Topic 3: Design Criteria for Highways and Railways

The goal in Highway Design is to provide safe roads for all road users, and not just those in motor
vehicles. The principle that ‘man is the reference standard’ implies that roads must be adapted to
the limitations of human capacity. This leads to what is called the ‘safe systems approach’ which
encourages:
● Simpler, self-explaining roads (with less reliance on traffic signs).
● Designing roads that encourage / enforce safe speeds (the safe speed being the one that
guarantees the safety of the most vulnerable road user).
● Forgiving roadsides (the ‘Clear Zone’ idea about unobstructed, traversable space beyond
the edge of the travelled way for recovery of errant vehicles).
● The World Bank’s Sustainable safe Road Design Manual also discusses.
● Functionality – developing a hierarchy of mono-functional roads (e.g. truck,
distributor and access).
● Homogeneity – avoiding differences in speed, direction of travel, and mass of
vehicles (with segregation of incompatible road users).
● Predictability – ensuring that roads are easy to understand and there are not nasty
surprises (as for ‘self-explaining’ roads).

The characteristics listed below are controls in optimizing or improving the design of the various
highway and street functional classes.

1. Human Factors and Driver Performance

The suitability of a design rests as much on how effectively drivers are able to use the highway
as on any other criteria. Considerations include;
● Driver tasks that include vehicle control (such as simultaneous multiple tasks and
reaction time), guidance (such as road following, lane placement, car following, passing
maneuvers and response to traffic control devices) and navigation.
● Use of the facility by older drivers and older pedestrians.
● Errors due to driver deficiencies and situational demands.
● Speed.

Properly designed highways that provide positive guidance to drivers can operate at a high level
of efficiency and with relatively few crashes.

The World Health Organization recorded 1.35 million people died due to road traffic crashes. More
than 90% of this recorded fatal road crashes occur in low-and middle-income countries. More so,
2019 statistics showed that the leading cause of death for children and young-adults aged 5 to 29
years is road traffic injuries (WHO). The organization tackles road safety through Decade of
Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

In the Philippines, as of 2018 data, there are a total of 116,906 incidents of road traffic crashes in
Metro Manila alone. On average there were 334 reported accidents per day with one resulting in
fatality, 56 being non-fatal and 276 leading to damages to property (topgear.com). This leads to
the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2017-2022, a program developed by the Department of
Transportation adopting a vision of zero road traffic death, with an interim target to reduce road
death rate by at least 20% by 2022. The interventions are organized according to the Action Plan
of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, focusing on the following: (1) road safety
management, (2) safe roads and mobility; (3) safe vehicles; (4) safe road users; and (5) post-crash
care.

2. Vehicles
Four general classes of design vehicles are (1) passenger cars, (2) buses, (3) trucks, and (4)
recreational vehicles. In the design of any highway facility, the designer should consider the largest
design vehicle that is likely to use that facility with considerable frequency or a design vehicle
with special characteristics appropriate to a particular location in determining the design of such
critical features as radii at intersections and radii of turning roadways (refer to Table 2.3.1 and
Table 2.3.2). As a general rule;
● A passenger car may be selected when the main traffic generator is a parking lot.
● A two-axle single unit truck may be used for intersection design of residential streets and
park roads.
● A three-axle single-unit truck may be used for the design of collector streets
and other facilities where larger single-unit trucks are likely.
● A bus may be used in the design of highway intersections that are designated
bus routes and that have relatively few large trucks using them.

Table 2.3.1. Design Vehicle Dimension

Table 2.3.2. Minimum Turning Radii of Design Vehicles

 3. Traffic Characteristics
The design of a highway and its features should explicitly cover traffic volumes and traffic
characteristics. Traffic volumes obtained from field studies (such as hourly and daily traffic
volumes, type and weight of vehicles and traffic trends) can indicate the need for improvement
and directly influence the selection of geometric design features, such as number of lanes, widths,
alignments and grades. Relevant studies include average daily traffic (ADT), peak hour traffic,
directional distribution, composition of traffic, projection of future traffic demands, speed and
traffic flow relationships characterized by the volume flow rate in vehicles per hour, the average
speed in kilometers per hour, and the traffic density in vehicles per kilometer.

4. Physical Elements
These elements include highway capacity, access control and management, pedestrians, bicycle
facilities, safety and environment.
Knowledge of highway capacity is essential to properly fit a planned highway to traffic demands.
Access control to manage interference with through traffic is achieved through the regulation of
public access rights to and from properties abutting the highway facilities, and can comprise full
control, partial control, access management or driveway/entrance regulations.
Pedestrian facilities including sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic control features, curb cuts, ramps, bus
stops, loading areas, stairs, escalators and elevators warrant due attention in both rural and urban
areas.
Existing streets and highways provide most of the network used by bicycle travel, making bicycle
traffic an important element for consideration in highway design.
Because the number of crashes increases with the number of decisions that need to be made by the
driver, it is in the interest of safety that roadways should be designed to reduce the need for driver
decisions and to reduce unexpected situations.
 5. Economic Factors
Highway economics is concerned with the cost of a proposed improvement and the benefits
resulting from it.

The following are the design controls of highway construction

1. Anticipated Traffic Volume

The design of a highway or any part thereof should consider jointly all data relating to traffic such
as traffic volume, character of traffic and axle loading. Financing, quality of foundations,
availability of materials, cost of right-of-way, and other factors have important bearing on the
design. However, traffic volume indicates the service for which the improvement is being made
and directly affects the geometric features of design such as width, alignment, grades, etc. It is no
more rational to design a highway without traffic information than it is to design a bridge without
the knowledge of weights and numbers of vehicles it is intended to support. Traffic information
serves to establish the ‘loads’ for geometric highway design.

A road should be designed so that it will accommodate or can be readily changed to accommodate
the number of vehicles which is estimated to pass it towards the end of its life. This number is
called the design volume. In estimating the design volume, the minimum life is commonly
assumed to be 10 to 15 years for a flexible pavement, and 20 years for a rigid pavement. Traffic
volumes are usually the annual average daily traffic (AADT), though at critical points on a road,
such as intersections, peak traffic figures are also taken into account. The number of vehicles using
a road in a given time determines the number of traffic lanes required and indicates whether there
is a need for auxiliary lanes for slow speed traffic and or whether speed change lanes are required
at intersections.
The design hourly volume (DHV) should be representative of the future year chosen for design. It
should be predicated on current traffic (existing and attracted) plus all traffic increases (normal
traffic growth, generated traffic and development traffic) that would occur during the period
between the current and the future year chosen for design. A period of 20 years is widely used as
a basis for design, for which the usual traffic increase on a highway improvement is in the range
of 50 to 150%. Where the highway is to be an expressway, traffic increase is likely to be higher,
in the range of 80 to 200%.

On minor, low volume roads, average daily traffic (ADT) normally is sufficient. On most highways
a DHV equal to the 30th highest hourly volume (abbreviated as ‘30 HV’) is usually used for design.
On highways with unusual or highly seasonal fluctuation in traffic flow, it may be necessary to
use a design hourly volume other than the 30 HV.

The design traffic data should include the following elements:

● ADT – current average daily traffic, year specified.
● ADT – future average daily traffic, year specified.
● DHV – future design hourly volume, two-way unless otherwise specified (DHV usually
equals 30 HV).
● K – Ratio of DHV to ADT; generally 12% to 18% for Rural and 8 to 12% for Urban.
● D – Directional distribution of DHV, one-way volume in predominant direction of travel
 expressed as percentage of total. D normally varies from about 50 to 80% of two-way
DHV, with an average of 67%.
● T – Trucks, exclusive of light delivery trucks, expressed as a percentage of DHV. As an
average on main rural highways, T is 7 to 9% of DHV and 13% of ADT; where weekend
peaks govern, the average may be 5% to 8% of DHV.

For important intersections, data should be obtained to show simultaneous traffic movement during
both the morning and evening peak hours.

2. Character of Traffic
All roads should be designed to accommodate trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, handcarts, cyclists
and pedestrians with safety and convenience. A thorough knowledge of the design vehicle’s
weight, dimensions, mobility and other characteristics is essential for good design.
The vehicle which should be used in design for normal operation is the largest one which represents
a significant percentage of the traffic for the design year. For design of most highways
accommodating truck traffic, one of the design semitrailer combinations should be used – refer to
Table 2.3.1 and Table 2.3.2. A design check should be made for the largest vehicle expected to
ensure that such a vehicle can negotiate the designated turns, particularly if pavements are curbed.
This is done using a swept path analysis using either turning circle templates or software.
Knowing the predominant character of traffic to use the highway, the required width of lane could
be determined. The total width of a highway is the sum of the widths of traffic lanes required,
dividing islands, curbs and gutter, shoulders and/or walkways, ditches or gutters, drains and other
special features.

3. Design Speed
The design speed is the speed determined for design and correlation of the physical features of a
highway that influence vehicle operation. It is the maximum safe speed that can be maintained
over a specified section of the highway when conditions are so favorable that the design features
of the highway govern. The choice of design is influenced principally by the character of terrain,
the extent of man-made features and economic considerations. Once selected, it sets the limits for
curvature, sight distance and other geometric features. In the design of a substantial length of
highway it is desirable, although it may not be feasible, to assume a constant design speed on
certain sections. Changes in terrain and other physical controls may dictate a change in design
speed on certain sections. If so, the introduction of a lower or higher design speed should not be
affected abruptly but over a sufficient distance to permit drivers to change speed gradually before
reaching the section of highway with the different design speed.
When available funds are limited, it is impractical to reduce design speed just to save construction
cost; rather the savings should be on other features.

4. Design Traffic (vehicles)

The operating characteristics of motor vehicles should be considered in analyzing a facility. The
major considerations are vehicle types and dimensions, turning radii and off-tracking, resistance
to motion, power requirements, acceleration performance, and deceleration performance. Motor
vehicles include passenger cars, trucks, vans, buses, recreational vehicles, and motorcycles. These
vehicles have unique weight, length, size, and operational characteristics. The forces that must be
overcome by motor vehicles if they are to move are rolling, air, grade, curve, and inertial
resistance. The weight/power ratios are useful for indicating the overall performance in
overcoming these forces.

5. Highway Capacity
Roadway conditions include geometric and other elements. In some cases, these influence the
capacity of a road; in others, they can affect a performance measure such as speed, but not the
capacity or maximum flow rate of the facility.

Roadway factors include the following:

● Number of lanes
● The type of facility and its development environment
● Lane widths
● Shoulder widths and lateral clearances
● Design speed
● Horizontal and vertical alignments
● Axle loads
● Availability of exclusive turn lanes at intersections

The horizontal and vertical alignment of a highway depends on the design speed and the
topography of the land on which it is constructed.

In general, the severity of the terrain reduces capacity and service flow rates. This is significant
for two-lane rural highways, where the severity of terrain not only can affect the operating
capabilities of individual vehicles in the traffic stream, but also can restrict opportunities for
passing slow-moving vehicles.

6. Classification of Highway
Certain characteristics distinguish multilane suburban and rural highways from expressways. For
example, vehicles may enter or leave multilane highways at intersections and driveways, and they
can encounter traffic signals.
Design standards for multilane highways tend to be lower than those for expressways, although a
multilane highway approaches expressway conditions as its access points and turning volumes
approach zero. Moreover, the visual setting and the developed frontage along multilane highways
have a greater impact on drivers than they do along expressways.
The multilane highway is similar to urban streets in many respects, although it lacks the regularity
of traffic signals and tends to have greater control on the number of access points per kilometer.
Also, its design standards are generally higher than those for urban streets. The speed limits on
multilane highways are often 10 to 20 kph higher than speed limits on urban streets. Pedestrian
activity, as well as parking, is minimal, unlike on urban streets.
Multilane highways differ substantially from two-lane highways, principally because a driver on
a multilane highway is able to pass slower-moving vehicles without using lanes designated for
oncoming traffic. Multilane highways also tend to be located near urban areas and often connect
urban areas; they usually have better design features than two-lane highways, including horizontal
and vertical curvature.
 7. Accident information
On all proposed projects, the accident history should be analyzed and potentially hazardous
features and locations identified to determine appropriate safety enhancement. A study of accidents
by location, type, severity, contributing circumstances, environmental conditions, and time periods
may suggest possible safety deficiencies.

Table 2.3.3 and Table 2.3.4 contain the minimum design standards for Philippine highways and
for tourism roads respectively.

Table 2.3.3. Minimum Design Standards for Highways except Tourism Roads

Table 2.3.4. Minimum Design Standards for Tourism Roads