SPOT SPEED STUDIES – conducted to estimate the distribution of speeds of vehicles in a stream of traffic

at a particular location on a highway.

SPEED OF A VEHICLE – defined as the rate of movement of the vehicle; it is usually expressed in
kilometers per hour (kph) or miles per hour (mph).

AVERAGE SPEED – the arithmetic mean of all observed vehicle speeds.

MEDIAN SPEED – the speed at the middle value in a series of spot speeds that are arranged in ascending
order.

MODAL SPEED – the speed value that occurs most frequently in a sample of spot speeds.

iTH-PERCENTILE SPOT SPEED – the speed value below which i percent of the vehicles travel.

PACE – the range of speed (usually taken at 10-kph intervals) that has the greatest number of
observations.

STANDARD DEVIATION OF SPEEDS – the measure of the spread of individual speeds.

Σ(𝑢𝑗 − 𝑢̅)2
𝑆= √
𝑁−1

S – standard deviation
uj – the jth observation

For grouped observation:

Σ𝑓𝑖 (𝑢𝑖 − 𝑢̅)2

𝑆= √
𝑁−1

ui – the mid value of speed class i

fi – the frequency of speed class i

MINIMUM SAMPLE SIZE – depends on the precision level, or degree of confidence that the sampling
error of a produced estimate will fall within a desired fixed range.

𝑍𝜎 2
𝑁=( )
𝑑
Z – 1.96
σ – STD
d – limit of acceptable error

TWO METHODS OF CONDUCTING SPOT SPEED STUDIES:

A. MANUAL METHOD
B. AUTOMATIC METHOD – ROAD DETECTORS, RADAR BASED, ELECTRONICS
ROAD DETECTORS – can be used to collect data on speeds at the same time as volume are being
collected.
a. PNEUMATIC ROAD TUBES are laid across the lane in which data are to be collected.
b. INDUCTION LOOP is a rectangular wire loop buried under the roadway surface, usually serves
as the detector of a resonant circuit.

RADAR-BASED SENSORS – work on the principle that when a signal is transmitted onto a moving
vehicle, the change in frequency between the transmitted and the reflected signal is proportional to the
speed of the moving vehicle.

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF SPOT SPEED DATA:

a. Frequency distribution table
b. Frequency histogram
b. Cumulative frequency distribution curve

COMPARISON OF MEAN SPEED:

𝑆12 𝑆22
𝑆𝑑 = √ +
𝑛1 𝑛2

Sd - the square root of the variance of the difference in means

S2 – the variance about the mean for the studies.

TRAFFIC VOLUME STUDIES – 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.

AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) – the average 24-hour counts collected every day of the year.

ADT (Average Daily Traffic) - the average 24-hour counts collected over a number of days greater than 1
but less than a year.

PHV (Peak Hour Volume) - the maximum number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway during a
period of 60 consecutive minutes.

VC (Vehicle Classification) - records volume with respect to the type of vehicles, for example, passenger
cars.

VMT (Vehicle Miles of Travel) – the measure of travel along a section of road. used as a base for
allocating resources for maintenance and improvement of highways.

VMT = traffic volume (ADT) * length of highway

Passenger Car Equivalent Factor (PCEF) - Also known as Passenger Car Unit (PCU).

VISUAL ACUITY – the ability to see fine details f an object. It can be represented by visual angle φ, which
is the reciprocal of the smallest pattern detail (in minutes of arc) that can be resolved.

STATIC ACUITY – the driver’s ability to identify an object when both the object and the driver are
stationary.
DYNAMIC ACUITY – the driver’s ability to clearly detect relatively moving objects, not necessarily on his
direct line of vision.

PERIPHERAL VISION – the ability of people to see objects beyond the cone of clearest vision.

COLOR VISION – the ability to differentiate one color from another, but deficiency in this ability, usually
referred to as color blindness.

DIRECT GLARE – occurs when a 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 a
light source.

DEPTH PERCEPTION – the ability to differentiate speed and location of images.

HEARING PERCEPTION – the ear receives sound stimuli, which is important to drivers only when
warning sounds are to be detected.

PERCEPTION-REACTION PROCESS:

Perception: the driver sees an object on the road.

Identification: the driver identifies the object and thus understands the stimulus.
Emotion: the driver decides what action to take in response to the stimulus.
Reaction/Volition: the driver actually executes the action decided using the emotion subprocess.

PEDESTRIAN CHARACTERISTICS:

Male walking speed: 5.41 kph

Female walking speed: 5.08 kph
For more conservative measurements, use 4.40 kph average walking speed.
Elderly pedestrians: 3.29 kph
Persons with disability: 2.16 kph to 4.02 kph

SSD (Stopping Sight Distance): SSD = Distance perception + Distance breaking

𝑢2
𝑆𝑑 = 𝑢𝑡𝑟 +
2𝑔(𝑓𝑏 ± 𝐺)
SSD = stopping sight distance (m)
𝑡r = perception-reaction time (sec), usually 2.50 sec
𝑢 = initial vehicle speed (m/s)
𝑓= friction coefficient (a/g)
𝐺 = grade in decimal format
b = braking efficiency
FIVE TYPES OF “AVOIDANCE MANEUVERS”:

Stopping (PR and Stopping)

A, rural road, t = 3.0 seconds
B, urban road, t = 9.1 seconds
Speed/Path/Direction change (PR only)
C, rural road, t = 10.2 to 11.2 seconds
D, suburban road, t = 12.1 to 12.9 seconds
E, urban road, t = 14.0 to 14.5 seconds
For A and B:
𝑢2
𝐷𝑆𝐷 = 0.27𝑢𝑡𝑚 + 0.039
𝑎
For C, D, and E

𝐷𝑆𝐷 = 0.27𝑢𝑡𝑚
𝑡m = pre-maneuver time (sec)
𝑢 = design vehicle speed (kph)
𝑎 = deceleration rate, usually 3.4 m/sec2