CENG-431: Traffic Engineering

Chapter 11.3 and 11.4

Travel Time and Delay Studies
 Travel Time Studies
• Involves significant length of highway segment
or route
• Coordinated with delay studies
• Applied for:
– Identifying problem locations
– Measuring arterial LOS
– Providing input for traffic assignment models
– Providing travel-time data for economic evaluation
– Developing time contour maps
 Field Study Techniques – Test Car
• Test cars are assigned to travel on the segment and the
time is noted for passing key locations, stopped delay
and causes of delay
• Vehicle can also be equipped with automated devices
• Separate stopwatch is used to measure time of stops at
intersections and driving time at mid-blocks
– Floating car: applied on two-lane highways. The driver will
try to maintain his position in the traffic stream, pass as
many vehicles who have passed him
– Maximum car: driver is asked to drive as fast as possible
under the speed limit. Gives 85th percentile speed
– Average car: driver is asked to drive at average speed of
traffic stream
• Number of test cars: preferably 6-10, can go up to 50
on major highways in peak hours
Field Study Techniques – License Plate
• Observers are positioned at entry and exit
points of segments where they record license
plate number and time of observation
• Important issue: sample size. Not all vehicles
are recorded. If 50% data is recorded at one
point then chances of matching the exit-entry
data is 50% x 50% = 25%
 Field Study Techniques - Others
• Observations from a field vantage point
• Equipping the test cars with speed and
distance measuring devices
• Video-tapping the section
 Example of Travel Time Statistics
• Consider a hypothetical arterial on which the true mean running
time is 196 seconds over a three-mile section. The standard
deviation of the running time is 15 seconds.
• Given the normal distribution of running times, the standard
deviation of running time for the section is 15 seconds, find out
average and 95% confidence interval of speeds
Example of Travel Time Statistics
Find out average and 95% confidence interval of travel speeds
 Delay
Another way is to add the average delay in the average
running times to get the actual travel time; it would give the
same results as above
 Problem 10-4
• A series of travel time runs are to be made
along an arterial section. Tabulate the number
of runs required to estimate the overall
average travel time with 95% confidence to
within ±2 min, ±5 min, ±10 min, for standard
deviations of 5, 10, and 15 minutes.
 Problem 10.5
• The results of a travel time study are
summarized in the table that follows.
• Tabulate and graphically present the results of
the travel time and delay runs. Show the
average travel speed and average running
speed for each section.
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1-2' 2-3' 3-4' 4-5' 5-6' 6-7'
TT (sec) Delay (sec)
 40

35

30

25
speed (mph)

20

15

10

0
1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7
• Assuming that each vehicle makes five runs,
how many test vehicles would be needed to
𝑠
achieve a tolerance of±3mph with 95% 𝑥 = 𝑁
confidence?
travel running Travel Running
speed speed speed speed
sec (mph) (mph) (𝑥 − 𝑥) (𝑥 − 𝑥)2
2

1-2 28.8 31.3 21.16 3.61

2-3 27.3 33.3 9.61 0.01
3-4 28.1 33.3 15.21 0.01
4-5 18.0 31.0 38.44 4.84
5-6 11.7 30.0 156.25 10.24
6-7 31.0 37.0 46.24 14.44
Average
 Travel Time Display – Contour Maps
• Used for a region
Travel Time Display – Time vs Distance
Diagram
• Used for specific routes
 Intersection Delay Studies
• The measure of effectiveness for signalized,
STOP-controlled and roundabout intersections
is total control delay.
• Control delay is best defined as time-in-queue
delay plus time losses due to deceleration
from and acceleration to ambient speed
 Control Delay Measurement
• Specified in HCM (2000)
• Requires two observers
• Intended for under-saturated conditions, queue
length < 20-25 vehicles
• Observers must determine the FFS before the
analysis through test cars driving in green without
queue or at segments unaffected by signals
• Measurements start at red-phase with no over-
flow from previous signal cycle, why???
 Control Delay Measurement
• Observer 1
– Keeps track of the end of standing queues for each cycle by
observing the last vehicle in each lane that stops due to the
signal.
– At intervals between 10 seconds and 20 seconds, number of
vehicles in queue are recorded on the field sheet. The regular
intervals for these observations should be an integral divisor of
the cycle length. Vehicle in queue are those that are included in
the queue of stopped vehicles and have not yet exited
intersection. Exit for through vehicles; when rear wheels cross
stop lines, exit for turning vehicles; when rear wheels clear the
opposing pedestrian and vehicular flow and starts to accelerate
– At the end of the survey period, vehicle-in-queue counts
continue until all vehicles that entered the queue during the
survey period have exited the intersection.
 Control Delay Measurement
• Observer 2
– During the entire study period, separate counts
are maintained of vehicles arriving during the
survey period and of vehicles that stop one or
more times during the survey period. Stopping
vehicles are counted only once, regardless of how
many times they stop.
Example
 Example
• The approach has two lanes, and the signal
cycle length is 60 seconds. Ten cycles were
surveyed, and the vehicle-in-queue count
interval is 20 seconds.
 Problem 10.3
• The following data were collected during a
delay study on a signalized intersection
approach. The cycle length of the signal is 60
seconds.
• (a) Estimate the time spent in queue for the
average vehicle.
• (b) Estimate the average control delay per
vehicle on this approach.
Roundabouts (HCM, 2010)
From chapter 25
 Example
Q3. Calculate the delay of left and right lane for
the following roundabout. Two entry lane, 1
conflicting lane (flow rate 600 veh/hr), volume
of 600 veh/hr in left lane and 400 veh/hr in the
right lane.

600
veh/hr
600 400
veh/hrveh/h
r
 Example 2
• Calculate the delay of left and right lane for
the following roundabout. One entry lane, 1
conflicting lane (flow rate 600 veh/hr), 400
veh/hr in the lane.

600
veh/hr
400
veh/hr