehicles will tend to
line up end to end.

𝟏
kj = 𝒉𝒔
EXAMPLE

During heavy traffic congestion, it was observed that the average spacing of vehicles
in queue in the innermost lane is Magsaysay Street is 6.5m. Determine the jam
density.

𝟏 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎
kj = 𝒉𝒔
=
𝟔.𝟓
= 154 veh/km
o Gap

- the space-time between the rear bumper of the lead vehicle and the front bumper
of the following vehicle. In terms of time.
o Clearance

- the clear space between the rear bumper of the lead vehicle to the front bumper of
the following vehicle. In terms of distance.

C = hs – (length of the vehicle)

 BASIC RELATIONSHIPS
“q = k * u”
Low volumes Highest speeds

High volumes Lower speeds

Highest volumes Medium density

Maximum density No speed or flow

 SPEED-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS
(GREENSHIELD’S LINEAR MODEL)

Max speed = 0 density

Max density = 0 speed
uf
 k 

u  u f 1 
 k 
Speed
 j 

Density kj
23
 SPEED-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS
90
80
Average speed (mph)

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

D e nsity (p cp m p l)
FLOW-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS
(GREENSHIELD’S LINEAR MODEL)
 k 
u  u f 1   and q  ku
 k 
 j 

uf
 q  uf k  k2
kj
qcap Optimum Density
Flow

kcap kj Density
 FLOW-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS
3000
2500
Flow (pcphpl)

2000
1500
1000
500
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Density (pcpmpl)
 FLOW-DENSITY AND SPEED

qmax

Flow (veh/hr) Slope of these lines is

the space mean speed at
this density
B

kmax kb kj Density (veh/km)

 SPEED-FLOW RELATIONSHIPS
(GREENSHIELD’S LINEAR MODEL)
 k 

u  u f 1  and q  ku
 k 
 j 
uf kj
 q  k ju  u2
uf
“Optimal” Speed for
flow maximization
Speed

ucap
qcap= kcapucap

qcap Flow
 SPEED-FLOW RELATIONSHIPS

90
A ve ra g e sp e e d (m p h )

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
F low (pcphpl)
 SPECIAL CASE
(GREENSHIELD’S LINEAR MODEL)

 Greenshield’s  k 

u  u f 1 
Model (Linear)  k 
 j 

uf kj
 (Only) When ucap  kcap 
Greenshield’s 2 2
Model holds,
k ju f
qcap  kcap ucap 
4
 SPOT SPEED STUDIES

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 kilometers per hour (km/hr)

A spot speed study is carried out by recording the speeds of a sample of vehicles at a specified
location. Speed characteristics identified by such a study will be valid only for the traffic and
environmental conditions that exist at the time of the study.
 Speed characteristics determined from a spot speed study may be used to:

• Establish parameters for traffic operation and control, such as speed zones, speed limits
(85th-percentile speed is commonly used as the speed limit on a road), and passing
restrictions.

• Evaluate and or determine the adequacy of highway geometric characteristics, such as radii
of horizontal curves and lengths of vertical curves.

• Evaluate the effectiveness of traffic control devices, such as variable message signs at work
zones.

• Evaluate the effect of speed on highway safety through the analysis of crash data for
different speed characteristics.
• Average Speed

- is the arithmetic mean of all observed vehicle speeds (which is the sum of all spot
speeds divided by the number of recorded speeds).

𝑢𝑖
u=
𝑁
where
ui = speed of the ith vehicle
N = number of observed values
• Median 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.

• Modal Speed

- is the speed value that occurs most frequently in a sample of spot speeds.
• i th – percentile Spot Speed
- is the spot speed value below which i percent of the vehicles travel; for example,
85th-percentile spot speed is the speed below which 85 percent of the vehicles travel
and above which 15 percent of the vehicles travel.

• Pace
- is the range of speed usually taken at 10-kph intervals that has the greatest number
of observations. For example, if a set of speed data includes speeds between 30 and
60 kph, the speed intervals will be 30 to 40 kph, 40 to 50 kph, and 50 to 60 kph,
assuming a range of 10 kph. The pace is 40 to 50 kph if this range of speed has the
highest number of observations.
• Standard Deviation of Speed
- is a measure of the spread of the individual speeds.

2
𝑢𝑗 −𝑢
S= 𝑁 −1
where
S = standard deviation
u = arithmetic mean
uj = j th observation
N = number of observations
 VOLUME STUDIES

Traffic volume studies are conducted to collect data on the number of vehicles and/or
pedestrians that pass a point on a highway facility during a specified time period. This
time period varies from as little as 15 minutes to as much as a year depending on the
anticipated use of the data. The data collected also may be put into subclasses which
may include directional movement, occupancy rates, vehicle classification, and
pedestrian age.
 Traffic volume studies are usually conducted when certain volume
characteristics are needed, some of which follow:

 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) is the average of 24-hour counts collected over a
number of days greater than one but less than a year. ADTs may be used for:

a. Planning of highway activities

b. Measurement of current demand
c. Evaluation of existing traffic flow
 Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) is the average of 24-hour counts collected
every day of the year. AADTs are used in several traffic and transportation analyses for:

a. Estimation of highway user revenues

b. Computation of crash rates in terms of number of crashes
per 100 million vehicle kilometer
c. Establishment of traffic volume trends
d. Evaluation of the economic feasibility of highway projects
e. Development of freeway and major arterial street systems
f. Development of improvement and maintenance programs
 Peak Hour Volume (PHV) is the maximum number of vehicles that pass a point
on a highway during a period of 60 consecutive minutes. PHVs are used for:

a. Functional classification of highways

b. Design of the geometric characteristics of a highway, for example,
number of lanes, intersection signalization, or channelization
c. Capacity analysis
d. Development of programs related to traffic operations, for example,
one-way street systems or traffic routing
e. Development of parking regulations
 Vehicle Classification (VC) records volume with respect to the type of vehicles,
for example, passenger cars, two-axle trucks, or three-axle trucks. VC is used in:

a. Design of geometric characteristics, with particular reference to

turning-radii requirements, maximum grades, lane widths, and so forth
b. Capacity analyses, with respect to passenger-car equivalents of trucks
c. Adjustment of traffic counts obtained by machines
d. Structural design of highway pavements, bridges, and so forth
 Peak-hour factor (PHF) is a measure of the variability of demand during the peak
hour. It is the ratio of the volume during the peak hour to the maximum rate of
flow during a given time period within the peak hour. For intersections, the time
period used is 15 min, and the PHF is given as

𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓

PHF = 𝟒 ∗ 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝟏𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐧 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓

The PHF may be used in signal timing design to compensate for the possibility that
peak arrival rates for short periods during the peak hour may be much higher than the
average for the full hour.
 Design hourly volume (DHV) can then be obtained as,

𝑷𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒗𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒆

DHV =
𝑷𝑯𝑭
 Methods of Conducting Volume Counts
Traffic volume counts are conducted using two basic methods: manual and automatic.

 Manual Method

Manual counting involves one or more persons recording observed vehicles using
a counter/tally sheet. With this type of counter, both the turning movements at
the intersection and the types of vehicles can be recorded.

The data for each movement can be recorded in 1, 5, 15, 30, or 60 minute
intervals, although the default value is 15 minutes.
Mechanical Counting Board Electronic Counting Board
 Automatic Method

Automatic counters can be classified into two general categories: those that require the laying
of detectors (surface or subsurface), and those that do not require the laying of detectors.

Automatic counters that require the laying of surface detectors (such as pneumatic road
tubes) or subsurface detectors (non invasive, such as magnetic or electric contact devices) on
the road, detect the passing vehicle and transmit the information to a recorder, which is
connected to the detector at the side of the road.

Automatic counters that do not require the laying of detectors use one of many technologies
including electronics: Doppler principles, laser scanning, and infrared.
END!