Vehicle Characteristics

During the decade 1990 to 2000 automobile registrations in the Unites States decreased slightly (-
0.1%), while the number of registered trucks increased substantially (61 percent) (20). By 2000
there where over 134 million passenger cars, 87 million trucks and 746, 000 buses.

Vehicle Type and Size

The type and size of motor vehicles influence clearances for bridges, tunnels, and grade
separation structures and geometric characteristics of streets, roads, and parking facilities. Street
and highway facilities are used by a variety of vehicles ranging from motorcycles to articulated
truck units up to 72 ft (22 m) in length and weighing over 80,000 lb (36,000 kg).

Bicyclist A person operating a bicycle on a one-way roadway with two or more marked traffic
lanes may ride as near as practicable to the left curb or edge of the roadway. (c) Persons operating
bicycles on a roadway may ride two abreast. Persons riding two abreast on a laned roadway shall
ride in a single lane. 5

Motorcycles are small motorized two or three wheeled vehicles that can transport one to two
people. The average motorcycle weight with trailer is around 700 pounds (318 kg). In addition, the
weigh of fuel is about 6.3 (2.9 kg) pounds per gallon of gas.

Passenger cars and light trucks dominant source of transportation. These vehicle weighs 1500 to
4000 lb (680 to 1800 kg)

Single unit trucks All vehicles on a single frame including trucks, camping and recreational
vehicles, motor homes, etc., with two axles and dual rear wheels. These trucks range from two
axle, six tire vehicles weighing about 10,000 lb (4,536 kg). Three or four axle vehicles weighing
up to 40,000 lb (18,144 kg).

Combination trucks a semi-trailer truck (more commonly semi truck or simply "semi") is the
combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. The maximum weight
for a U.S. semi truck and full trailer is 80,000 pounds spread over 18 conventional wheels. Out in
the wide-open spaces of Australia, however, “road trains” can have four trailers and weigh in
excess of 300,000 pounds.

Big trucks the most common of the big trucks is the tractor semitrailer combination, which has
five axles, three on the tractor and two on thr semitrailer. They are commonly reffered as "18
wheelers". Typically have 48 ft (14.6 m) trailers.

Twin trailer and tripler trailer Doubles and triples (LCV's) are combinations of multiple trailers
attached to one truck, as opposed to standard 5-axle semi's. Twin trailer trucks consists of a tractor
plus a 28 ft (8.5 m) semitrailer followed by another 28 ft (8.5 m). Also reffered as western
doubles.
Van is a passsenger vehicles mounted on a automobile or light truck chassis that is capable of
transporting 6 to 15 people.
Buses A bus (contracted from omnibus,[1] with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a
road vehicle designed to carry many passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300
passengers.

Recreational vehicles A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer
which includes living quarters designed for accommodation.

Vehicle Performance Characteristics

Vehicle performances limitations and capabilities affect required lenghts of speed change lanes,
weaving lanes, and no-passing zones, and the design of traffic control systems. If highway systems
are to operate safely and efficiently, highway and traffic engineers need to understand
performance characteristics of the various vehicles that use such systems.

Resistances
A vehicle's motion tends to ne retarded by at least five types of reistance:
1. Inertial reistance
2. Grade resistance
3. Rolling resistance
4. Curve resistance
5. Air resistance

Inertia Resistance
Inertia is the resistance, of any physical object, to any change in its velocity. This includes changes
to the object's speed, or direction of motion. An aspect of this property is the tendency of objects
to keep moving in a straight line at a constant speed, when no forces act upon them.
F= m x a = w/g x a

Where m= vehicle mass

a = acceleration
w = vehicle weight
g = accelerative force due to gravity

Grade Resistance
Grade resistance is phenomena which is used in vehicles. when a vehicle climbs mountain then
there is drag resistance which require some more power of engine rather then flat surface. this is
called grade resistance.
Fg = m x g x sinΦ

where m = vehicle mass

g = acceleration due to gravity
Φ = angle of incline

Rolling Resistance
Rolling resistance, sometimes called rolling friction or rolling drag, is the force resisting the
motion when a body (such as a ball, tire, or wheel) rolls on a surface. It is mainly caused by non-
elastic effects; that is, not all the energy needed for deformation (or movement) of the wheel,
roadbed, etc. is recovered when the pressure is removed.

Curve Resistance
Curve resistance is the force required to cause a vehicle to move along a curved path. It is a
function of the radius and the vehicle speed.

Where v = the vehicle velocity,

W = the vehicle weight
g = the acceleration of gravity
R = the radius of curvature

Air Resistance
Air resistance describes the forces that are in opposition to the relative motion of an object as it
passes through the air. These drag forces act opposite to the oncoming flow velocity, thus slowing
the object down. Unlike other resistance forces, drag depends directly on velocity, since it is the
component of the net aerodynamic force acting opposite to the direction of the movement.

F =
force
due to air resistance, or drag (N)

k = a constant that collects the effects of density, drag, and area (kg/m)

v = the velocity of the moving object (m/s)

ρ = the density of the air the object moves through (kg/m3)

CD = the drag coefficient, includes hard-to-measure effects (unitless)

A = the area of the object the air presses on (m2)

Power Requirements
Power is diclined as the rate at which work is done. The power P required to overcone the various
resistances and to propel a vehicle is expressed in units of horsepower (1 hp =550 ft-lb/sec) and
may be computed by the following equation

P = R x v/ 550 * hp

Where R = sum of the various resistances

v = vehicle velocity

In SI units
P = Rv ( watts)

Acceleration and Deceleration of Performances

A motor vehicle moves according to fundamental laws of motion; realtionships among distances,
time, velocity, and uniform acceleration are given by the folloeing equations

Where vf = final velocity

va = initial velocity
a = acceleration
t = time
d = distance

Maximum accelaration rates vary with the size of the vehicle and its operating speed. Vehicles are
capable of greatest acceleration at lowest speeds. From a standing start to a speed of 15 mph
(25k/hr), maximum avceleration values range from about 2.9 ft/sec (0.9 m/sec) for tractor-
semitrailer trucks up to about 14.7 ft/sec (4.5 m/sec) for large cars (22). For a speed change of 0 to
30 mph (48km/hr), typical maximum accelerations are:
• for tractor-trailer semitrailer truck 1.5ft/sec (0.5 m/sec)
• for large cars 10.3 ft/sec (3.1 m/sec)
• for high performance 14.2 ft/sec (4.3 m/sec)