CE 3113 –Transportation Engineering

Spring 2021

HW #3

1. (4 pts) What is the peak 15-minute volume on a facility with a PHF of 0.97 and an hourly
flow rate of 6840 vehicles/hour?
2. (8 pts) The speed of 10 vehicles were measured as spot speeds at the midpoint of a 0.75-mile
(1.207 km) section of roadway. Calculate the TMS and SMS for the vehicles assuming each
vehicle traveled the entire section of roadway at a uniform speed. The speeds collected are as
follows:

Vehicle Speed (mph)

1 66
2 63
3 70
4 72
5 65
6 64
7 65
8 69
9 64
10 65

3. (12 pts) Based on the following relationship, use Greenshield’s Model to calculate the
optimum speed, optimal density and maximum capacity of the system.
𝑢 = 65 × (1 − 0.007𝑘)
4. (16 pts) An urban freeway with a base free-flow speed of 70 mph has a demand volume of
6750 vph. It has four 11-ft lanes in each direction with a right-side lateral clearance of 4 ft.
The total ramp density is 1.2 ramps/mi. The traffic stream is comprised of 8% heavy vehicles
and a PHF of 0.94. The terrain is rolling throughout the segment, and the mean speed of the
traffic stream is 68 mph. What is the level of service for the facility? What is the capacity?
5. (16 pts) For an urban freeway, how many 12 ft lanes in each direction are needed to achieve
LOS D on a freeway with a peak hour traffic volume of 5725 vph and with a PHF = 0.96?
The traffic stream is comprised of 8% heavy vehicles and the location is rolling terrain. The
right-side lateral clearance is 4 ft, and interchanges are spaced approximately 1.5 mi apart.
The base free-flow speed is 70 mph.

References (Problems retrieved and/or modified from):

Kuhn, Beverly Thompson (2019) Transportation Engineering: A Practical Approach to
Highway Design, Traffic Analysis, and Systems Operations. McGraw Hill Education.
Problems 1-2 and 3-4.

HW #3 CE 3113 February 18, 2021