LECTURE 2

TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
 TRAFFIC ENGINEERING

• Traffic engineering is that phase of

transportation engineering which deals
with the planning, geometric design and
traffic operations of roads, streets and
highways and their relationship with
other modes of transportation.
 TRAFFIC ENGINEERING

• The objective of traffic engineering is to

provide for the safe, rapid, comfortable,
efficient, convenient and
environmentally compatible movement
of people, goods and services.
 ELEMENTS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
There are a number of key elements in traffic
engineering

- Traffic studies and characteristics

- Performance evaluation
- Facility design
- Traffic control
- Traffic operations
- Transportation system management (TSM)
 TRAFFIC VOLUME
 Traffic volume is defined as “the time
rate of vehicle flow”.
OR
 “The number of vehicles passing
through a given point on a road during a
specified period of time”.
A point on the road is selected and
vehicles are counted crossing that point
either in one direction or in both
directions or in one lane.
 The period of time may be one minute,
one hour or one day.
 It is commonly expressed as vehicles
per hour and vehicles per day.
 OBTECTIVES OF TRAFFIC VOLUME STUDY
The following are objectives and uses of traffic
volume study:
 Traffic volume study is used in planning, traffic
operation and control of existing facilities
 It is also used for planning and designing new
facilities
 Traffic volume is generally accepted as a true
measure of the relative importance of roads and in
deciding the priority for improvement and expansion
 Classified volume study is useful in structural
design of pavements and in geometric design
 Volume study at intersection is useful in
planning signal timings, channelization and
other control devices
 Volume distribution study is used in planning
one way traffic and other regulatory measures
on the road.
 It helps to analyze the traffic patterns and
trends
 CLASSIFICATION OF TRAFFIC VOLUME
Traffic volume may be classified as:
 Daily Traffic Volume

 Hourly Traffic Volume

 Sub-hourly Traffic Volume

 1. DAILY TRAFFIC VOLUME
 The total number of vehicles passing
through a point in whole day (24 hours) is
called Daily traffic volume.
 Daily volume is used as basis for highway
planning and general observation of trends
 Four Daily volume parameters are often
used which are as follows:
 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT).

 Annual Average Weekly Day Traffic

(AAWT)
 Average Daily Traffic (ADT)

 Average Weekly Day Traffic (AWT)

 ANNUAL AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC

 Itis the average 24 hour traffic volume at a

given location over a full 365 days of year
and is calculated as the total number of
vehicles counted for 24 hours on every day
of the year divided by number of days of the
year i.e. 365 days
AVERAGE ANNUAL WEEKLY DAY TRAFFIC

 It is the average 24 hours (day) traffic

volume occurring on weekdays over a full
year.
 Weekdays are obtained by subtracting the
holidays from the days of the year, i.e.
 There are 260 weekdays for 2 holidays in a
week in year and 313 weekdays for 1
holiday in a week in a year
 It is calculated by counting the number of
vehicles on days of year subtracting the
holidays (on weekdays) and then divide it
by either 260 or 313
OR
 It is obtained by counting the number of
vehicles on weekdays of the year divided by
the number of weekdays for which counting
is made
 AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC
 It is the average 24 hour traffic volume at a
given location for some period of time less
than a year i.e. 6 months, a month, season, a
week etc.
 It is obtained by counting the total number
of vehicles for 24 hours divided by the
number of days for which the counting is
made
 AVERAGE WEEKLY DAY TRAFFIC

 It is the average 24 hours traffic volume

occurring on weekdays for some period of
time less than a year such as for a month or
season etc.
 It is calculated by dividing the total volume
of weekdays by the number of weekdays for
which counting is made
 2. HOURLY TRAFFIC VOLUME
 The number of vehicles passing through
certain point in one hour is known as
Hourly Traffic Volume
 There is a lot of variation in traffic volume
during the course of 24 hours of the day
 The maximum volume occurs during
morning and evening because of the people
going to or coming from offices which are
usually called rush hours of the day
 PEAK HOUR VOLUME

 The single hour of the day during which the

number of passing vehicles is maximum is
called peak hour and the traffic volume
corresponding to peak hour is called peak hour
volume. Peak hour volume is expressed as
vehicles per hour. (VPH)

 Peakhour volume is used as a basis for highway

design and many types of operational analysis.
Highway must be designed to serve the peak
hour volume in the peak direction of flow.
 DESIGN HOURLY VOLUME

 It is the hourly volume of traffic used for

design purposes

 This parameter is determined by measuring the

hourly volume of the traffic for different hours
of the year in a descending order
 Then a graph is plotted between number of peak
hours in a year and peak hour volume expressed
as percentage of annual average daily traffic
(AADT) in a descending order
 From the graph 30th hourly volume is
considered as Design Hourly Volume.
 This is the hourly volume that will be exceeded
29 times in a year and all other hourly volumes of
the year will be less than this value.
 To design the facilities on the basis of peak
hour volume is uneconomical
 On the other hand, average annual hourly
volume will make the design substandard
 So, 30th highest hourly volume has been
found to be satisfactory from both facility and
economic consideration
 There will be congestion only during 29
hours in the year
K FACTOR:
 K factor is defined as the proportion of annual
average daily traffic occurring in an hour. This
factor is used for designing and analyzing the flow
of traffic on highways.
 The calculation for the K factor is given by the
formula
DHV= K*AADT
in which DHV is the "Design Hourly Volume,"
the 30th highest hourly traffic volume (in both
directions) in the year in which data was collected,
by vehicles per hour.
EXAMPLE:
 3- Sub-Hourly Volume
 It is the number of vehicles counted for a time
period less than one hour, say 15 minutes, 30
minutes etc.
 Sub-hourly volume expressed as vehicles per hour is
called rate of flow or equivalent rate of flow
 For example; if 1200 vehicles are observed in 15
minutes period then the rate of flow is;
 Rate of flow =1200/ (15/60) = 4800 vehicles per
hour
 i.e. the vehicles will be observed at a rate of 4800
vehicles per hour during 15 minutes only
 Peak-Hour Factor

 The ratio of peak hour volume to the maximum rate

of flow is called peak hour factor.
i.e. P.H.F = PHV/MRF
 Where PHF = Peak hour factor
PHV = Peak hour volume
MRF = Maximum rate of flow
 The value of Peak hour factor (PHF) is less than or
equal to unity but greater than 0.25 for 15 minutes
time interval
 I.e.PHF ≤ 1 and PHF is > 0.25 for 15 minutes.
 The maximum value of peak hour factor is 1
which means that PHV = MRF i.e. there is no
variation in rate of flow during peak hour.
 The value of peak hour factor (PHF) ranges
normally from 0.70 to 0.95
PHF is used for :
I. Design of traffic signals

II. Capacity analysis of roads

 Passengers Car Unit (PCU)
 Different types of vehicles travel on highway having
different characteristics, widths, lengths and
probable inconvenience that they may result to other
vehicles

 So, for expressing highway capacity a vehicle unit

called passenger car unit is used
 One car is considered as a single unit
 Cycle or motor cycle cause less inconvenience
to traffic so it is considered as half PCU
 A bus or a truck causes a lot of inconvenience
because of it’s large width and it is estimated
that its inconvenience is equal to three cars
and therefore they are equal to three PCU
 Similarly all other vehicles are expressed in
terms of standard passenger car units as shown
in the table below
 These suggested values vary due to
presence of intersection, traffic composition
and road geometries.
 For example; a count for road is 300
vehicles per hour consisting of 200 cars, 60
trucks and 40 buses, then the traffic flow on
this road will be
 200x1 + 60x3 + 40x3 = 500 PCU per hour