TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

Explanatory Session: «Volume Counts and Concepts of Traffic Engineering»

CONTENIDOS

Volume Counts

Concepts of Traffic Engineering

Exercises
Supply and Demand in
Transportation
 Supply and Demand

• Review the reading material and answer the question:

What represents the supply and demand in Transportation

Engineering?
Volume Counts
 Determing the Demand
- Traffic Volume Counts -

• When we talk about the supply and the demand. The question is, how
can we determine what (is/will be) the demand in a highway?
• What is the current demand?,
• What will be future demand? For an existing roadway.
• What types of projects would be required for the future demand?
 Vehicle Count Methods

• In-Situ Conventional Technologies

• In-situ refers to measured traffic data with placed detectors
next to the roadway
• Two types
• Intrusive (data registration and a sensor)
• Non-Intrusive

• Intrusive Methods
• Pneumatic Tubes
• Piezoelectric sensors
• Magnetic circuits
 Vehicle Count Methods
• Pneumatic Tubes

They register the pressure changes when a

vehicles passes by the tube
Disadvantages:
 Volume per lane, no turns
 Limited by climate and traffic (multiaxis)
 Problems with slow traffic or congestion
 Vehicle Count Methods
• Piezoelectric Sensors

 Different from the pneumatic tube, the sensor is capable of

registering speeds and weights
 It is useful for the WIM (weight-in-motion) stations

• Magnetic circuits: used in Europe but short-lived and

affected by heavy traffic
Vehicle Count Methods

• In-Situ Conventional Technologies

• Non-Intrusive Methods
• Manual counts
• Passive and active infrared
• Passive magnetic
• Microwave radar
• Passive ultrasonic and acoustic
• Video detection
 Vehicle Count Methods
• Manual counts

• Most used traditional method

• Experienced measurers
• Besides volume data, the measurers can also get valuable
information that is hard to acquire automatically like
• Vehicle occupational rate
• Pedestrians
• Vehicles types
• Tools used:
• Counting sheets
• Mechanical counting tables
• Automatic counting tables
 Vehicle Count Methods

• Passive and active infrared

• Counts, speed and type can be measured
• However, there are limitations due to crossing vehicles, and
adverse climate
• Passive Magnetic
• Problems with congested areas
• Microwave radar
• Similar to infrared
• Mainly used for traffic infraction detection
 Vehicle Count Methods

• Passive Ultrasonic and Acoustic

• Affected by climate conditions
• Video Detection
• Number of vehicles
• Type of vehicles
• Speed
• Occupational Rate
• Pedestrians
• The post-processing is long and constant
 Video Detection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Cvn3_4yGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufK2XRGUjuc
 Manual Counts

• It consists in summarizing in a predetermined format what is

observed in the field.

• The format sheets have information like:

• Vehicle types
• Time intervals (15 min)
• Intersection turning type and street
Hourly Partition – 15 mins
Type of
Vehicles
Then, the several tables are put together
Traffic Volume Count Programs

http://www2.dot.state.fl.us/FloridaTrafficOnline/viewer.html
Concepts of Traffic Engineering
 Traffic Parameters

• AADT = Annual Average Daily Traffic

It represents the arithmetic average of the daily volume counts
in one year, existing or predicted for a given section.
Knowing AADT gives the engineer a quantitative idea of the
importance of the section and allows to make economic
feasibility calculations.
In Spanish, it is called IMDA = Indice Medio Diario Anual

• How AADT is calculated?

 Traffic Parameters

• AADT = Average of 365 ADT (Average Daily Traffic)

AADT 
 ADT
365
 For a specific day can be calculated by:

 Counts = field measurement

 HF = hourly factor
 1 
 DF = daily factor ADT  counts  DF MF GF 
 HF 
 MF = monthly factor
 GF = growth factor
Traffic Parameters
• Annual average daily traffic (AADT)

– Annual traffic averaged on a daily basis

– Both directions

• Design hourly volume (DHV)

– Traffic volume used for design calculations
– Typically between the 10th and 50th highest volume hour of the year
(30th highest is most common)

• K-factor DHV
K
– Ratio between DHV and AADT AADT
 Traffic Parameters

• In high volume roads, AADT is not used. Instead, the Design

Hourly Volume (DHV) is used to avoid problems of congestion
and determine acceptable levels of service.

• DHV = 30th highest hourly volume in a year.

In Spanish, Volumen Horario de Diseño (DHV)

DHV
K
AADT
• k = traffic percentage in the design hour (highest hourly factor)
• PHF = Peak Hour Factor in one hour (15 minute period)
Traffic Parameters

30th Highest Volume

Hourly Volume
k
AADT

If there is not enough information, a

value of k = 10% is recommended

1st 30th 8760

Annual Hourly Ranking

Typical Graph
 Traffic Parameters

• Directional distribution factor (D)

 Factor reflecting the proportion of peak-hour traffic traveling in the peak
direction
 Often there is much more traffic in one direction than the other.

• Directional design-hour volume (DDHV)

DDHV = K ×D× AADT

Example

TIME VEHICLE
COUNTS
700 – 715 400
715 – 730 500
730 – 745 700
Determine the peak hour factor
745 – 800 900
800 – 815 800
815 – 830 800
830 – 845 500
845 – 900 200
 Example

TIME VEHICLE
COUNTS
700 – 715 400
Assume that the 3-lane avenue capacity is 200 715 – 730 500
vehicles per lane in 15 minutes. Determine the 730 – 745 700
peak hour factor and the relationship between
745 – 800 900
volume and capacity (v/c). What this value
means? 800 – 815 800
815 – 830 800
830 – 845 500
845 – 900 200
Example

TIME VEHICLE
COUNTS
Assume that the 3-lane avenue 700 – 715 400
capacity is 200 vehicles in 15 715 – 730 500
minutes or 800 vehicles in one hour
730 – 745 700
per lane. How can you estimate the
DHV ? 745 – 800 900
800 – 815 800
815 – 830 800
830 – 845 500
845 – 900 200
 Traffic Parameters

Hourly Factor
In the previous example, not all the hours were available. In such
scenario, one or more hours can be used and adding its HF, the
daily volume can be calculated.

 Hourly Volume
 HourlyFactor  DailyVolume
Example 02
 Traffic Parameters

• Growth Factors
It can be estimated based on a
• Lineal function
• Exponential function

Relationship..
or can be computed based on economical and social variables
such as :
• Population
• Vehicle ownership
Traffic Parameters

• Growth Factor

• GFlineal = (1 + n.G)
• GFexponential = (1 + G)n
• GFpopulation = Popfut / Popcurrent
where
• G = annual growth rate
• n = number of years
Exercises
Traffic Parameters

• EXERCISE 01:

• Current Year: 2012

• Design Year: 2030
• DHV2012 = 5,000 vph
• Annual Growth Rate = 4%

• Determine DHV2030
 Traffic Parameters

EXERCISE 02:

• Current Population (2012) = 170,000

• Expected Population (2030) = 300,000

• If the current DHV is 5,000 vehicles

• Calculate the DHV in 2030
Exercise 03

If AADT is 3500 vpd and the 30th highest hourly volume for the
year is 420 vph, what is the K-factor for that facility?
 Question:

What’s the impact of choosing different K factor for design?

If AADT is 3500 vpd, how will the design volume

differ for k-factor = 8% vs. 12%?
Exercise 04

If traffic is directionally split 60/40, what is directional distribution of traffic for previous

example (Design hourly volume = 420 veh/hr)?

T-factor

• T = percentage of heavy vehicles during design hour

• Affects capacity, ability to pass on two-lane rural roads, etc.
• Larger, occupy more space
• Should determine % during design hour (truck patterns may not be
same as passenger vehicles)
 Exercise 05

• Consider a rural highway with a projected 20-year AADT of 40,000 vpd. For the type of
highway and region in question, it is known that peak-hour traffic currently is
approximately 20% of the AADT, and that the peak direction generally carries 65% of the
peak-hour traffic. What is the DDHV?
 Exercise 06
Table below shows AADT from the last 3 years. Estimate the AADT for the year
2020.

Year AADT

2013 12080

2014 12240

2015 12400
Dr. Alex M. Sanchez
Dr. Alex M. Sanchez
Dr. Alex M. Sanchez
Calculate the AADT for an intersection

Dr. Alex M. Sanchez

Calculate the AADT for an intersection
Dr. Alex M. Sanchez
Dr. Alex M. Sanchez
 Traffic Parameters
Some typical data:

• Street Typical Capacity: 8000 vplpd

• Freeway Typical Capacity: 2000 vplph

For some type of roads:

• Residential 500 to 5000 vplpd
• Collector 5000 to 15000 vplpd
• Arterial 15000 to 50000 vplpd
• Highways / Freeways More than 50000 vplpd
 CONCLUSIONES

Collecting traffic data is the most important task in transportation analysis.

01 It is important to determine current and future demand conditions.

There are diverse methods for collecting traffic data, conventional ones like manual
02 counts and modern methods, which use the technology.

In order to carry out adequate traffic studies, it is necessary to know different terms
03 that will lead us to determine the state of the roadway. Some of these concepts are:
AADT, ADT, DHV, DDHV, etc. All of them will be cover in the next class sessions.
 REFERENCIAS

 Garber and Hoel (2008). Traffic and Highway Engineering, 4th Edition.