TRAFFIC STREAM

CHARACTERISTICS

CVL 742: Traffic Engineering

K. Ramachandra Rao
Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi
 Traffic Engineering

OUTLINE
¢ Types of facilities
¢ Traffic Stream parameters
— Volume and rate of flow
— Speed and travel time
— Density and occupancy
— Spacing and headway

¢ Relationships among flow rate, speed and density

¢ Traffic flow theories – chronology

¢ Traffic characteristics – measurements

¢ Interrupted flow

Traffic Characteristics
 Traffic Engineering

TYPES OF FACILITIES
¢ Traffic streams are made up of individual drivers and vehicles – which
vary – interacting with each other and with the physical elements of the
roadway and its general environment.
¢ Driver behaviour and vehicle characteristics vary

¢ Traffic – element of variability

— Flow of water through channels and pipes – somewhat predictable
— Flow of traffic through streets and highways – variation with time and location
— hence the challenge – plan and design for a medium that is not predictable in exact
terms – involving physical constraints and complex human behaviour

Traffic Characteristics
 Traffic Engineering

TYPES OF FACILITIES
p Traffic facilities are broadly separated into two principal
categories
n Uninterrupted flow: refers to a type of facility, not the quality of
operations on that facility.
p Traffic stream characteristics are based solely on the interactions among
vehicles
p Examples: toll road segments of NH more than 3 km apart without fixed
interruptions
p Other Rural roads such as SHs and MDRs
 Traffic Engineering

TYPES OF FACILITIES
n Interrupted flow
p Fixed external interruptions
p Example: signalized intersections
p STOP and YIELD signs
p Major difference between uninterrupted flow and
interrupted flows
n Is the impact of time
n On uninterrupted facilities, the physical facility is available to
drivers and vehicles at all times
n On a given interrupted flow facility, movement is periodically
barred by red signals
 Traffic Engineering

TRAFFIC STREAM PARAMETERS

p Traffic stream parameters fall into two broad categories
n Macroscopic parameters: describe the traffic stream as a whole
p volume and rate of flow,
p speed,
p density
n Microscopic parameters: describe the behavior of individual
vehicles or pairs of vehicles within the traffic stream
p the speed of individual vehicles,
p headway,
p spacing
 Traffic Engineering

TRAFFIC STREAM PARAMETERS

http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/capital-chaos-delhi-s-traffic-has-slowed-
down-and-doubled-time-spent-on-roads/story-ZTp1UviD50hOXvdZpGs8FN.html
Accessed 15 Dec 2016
 Traffic Engineering

VOLUME AND FLOW

p Traffic volume: is defined as the number of vehicles passing a
point on a highway, or a given lane or direction of a highway,
during a specified time interval
n The unit of measurement for volume is simply “vehicles,” although it is often
expressed as “vehicles per unit time
p Rates of flow: generally stated in units of “vehicles per hour,” but
represent flows that exist for periods of time less than one hour
n A volume of 200 vehicles observed over a 15-minute period may be
expressed as a rate of 200 * 4 = 800 vph
 Traffic Engineering

VOLUME AND FLOW

p Daily volumes are used to establish trends over time, and for
general planning purposes
n There are four daily volume parameters that are widely used in traffic
engineering:
n Average annual daily traffic (AADT): Average 24 hour volume over a year
n Average annual weekday traffic (AAWT): Average 24 hr volume per weekday
(excluding weekends)
n Average daily traffic (ADT): Same as AADT, but average over period less than
a year, say, a two months
n Average weekday traffic (AWT): Same as AAWT, but average over period
less than a year, say, a month
 Traffic Engineering

VOLUME AND FLOW

p AADT Applications
n Estimation of highway use
n Estimation of trends
n Economic feasibility evaluation
n Planning
n Maintenance
p ADT Applications
n Planning
n Measurement of current demand
 Traffic Engineering
Volume and flow
 Traffic Engineering

HOURLY VOLUMES
p Daily volume is useful for planning purposes, but cannot be used
alone for design and operation purposes
n Volume varies considerably over 24 hours
n Peak hour volume generally is directional
p In design, peak-hour volumes are sometimes estimated from
projections of the AADT
n DDHV = AADT*K*D
n Directional Design Hour Volume (DDHV),
n K = Proportion of daily traffic occurring during Peak hour
n D = Proportion of peak hour traffic traveling in the peak direction of flow.
n Tends to be variable and is influenced by a number of factors
n Development density increases, D factor tends to increase
 Traffic Engineering

HOURLY VOLUMES
p K = Proportion of daily traffic occurring during Peak hour,
n for design K factor often represents the proportion of AADT
occurring during the 30th peak hour of the year
n If the 365 peak hour volumes of the year at a given location are
listed in descending order, the 30th peak hour on the list is 30th on
the list and represents a volume that is exceeded 29 times in a
year
 Traffic Engineering

SUB-HOURLY VOLUMES
¢ The variation of traffic within a given hour is also of considerable
interest. The quality of traffic flow is often related to short-term
fluctuations in traffic demand.
¢ The max no. of vehicles passing a point on a highway over 60
consecutive minutes
¢ The relationship between the hourly volume and the maximum
flow rate within an hour is defined by the Peak Hour Factor (PHF)
— PHF = hourly volume/max. rate of flow
— PHF = V/(4*Vm15)
¢ Where V = hourly volume, vehs
¢ Vm15 = maximum 15-min volume within the hour, vehs

¢ PHF = peak-hour factor

¢ v = V/PHF; v = max rate of flow within an hour, veh/h
¢ V = hourly volume, veh/h
— Mainly used for urban:
¢ Highway design (e.g., highway classification, # of lanes, signalization, etc.)
¢ Traffic management (e.g., capacity analysis, parking, etc.)
 Traffic Engineering

SPEED AND TRAVEL TIME

¢ Speed is defined as the rate of motion in distance per unit time, v = d/t
¢ In a moving traffic stream, each vehicle travels at a different speed.
¢ Traffic stream as a whole, can be characterized using an average or typical
speed.
¢ Time mean speed (spot or instantaneous speed)
— Individual vehicle’s speed is measured at a single point
— Arithmetic average of all vehicles that are measured during a time period i,

1 N
vt = åv i
N i =1
 Traffic Engineering

SPEED AND TRAVEL TIME

¢ Space mean speed (harmonic mean)
— Individual vehicle’s speed is not directly measured
— Individual vehicle’s travel time across a pre-specified distance is measured
— Obtain average travel time
— Obtain average space mean speed
 Traffic Engineering

SPEEDS …
¢ Relationship between time mean speed and space mean speed
(Wardrop)
— Time mean speed is greater or equal to space mean speed
— The two speeds have the following relationship (Gerlough and Huber,
1975) derivation: SELF STUDY)
s s2
vt = vs +
vs
 Traffic Engineering

TMS AND SMS

¢ Time mean speeds (TMS) are measured at a point over time.
The arithmetic mean of the spot speeds
¢ Space mean speeds (SMS) are measured over a distance. The
harmonic mean of the spot speeds
— If a traveller goes from A to B a distance of 20 km, at an average speed of
80 km/h and returns at an average speed of 40 km/h, the average speed of
the round trip is not 60 km/h but 53.3 km/h.
— The average speed of the trip: it takes ¼ hr one way and ½ hr on return, in
total ¾ hr for 40 km. Hence the average speed is 40/(3/4) = 53.3 km/h
— This however is not the same as when one stands by the road side and
measures the speed with speed gun catching this car on both directions of
the journey and averaging the two observations, which gives the speed 60
km/h
 Time-mean Space-mean
A A
A A
B B
5 km
C C
C C
B
B
C
A v2 =5 km/h
1 hr
C v3 =10 km/h B v1 =5 km/h
Generally, space-mean speed is what we are
interested in. (Time-mean speed is biased
towards faster vehicles.)
The time-mean speed is just the simple
average of these: (arithmetic mean),
observed for 1 h
(5 + 5 + 10 + 10) / 4 = 7.5 km/h

B v1 =5 km/h
n
A v2 =5 km/h ∑v i
i=1
C v3 =10 km/h vt =
n
C v4 =10 km/h
The space-mean speed is the harmonic average:
the reciprocal of the average of the reciprocals

4 / (1/5 + 1/5 + 1/10 + 1/10)

= 6.7 km/h
1 n
vs = n = n
" %
$ ∑ (1 vi ) n ' ∑ (1 vi )
# i=1 & i=1
B v1 =5 km/h C v3 =10 km/h
A v2 =5 km/h C v4 =10 km/h
 Another way to look at average speed:

A 5 km/h
A B 5 km/h
C 10 km/h
C

Track circumference 5 km
B

From this aerial photo, it seems obvious that the average speed is
(5 + 5 + 10)/3 = 6.7 km/h. 22

Boyles, 2011
TIME-MEAN SPEED AND ¢ Consider two lanes of traffic which is
perfectly controlled so that there are
ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH only two streams of traffic:
SPACE-MEAN SPEED ¢ Fast vehicles 60 km/h inner lane and
slow vehicles 30 km/h outer lane and
traffic flow in each lane is each lane is
1200 veh/h and lane change is
prohibited.
¢ For 1 km total of 60 veh are seen
¢ 20 in inner lane (1200/60)
¢ 40 in outer lane (1200/30)
¢ Space mean speed =

20 ´ 60 + 40 ´ 30
vs = = 40 km/h
1200 ´ 60 + 1200 ´ 30 60
vt = = 45 km/h
2400 ¢ In the example fast vehicles are over
represented in time mean speed (fast :
The space-mean speed is an unbiased slow =1:1), while in reality the correct
estimate of the true traffic mean speed, ratio is (fast : slow = 1:2)
while the time-mean speed is not.
 Traffic Engineering

OCCUPANCY AND DENSITY

¢ Density (k) is the third primary measure of traffic
stream characteristics, defined as the number of
vehicles occupying a given length of highway or
lane (veh/km or veh/km/lane)
¢ Difficult to measure directly
¢ Density is the important measure of quality of
traffic flow
¢ Lane occupancy: measure
used in freeway surveillance
— Ratio of the time that vehicles are present at a
detection station in a traffic lane compared to the
observation time
¢ Based on the occupancy measurement, density
can be obtained
 Traffic Engineering

OCCUPANCY AND DENSITY

¢ Assume k vehicles are evenly spread out on 1 km highway
at speed vs (km/h)
N
d + li
å vi d +l N 1
r= i =1

T
» å
T i =1 vi
(assume li ® l )

1 N 1 N 1 N
1 1
= (d + l ) å = (d + l ) ( å ) = (d + l )q
T i =1 vi T N i =1 vi vs
= (d + l )k
r r
k= =
(d + l ) l

¢ Density and spacing

— Spacing (hs) is defined as the distance between successive vehicles
in a traffic lane, measured from some common reference point, thus,
Avg spacing, hs = 1/k
 Traffic Engineering

TIME HEADWAY AND FLOW

¢ Time headway
— Time headway is defined as the time interval between successive vehicles as
they pass a point along the lane, measured between the common reference
point.
— The average time headway, ht is directly related to the rate of flow (q)
— ht = 1/q
— Using microscopic measures, avg speed measurements can be made, v = hs
/ht
FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIP
¢ The density can also be related to the individual spacing between
successive vehicles, si (measured from bumper to bumper)

n
n
! = å si ; hence k = n
;
i =1
å si
i =1
1
k= ; s = average spacing ( å s i /n ) in unit distance per vehicle
s
¢ Based on definitions presented, a simple identity provides the basic
relationship among traffic flow (q), speed (space-mean, v) and density
(k)
q =kv
TRAFFIC SENSING TECHNOLOGIES
TRAFFIC MEASUREMENTS
¢ With the vehicle (Mobile Sensor) - GPS receivers,
acoustic/ultrasonic sensors, mobile phones
¢ At a point (Point Sensor): All contact/non-contact
(intrusive/non-intrusive) devices: Flow rate (volume), Speeds
and headway
— Volume: Hand tallies, Pneumatic tubes, Video Cameras and Loop
Detectors
— Speeds: Laser Speed guns
— Time Headways: Dictaphones, Loop detectors, and Video Cameras
¢ Over a Short Section : Flow: A pair of detectors (inductive
loops) spaced 5-6 m apart or Video Camera (small range),
— Occupancy: Loop detectors
¢ Along the length of the road (Space Sensor): Flow and
Occupancy – video camera, drone, helicopter, satellite: Density
— Density: Most difficult to measure; Aerial photography or from cameras
mounted on tall buildings; Video camera can be used for indirect
calculation of densities
TRAFFIC MEASUREMENTS- SENSORS
Characteristic Sensors Microscopic Macroscopic

Flow (flux, flow Mobile - -

rate) Point h N,q
Space - -
Speed Mobile -
Point vt
Space vs

Density Mobile - -
(concentration) Point t r
Space s K
STREAM MODELS - INTRODUCTION
¢ Time headway and spacing are referred to as microscopic
measures because they describe characteristics specific to
individual pairs of vehicles within the traffic stream
¢ Measures that describe the traffic stream flow as a whole
are referred to as macroscopic measures
¢ As observed from previous relationships, microscopic
measures can be aggregated and related to the
macroscopic measures
STREAM MODELS
¢ Speed-Density Model
¢ The most intuitive starting point for developing consistent,
generalized traffic model is to focus on the relationship
between speed and density
— vf = free flow speed, which is not inhibited by the presence of
other vehicles
— At low densities vehicles attain free speeds
— At high densities (congested conditions) the traffic comes to a
stand still
 GREENSHIELDS MODEL
¢ Bruce Greenshields used in 1933 photographic measurement
methods for the first time to describe a phenomenological law
described by a quadratic relation between vehicles and their
density and flows, called the fundamental diagram

Greenshields, B.D., A study of traffic capacity. In: Proceedings of the Highway Research
Board, Vol. 14. Highway Research Board, Washington, D.C. (1935)
SPEED-DENSITY MODEL – SINGLE REGIME
¢ Greenshield’s model:
¢ v = vf(1-k/kj)
¢ In reality this relationship is non-
linear at low and high densities
¢ It is Linear over a large medium-
density region
¢ Greenberg’s model:
¢ v = vm ln (kj/k); vm = speed
corresponding to maximum flow
¢ Underwood’s model:
¢ v= vf exp(-k/km); km = density Linear Speed-Density relationship
corresponding to maximum flow
GREENSHIELDS MODEL – ACTUAL DATA

Ni ( 2016)
35
SPEED-DENSITY MODEL

Ni ( 2016)

36

Mathew (2014)
CALIBRATION OF GREENSHIELD’S MODEL
¢ In order to use this model for any traffic stream, one should get the
boundary values, especially free flow speed (vf ) and jam density (kj )
¢ This data needs to be obtained from field surveys and further the
unknown parameters are to be estimated
¢ Although it is difficult to determine exact free flow speed and jam
density directly from the field, approximate values can be obtained
from a number of speed and density observations and then fitting a
linear equation between them
— v = a + bk; finding the suitable values of a and b is called calibration
FLOW-DENSITY MODEL

¢ Using the assumption of a

linear speed-density
relationship (Greenshield) as
shown before, a parabolic
flow-density model can be
obtained
¢ q=vf(k-k2/kj)

Parabolic Flow-density relationship

FLOW-DENSITY…
¢ The maximum flow rate, qcap, represents the highest rate of
traffic flow that the highway is capable of handling.
¢ This is referred to as traffic capacity, qcap
dq/dk = vf(1-2k/kj) =0; kcap = kj/2
vcap = vf(1-kj/2kj) = vf/2
qcap =vfkj/4
 MULTI-REGIME MODELS
¢ Empirical evidence points to the discontinuity in the vicinity of
maximum flow, hence discontinuous might be needed for this
relationship,
¢ Edie’s Model is the combination of Greenberg’s and
Underwood’s model

40
Gerlough and Huber ( 1975)
SPEED-FLOW MODEL
¢ The speed flow model is defined by the equation just
mentioned gives a parabolic function
¢ It is evident from the figure, that two speeds are possible
for flows, q, upto the highway capacity, qcap
¢ It is desirable that for any given flow, to keep the
average space-mean speed on the upper portion of the
speed-flow curve (above, vcap)
¢ When speeds drop below vcap, traffic flow is in a highly
congested and unstable condition
ALL MODELS

Flow-density, speed-density, and speed-flow relationships

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG FLOW, SPEED AND DENSITY
¢ The density and flow measurements above have to use the speed
measured over space i.e., the space mean speed.
¢ In the figure below:
— A: almost zero density, free-flow speed, very low volume
— B: increased density, reduced speed, increased volume
— C: increased density, reduced speed, max volume
— D: jam density, min speed (crawling), very low volume
FREE WAY SPEED-FLOW CURVE
 Traffic Engineering

References
1. Roess, R.P., Prassas, E.S., and McShane, W.R. Traffic
Engineering (5th Edition), Pearson, 2020
2. Liu, H., CE4211 Traffic Engineering, University of Minnesota,
http://www.ce.umn.edu/~liu/ce4211/ Accessed in Sep 2008
3. Gerlough, D.L, Huber, M.J. Traffic Flow Theory – A monograph,
Special Report 165, Transportation Research Board, 1975.