Taibah University

College of Engineering

Department of
Civil Engineering
Course CE 364
Highway Engineering

Chapter 2: Highway functions, classification

and planning considerations

By : Dr. Férid RÉHIMI

Email: Rehimi_f@yahoo.fr
Objectives of the course

Students completing this course successfully will be able to discuss the concepts
of:
1. Highway design
2. Highway classifications
3. Functional classification
4. Highway Functional system characteristics
• In urban area
• In rural area

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Highway Design

• Functional class of the highway being built

• Cross section elements, Pavement structure, and Vehicle types using the highway

• Expected traffic volume and vehicle mix

• Design hourly volume, Design vehicle

• Design speed
• Topography of the area
• LOS to be provided
• Available funds
• Safety
• Social and environmental factors
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Highway functions: System and classification
Classification by design type
(Freeway, Highway, Expressway, residential…) is the most useful approach for highway
location and design
Classification by route numbering
(example U.S. state and county…) is the most useful for traffic operations

Classification by administrative class

(example National highways and non national highways…) is used to define the level
of responsibility for a highway design/management and the financing methodology
of such a highway facility.
Classification by function
• Rural Roads: Principal arterial, Minor arterial, Collector, Local road
• Urban Roads: Principal arterial, Minor arterial street, Collector street, Local street 4
Highway functions: System and classification

Why classification so important? It is the first step in the highway

design process  Define the function that the facility is going to serve.

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Functional classification

While the accommodation of bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit users is an

important consideration in the planning and design of highways and streets, the
functional classification of a highway or street is primarily based on motor vehicle
travel characteristics and the degree of access provided to adjacent properties.

Motor vehicle travel involves a series of distinct travel movements. The six
recognizable stages in most trips include main movement, transition, distribution,
collection, access, and termination.

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Functional classification: Hierarchies of Movements and Components
Motor vehicle travel involves a series of
distinct travel movements. The six
recognizable stages in most trips include
main movement, transition, distribution,
collection, access, and termination.

the movement hierarchy is based on the total

amount of traffic volume, freeway travel is
generally the highest level in the movement
hierarchy, below that is distributor arterial
travel, and lowest in the movement hierarchy is
travel on collectors and local access routes. 7
Functional classification: Hierarchies of Movements and Components

• A fundamental cause of highway obsolescence is the failure of a design to recognize

and accommodate each of the different trip levels of the movement hierarchy.

• Conflicts and congestion occur at interfaces between public highways and private
traffic-generating facilities when the functional transitions are inadequate.
Example:
• commercial driveways that connect directly from a relatively high-speed arterial to a parking aisle without
intermediate provisions for transition deceleration,
• arterial distribution or, more seriously, freeway ramps that connect directly to or from large traffic
generators such as major shopping centers.

• Inadequate capacity of the distributor arterial to serve traffic demands or internal

circulation deficiencies within a destination facility or network may lead to traffic
backing up onto the freeway.
• In the case of a freeway connecting directly to a large traffic generator,
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deceleration from rapid movement on the freeway occurs on the exit ramp.
Roundabout al-Qiblatayn

Perimeter=403 m
Average Diameter=128 m Min Diameter=80 m 9
Functional classification: Hierarchies of Movements and Components

• For large traffic generators, each movement stage should have a separate
functional facility.

• The principles of movement hierarchy are related to a logical system of

classifying traffic generation intensity.

• For relatively small generators, two or more stages may be accommodated

on the same internal facility.

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Functional classification: Hierarchies of Movements and Components

• In many cases, a single traffic generator could fill a single freeway lane. It is then
appropriate to construct a freeway ramp for the exclusive use of the generator
without intervening public streets.

• At still smaller volumes, it becomes desirable to combine the traffic from several
generators before the flow arrives at a freeway entrance ramp.
The road performing this function then becomes a collector facility to accumulate
these small flows until reaching a traffic volume that will fill the freeway ramp.

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Functional relationships

• Functional classification is applied to group streets and highways according to

the character of service they are intended to provide. This classification
recognizes that individual roads and streets do not serve travel independently.

• Most travel involves movement through road networks and can be classified by
its relationship to such networks in logical and consistent categories.

→ Functional classification of roads and streets is also consistent with

categorization of travel.
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Functional relationships: Channelization
• It is impractical to provide direct-line connections for every desire line, trips
should be channelized on a limited road network.
• Heavy travel movements are served directly or nearly so, and the smaller
movements are channeled into somewhat indirect paths.
• The facilities are labeled local access, collector, and arterial, which are terms that
describe their functional relationships. We notice also that, the functional
hierarchy is also seen to be related to the hierarchy of trip distances served by
the network.

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Federal Functional Classification Decision Tree

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 Functional classification of highways: rural V.S. urban area
• In this rural network, the arterial highways generally provide direct service
between cities and larger towns that generate and attract a large proportion of the
relatively longer trips.
• The roads of intermediate functional category (collectors) serve small towns
directly. They collect traffic directly from local roads serving individual farms and other
rural land uses or distribute traffic to these roads from arterials.

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Functional classification of highways: rural V.S. urban area

In urban and suburban area considerations, such as spacing of

intersections, are important in
defining logical and efficient network.
high intensity of the
land use and travel
specific travel generation
centers are more difficult to
identify

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Access Needs and Controls
Mobility vs. Accessibility

• Mobility: the ease of moving

• Accessibility: the ease of reaching a destination

Mobility = amount of movement; it can be

measured in terms of vehicle-km traveled, so
in terms of distance traveled.

Accessibility = ease of reaching a destination;

it can’t be directly measured, but only
quantified or indicated in terms of other
variables.
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Access Needs and Controls

• The two major considerations in classifying highway and street networks

functionally are access and mobility.

• The conflict between serving through movement and providing access to

a dispersed pattern of trip origins and destinations leads to the differences and
gradations in the various functional types.

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Access Needs and Controls

Highway

Arterials Local streets

• Mobility • Access
• Access limitation to enhance speed • Limitation in mobility and
speed

• Mobility is defined as the easiness of move and it incorporates several

qualitative elements, such as riding comfort and absence of speed
changes, but the most basic factor is operating speed or trip travel time.

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Access Needs and Controls
Hierarchy relative to
traffic functional
travel distances
categorization specialization
served by roads

Local rural facilities
Arterials for main
movement or distribution
emphasize the high level of
mobility for through
movement
Collectors offer
approximately balanced
service for both
emphasize the land functions
access function
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Functional system characteristics: Definitions of urban and rural areas
Urban and rural areas have different characteristics with regard to density and
types of land use, density of street and highway networks, nature of travel
patterns, and the way in which these elements are related.

urban and rural functional systems are

classified separately.

Urban areas are those places within

boundaries set by the responsible state Rural areas are those areas outside the
and local officials having a population of boundaries of urban areas.
5,000 ≤ pop.

small urban areas urbanized areas

(5,000 ≤ pop.≤50,000) (pop.≥50,000)

Remark: For design purposes, the population forecast for the design year should be used. 21
Functional system characteristics
Highway and roads
network

Urban
Rural area
area

Urban Urban minor Urban

Rural principal Rural minor Rural collector Rural local Urban local
principal arterial street collector street
arterial system arterial system system road system street system
arterial system system system

Major collector Minor

road collector road

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Functional system characteristics

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Functional system for rural areas

Rural roads consist of facilities outside of

urban areas. The names provided for the
recognizable systems are principal arterials
(roads), minor arterials (roads), major and minor
collectors (roads), and local roads.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Principal Arterial System

• The principal arterial system includes most (if not all) existing rural freeways.

• The principal arterial system is stratified into the following three classifications:

(1) Interstate highways,

(2) other freeways and expressways, and

(3) other principal arterials.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Principal Arterial System

The Rural Principal Arterial System consists of a network of routes with the
following service characteristics:

1. Corridor movement with trip length and density suitable for substantial statewide
or interstate travel.
2. Movements between all, or virtually all, urban areas with populations over 50,000
and a large majority of those with populations over 25,000.

3. Integrated movement without stub connections except where unusual

geographic or traffic flow conditions dictate otherwise (e.g., international
boundary connections or connections to coastal cities).

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Minor Arterial System

Minor arterials constitute routes that should provide for relatively high travel
speeds and minimum interference to through movement consistent with the context
of the project area and considering the range or variety of users.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Minor Arterial System

The rural minor arterial road system, in conjunction with the rural principal arterial
system, forms a network with the following service characteristics:

1. Link cities and larger towns (and other traffic generators, such as major resort areas,
that are capable of attracting travel over similarly long distances) and form an
integrated network providing interstate and intercounty service.
2. Be spaced at such intervals so that all developed areas of the State are within a
reasonable distance of an arterial highway.
3. Designs that provide for relatively high overall travel speeds, with minimum
interference to through movement.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Collector System

• The rural collector routes generally serve travel of primarily intracounty

rather than statewide with a travel distances shorter than on arterial routes.

Consequently, more moderate speeds may be typical.

• Rural collector system is sub-classified to major collector roads and minor

collector roads.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Collector System
Major Collector Roads: These routes
(1) serve county seats not on arterial routes, larger towns not directly served by the
higher systems, and other traffic generators of equivalent intracounty importance, such
as consolidated schools, shipping points, county parks, and important mining and
agricultural areas;

(2) link these places with nearby larger towns or cities, or with routes of higher
classifications;

(3) serve the more important intracounty travel corridors.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Collector System
Minor Collector Roads: These routes should

(1) be spaced at intervals consistent with population density to accumulate traffic

from local roads and bring all developed areas within reasonable distances of
collector roads;

(2) provide service to the remaining smaller communities;

(3) link the locally important traffic generators with their rural hinterland.

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Functional system for rural areas: Rural Local Road System

• The rural local road system, in comparison to collectors and arterial systems,
primarily provides access to land adjacent to the collector network and serves
travel over relatively short distances.

• The local road system constitutes all rural roads not classified as principal
arterials, minor arterials, or collector roads.

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Extent of Rural Systems

Guidelines on Extent of Rural Functional Systems

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Functional system for urban areas

The four functional highway systems for urbanized areas are urban principal

arterials (streets), minor arterials (streets), collectors (streets), and local streets.

The differences in the nature and intensity of development in rural and urban

areas justify corresponding differences in urban system characteristics relative to

the rural systems.

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 Functional system for urban areas: Urban Principal Arterial System
constitutes a relatively small percentage of carries a high proportion of the
the total roadway network total urban area travel
carries most of the trips
the longest trip entering and leaving the
desires but urban area

carries most of the

major centers of through movements
activity of urbanized The urban principal arterial system bypassing the central city
areas
serves Carries travel between central
the highest traffic business districts and outlying
volume corridors residential areas
Frequently, the urban principal arterial
system carries important intra-urban
as well as intercity bus routes

The system should be integrated both internally provides continuity for all rural arterials
and between major rural connections. that intercept the urban boundary. 35
Functional system for urban areas: Urban Principal Arterial System

Because of the nature of the travel served by the principal arterial system, almost all
fully and partially controlled access facilities are usually part of this functional class.
However, this system is not restricted to controlled-access routes.

To preserve the identification of controlled-access facilities, the principal arterial

system should be stratified as follows: (1) interstate, (2) other freeways, and (3)
other principal arterials (with partial or no control of access)

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Functional system for urban areas: Urban Principal Arterial System

The spacing of urban principal arterials is closely related to the trip-end

density characteristics of particular portions of the urban areas.

Although no firm spacing rule applies in all or even in most circumstances, the

spacing between principal arterials (in larger urban areas) may vary from less

than 1.6 km [1 mi] in the highly developed central business areas to 8 km [5 mi]
or more in the sparsely developed urban fringes.

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Functional system for urban areas: Urban minor Arterial street System
The urban minor arterial street system interconnects with and augments the urban
principal arterial system.

• It accommodates trips of moderate length at a somewhat lower level of travel mobility than
principal arterials do.
• This system distributes travel to geographic areas smaller than those identified with the
higher system.
• The urban minor arterial street system includes all arterials not classified as principal.
• This system places more emphasis on land access than the higher system does and offers
lower traffic mobility.
• Such a facility may carry local bus routes and provide intracommunity continuity but ideally
does not penetrate identifiable neighborhoods.
• This system includes urban connections to rural collector roads where such connections
have not been classified as urban principal arterials for internal reasons. 38
Functional system for urban areas: Urban minor Arterial street System

The spacing of urban minor arterial streets may vary from 0.2 to 1.0 km [0.1 to 0.5
mi] in the central business district to 3 to 5 km [2 to 3 mi] in the suburban fringes
but is normally not more than 2 km [1 mi] in fully developed areas.

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Functional system for urban areas: Urban collector street System
The urban collector street system provides both land access service and traffic
circulation within residential neighborhoods and commercial and industrial areas.

The collector system may penetrate residential neighborhoods, distributing trips

from the arterials through the area to their ultimate destinations.

The urban collector street also collects traffic from local streets in residential
neighborhoods and channels it into the arterial system.

In the central business district, and in other areas of similar development and

traffic density, the urban collector system may include the entire street grid. The

urban collector street system may also carry local bus routes. 40
Functional system for urban areas: Urban local street System

The urban local street system comprises all facilities not in one of the higher
systems.
It primarily permits direct access to abutting lands and connections to the higher order
systems.

It offers the lowest level of mobility and usually contains no bus routes. Service to
through-traffic movement usually is deliberately discouraged.

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Functional system for urban areas: Length of Roadway and Travel

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Comparison between urban and rural

Characteristics of Urban and Rural Arterials 

Characteristics of Urban and Rural Minor Arterials 

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Comparison between urban and rural

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Comparison between urban and rural

Characteristics of Urban and Rural Local Roads 

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Comparison between urban and rural

Map of an Urban Area’s Roadway Network  Map of a Rural Area’s Roadway Network 
(Functional Classification more evident)  (Functional Classification less evident) 

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End of chapter

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