Traffic Operations

2.
Traffic Operations
Traffic and highway engineering
Introduction
• The traffic engineer has to understand the basic characteristics
of the driver, the vehicle and the roadway and how each
interacts with the other.
• Traffic engineering studies serve to identify the relevant
characteristic and define related problems
• Traffic flow is very important for designing intersection
control, rural highways and freeway segments.
Characteristic of the driver, the
pedestrian, the vehicle and the road
• The four main components of the highway mode of
transportation are:
• The driver
• The pedestrian
• The vehicle
• The road
Driver Characteristic
• One problem that faces traffic and transportation engineers is
the varying skills and perceptual abilities of drivers on the
highway, demonstrated by a wide range of abilities to hear,
see, evaluate, and react to information.
• it is important that criteria used for design purposes be
compatible with the capabilities and limitations of most
drivers on the highway.
The human response process
• Most of the information received by a driver is visual, implying
that the ability to see is of fundamental importance in the
driving task.
• It is therefore important that highway and traffic engineers
have some fundamental knowledge of visual perception as
well as of hearing perception.
Visual reception
• The principal characteristics of the eye are
Characteristic Description
Visual acuity Ability to see fine details of an object.
It can be represented by the visual angle V:
L = diameter of the target

D = distance from the eye to
the target
The driver’s ability to clearly detect relatively moving objects,
not necessarily in his or her direct line of vision, depends on the
driver’s dynamic visual acuity. Most people have clear vision
within a conical angle of 3 to 5 degrees and fairly clear vision
within a conical angle of 10 to 12 degrees. Vision beyond this
range is usually blurred. This is important when the location of
traffic information devices is considered.
Visual reception
Peripheral It’s the ability to see objects beyond the cone of clearest vision.
vision The cone for peripheral vision is 160º, varying because of age and
speed.
Color vision It’s the ability to differentiate one color from another. Combination
of color such as black, red, yellow and white have shown to be
those to wich the eye is more sensitive
Glare vision There are two types:
and recovery Direct glare: when relatively bright light appears in the individual’s
field of vision
Specular glare: occurs when the image reflected by the relatively
bright light appears in the field of vision.
Glare recovery: The time required by a person to recover from the
effects of glare after passing the light source glare recovery.
Studies have shown that this time is about 3 seconds when moving
from dark to light and can be 6 seconds or more when moving
from light to dark.
Visual reception
Glare vision and Glare effects can be minimized by reducing luminaire
recovery brightness and by increasing the background brightness in a
driver’s field of view.
Specific actions taken to achieve this in lighting design
include using higher mounting heights, positioning
lighting supports farther away from the highway, and
restricting the light from the luminaire to obtain minimum
interference with the visibility of the driver.
Depth Depth perception affects the ability of a person to estimate
Perception speed and distance.
It should be noted, however, that the human eye is not very
good at estimating absolute values of speed, distance, size,
and acceleration. This is why traffic control devices are
standard in size, shape, and color.
Standardization not only aids in distance estimation but also
helps the color-blind driver to identify signs.
Visual recetion
• Traffic control devices
Highway lightning
Perception-Reaction Process
• The process through which a driver, cyclist, or pedestrian
evaluates and reacts to a stimulus can be divided into four
subprocesses:
• Perception: the driver see a warning sign, control device o object
on the road
• Identification: the driver identify the object or control device and
thus understand the stimulus.
• Emotion: the driver decides what action to take, for example,
step on the brake pedal, change lanes, etc.
• Reaction or volition: The driver execute the action decided on
during the emotion sub-process.
The time that elapses from the start of perception to the end of
reaction is referred to as PIEV tiem or more commonly as
perception-reaction time.
Perception-Reaction process
• Perception-reaction time is an important factor in the
determination of braking distances, which in turn dictates the
minimum sight distance required on a highway and the length
of the yellow phase at a signalized intersection.
• The 85th-percentile time to brake, obtained from several
situations, varied from 1.26 to over 3 seconds. The reaction
time selected for design purposes should, however, be large
enough to include reaction times for most drivers using the
highways. Recommendations made by the AASHTO stipulate
2.5 seconds for stopping-sight distances.
Perception-Reaction problem
Pedestrian Characteristics

Traffic Operations

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L = diameter of the target

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