Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne N.

Geroliminis
School of Architecture, Civil and
Environmental Engineering

Traffic Stream Characteristics

A few notes for material of week 1

1. Time-Space Diagrams (TS)

2. Puzzle
3. Constructing TS Diagram
4. Traffic stream characteristics
5. Fundamental Diagram
6. Moving Observer
7. Input-Output Diagrams
8. Little’s formula
9. Variations to I-O Diagrams

1. Time – Space Diagrams

 Trajectories are curves in the time-space diagram that define a single position for
every moment of time  x(t)
 Recall from basic physics 1. dx/dt velocity 2. d2x/dt2  acceleration
 Example 1 Example 2

Example 3
Example 1: 1 goes faster than 2

Example 2: 1 is not moving and 2 is moving

backwards

Example 3: 1 is accelerating and 2 is

decelerating

2. Puzzle
• Assume there are three people going from EPFL to Ouchy
• However, they only have ONE tandem bike (only two people can ride it at a time)
• Riders (solo or tandem) travel at 20 km/hr
• Any person who doesn’t ride the bike, can jog at 4 km/hr
• In order to get to Ouchy as fast as possible, two of the three people start riding the
bike, and the third starts jogging in the same direction. After a while, one of the
riders gets off and starts jogging. The other one rides back to pick up the original
jogger. Then they jointly ride in the Ouchy direction until catching up with the one
that got off some time before. At that point they are together again (with the bike)
and they repeat the process.
• How fast do they go? (Average speed?)
The solution to this problem can be computed two ways: graphically and analytically. Here
we present the graphical procedure, but this graph can also be used to understand the
analytical solution.
 3. Development of time-space diagrams
Time-space diagrams offer a lot of valuable information in a condensed manner.
There are different ways of constructing time-space diagrams:
 Aerial surveys
 Take photographs to the same road segment (between two given points)
 Place them next to each other, separated according to the time interval between
shots
 Draw lines across the different pictures following the location of the individual
vehicles (these are the trajectories)
 Traffic detectors
 This is similar to having stationary observers at specific locations along the
road
 Observers (or loop detectors) measure the time at which every vehicle passes
them

 Driver logs
 Drivers record the time at which they pass by certain locations
4. Traffic stream Characteristics (see also Traffic Flow Theory Monograph Chapter 2)

We say that traffic on a long stretch of road represents steady-state conditions during a
period of observation if you cannot get any clues as to what time it is or where you are by
inspecting the time-space diagram through a small window in a template (stationary
conditions=steady-state conditions for our class).

Next table summarizes how one can estimate various traffic characteristics using two
observation methods. Underlined expressions correspond to the original definitions
introduced in class. These formulas are correct for stationary conditions.

Method of Observation
Aerial Photograph Stationary Observer
1 m 1
Density n/L 
T i 1 vi
1 n
Flow  ui
L i 1
m/T
1
1 n 1 m 1
Space-mean speed  ui
n i 1   
 m i 1 vi 
n n
1 m
Time-mean speed u u
i 1
2
i
i 1
i  vi
m i 1
5. Fundamental Diagram

• Up to now we have seen 5 descriptors of the traffic stream (v, q, k, s, h) and three
relations (q=kv, q=1/h, k=1/s)
• Therefore we only have 2 degrees of freedom (meaning we only need to keep track of
two variables)
• Greenshield in the 1930’s conjectured that there was a linear relationship between
speed and density

 He observed that when there were just a few vehicles on the road the speed was very
high (around vf = free flow speed) and when the road was full (density was closed to
kj = jam density) the speed was almost zero o From experimental data he then got
this graph.
 From the previous graph, it is easy then to construct a flow-density diagram. This
diagram is called the “fundamental diagram”.
  Where qmax is the maximum flow in the highway (capacity) and is obtained with
an optimal density kop

• Similarly, we can construct a speed vs. flow diagram

• However, these diagrams are not very realistic. Researchers now know that the
flow-density relation is better described by a triangle than by a parabola.
• The following graph shows the Fundamental Diagram as we use it today. It
contains enough information to find any of the 5 descriptors, if one is given k.
  As shown by the picture, for every flow we have two densities. We call the states
on the left side uncongested (or “free flow”, or “unqueued”), and those on the right
congested (or “queued”).
 The diagram is a property of the road.
 Points on the diagram describe possible traffic conditions (or “steady states”).

6. Moving Observer
Recall as we showed in class that the rate, q0 , at which cars pass an observer that moves
with speed v0 when traffic is in a steady flow-density state (q,k) is given by the flow
conservation formula:

q0= q – k v0 (1)

If v0 and (q,k) are given then q0 is the vertical separation between the corresponding
steady-state point on the (k,q)-plane and the dotted ray shown in Fig. 1.

flow

q00 v0

density
7. Input-Output Curves

• We can use two observers

• Observer A looks at all the arrivals to the system
• Observer D looks at all the departures from the system

• The following diagram depicts the cumulative number of arrivals and departures as
seen by the two observers

• Q(0) = number of customers in queue at time

• Q(t) = number of customers in queue at time
th
• An = time of arrival of the n customer
th
• Dn = time of departure of the n customer
  Q(t’) = accumulation (number of customers in the system) at time t’
 A(t) = arrivals as seen by observer A
 D(t) = departures as seen by observer D
 Shaded area = “total” wait time (time in the system)
 Average time in system = w = total area / N, where N is 4 for the previous
example

• In order to simplify the process, we can also use a piecewise linear approximation
instead of the step function shown in the previous graph.
• This queuing diagram can also be obtained from the time-space diagram (see below)
8. Little’s Formula

This queuing diagram shows the beginning and end of a typical bottleneck:

 t0 = time when congestion starts (queue begins)

 t1 = time when congestion ends (queue disappears)
 Note that Area   n1  n0   w , where w is the average horizontal distance
between A(t) and D(t) (average waiting time)
 Note also that Area   t1  t0   Q , where Q is the average vertical distance
between A(t) and D(t) (average accumulation)
 Therefore,  n1  n0   w   t1  t0   Q

 Rearranging the equation we get

 n1  n0   Q where
 n1  n0    i.e. flow, so
 t1  t0  w  t1  t0 
Q  w
 Recall that q=kv

L
 From the previous figure we can see that, w  , and Q  kL
v
 Q kL
 Therefore,     kv which satisfies our original equation
w L/v

9. Variations to the Queuing Diagrams

• In many queuing systems L ~ small (e.g., doctor’s office).

• In others, L ~ large (e.g., highway). In these cases, it takes us some time to go from
one observer to the other one even if the system is uncongested

• Take for example a piece of highway where the free flow travel time between two
observers is fftt. If there is congestion the travel time increases, but the actual
delay is just the travel time with congestion minus the free flow travel time.

 V(t) represents virtual departures: the time you would have departed the
downstream end if there was no queue.
 If L ~ small  A  t   V  t  

 If L ~ large  A  t   V  t  , so we use V(t)

Incomplete Information
• In many cases we have incomplete information
e.g., we know V(t) or A(t) and the operating features of the server (e.g.,
constant service rate, µ), but we need to find D(t)
• There are certain rules we can use to construct the departure curve
 When V initially is > µ  𝐷(𝑡) = 𝜇
 𝐷(𝑡) = min(𝜇, 𝑉(𝑡)) when V(t) = D(t)

On-off Service
• In some cases the service rate is not constant, but on-and-off (e.g., traffic signal)