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CE 322  Minimum lane widths of 12 ft

Transportation Engineering
Ahmed Abdel-Rahim, Ph.D., P.E.
 Minimum right-shoulder lateral clearance between the edge
of the travel lane and the nearest obstacle or object
influencing traffic behavior of 6 ft (minimum median lateral
clearance is 2 ft)
 Traffic stream consisting of passenger cars only
 Ten or more lanes (5 or more each direction)
 Interchange spacing of 2 mi or more;
 Level terrain, with grades no greater than 2%; and
 Driver population dominated by familiar users of the
roadway.

Narrow Wide Large gaps form in front of trucks

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 Estimation of a free-flow: adjust the base free-flow speed

 Free-flow speed: mean passenger car speed downward to reflect the influence of four factors:
measured at low to moderate flows (up to 1,300  lane width,
pc/hr/ln).  lateral clearance,
 number of lanes, and
 Two methods to determine free flow speed
 interchange density.
 field measurement or
 estimation with guidelines provided in the HCM.  You are required to select an appropriate base free-flow
speed (BFFS) as a starting point.
 Urban 70 mph
 Rural 75 mph

 Measuring is the best option

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Table 6.3
FFS = BFFS – fLW – fLC – fN – fID

Where:
FFS = free-flow speed (mi/h);
BFFS = base free-flow speed, 70 mi/h (urban) or 75 mi/h (rural);
fLW = adjustment for lane width from Table 6.3 (mi/h);
fLC = adjustment for right-shoulder lateral clearance from Table 6.4 (mi/h);
fN = adjustment for number of lanes from Table 6.5 (mi/h); and
fID = adjustment for interchange density from Table 6.6 (mi/h).

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Table 6.4
Table 6.5

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1. Adjust for within peak hour variation (PHF)

Table 6.6 2. Adjust for vehicle mix (fHV) This is the
3. Adjust for driver population (fp) directional design
4. Normalize by number of lanes (N) hour volume
(DDHV)
V
vp  Eq. 6.3
PHF  N  f HV  f p

Interchange ramp density: Number of on-ramps per mile within 6 miles (3

miles upstream and 3 miles downstream.

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 Need to account for traffic mix – trucks/buses

V and RV’s
PHF  Eq. 6.4
V15  4  Also need to account for grade conditions.
Passenger-car equivalents can be selected for
one of three conditions:
Where:
PHF = peak-hour factor,  extended general freeway segments
V = hourly volume for hour of analysis,  specific upgrades
V15 = maximum 15-min flow rate within hour of analysis, and
4 = number of 15-min periods per hour.  specific downgrades

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 Containing a number of upgrades, downgrades, and

level segments as a single uniform segment.  Whenever extended general segment
 When no one grade significantly affects freeway
analysis is used, the terrain of the freeway
operations. must be classified as level, rolling, or
mountainous.
 Guideline for extended general segment definition:
 no one grade of 3 percent or greater is longer than 1/4 mi
 no one grade of less than 3 percent is longer than 1/2 mi.

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 Level Terrain. Any combination of grades and horizontal

or vertical alignment that where:
 heavy vehicles maintain the same speed as passenger
 generally includes short grades of no more than 2 percent.
 Rolling Terrain. Any combination of grades and
horizontal or vertical alignment where
 heavy vehicles to reduce their speeds substantially below those of
passenger cars but not to crawl speeds for any significant length
of time or at frequent intervals is classified as rolling terrain.
 Mountainous Terrain. Any combination of grades
and horizontal or vertical alignment that causes
heavy vehicles to operate at crawl speeds for
significant distances or at frequent intervals is
classified as mountainous terrain.

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 When the analysis segment consists of terrain

Table 6.7 that cannot be considered as a an extended
general segment (i.e., level, rolling,
mountainous), the following tables can be
used to determine PCE values for specific
upgrades and/or downgrades
What does a PCE represent?

1
f HV =
1 + PT ET  1 + PR E R  1
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Table 6.8 PCEs for Trucks and Buses on Specific Upgrades

Table 6.9 PCEs for RVs on Specific Upgrades

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Table 6.10 PCEs for Trucks and Buses on Specific Downgrades  An average grade technique can be used for
composite grades that meet the following
condition:

All subsection grades are less than 4% OR the

total length of the composite grade is less
than 4,000 ft.

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1  The values for fp range from 1.0 to 0.85. In

f HV = Eq. 6.5
general, the analyst should select 1.0, which
1 + PT ET  1 + PR E R  1
reflects commuter traffic (i.e., familiar users),
unless there is sufficient evidence or it is the
Where:
fHV = heavy-vehicle adjustment factor,
analyst’s judgment that a lesser value reflecting
PT = proportion trucks and buses in the traffic stream, more recreational traffic characteristics should
PR = proportion recreational vehicles in the traffic stream, be applied.
ET = passenger car equivalency for trucks and buses,
from Tables 6.7, 6.8 and/or 6.10), and
ER = passenger car equivalency for recreational vehicles,
from Tables 6.7, and/or 6.9).

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vp  Use Table 6.1 or Figure 6.2.

D
S

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 Establish Base conditions  ideal conditions  A new segment of freeway is being built to connect two existing parallel
freeway facilities, in an urban area. The following traffic and roadway
 Translate to field conditions characteristics are expected:
▪ Estimate free flow speed  Traffic Characteristics a) Determine the number lanes
▪ DDHV = 5,143 vph necessary to ensure that this
▪ Estimate equivalent analysis flow rate ▪ PHF = 0.92 new freeway segment will
▪ operate at no worse than LOS D
 Calculate service measure 6% trucks and buses [PT = 0.06]
during the peak hour in the peak
▪ 2% RVs [PR = 0.02]
direction.
 Determine LOS ▪ Primarily commuters (fp = 1.0)
 Roadway Characteristics
b) How much additional traffic,
▪ Grade in peak direction: 1.5 miles, 2.25 percent in the peak direction, can be
▪ Interchange density = 1 per mile accommodated before the
▪ Lane widths = 12 ft freeway reaches capacity?
▪ Shoulder widths = 4 ft

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 N=3  N=4  Spare capacity

 FFS = 63.7 mph  FFS = 65.6 mph  Capacity = 2357 pcphpl
 fHV = 0.88  fHV = 0.88  fHV = 0.88
 fp=1.0  fp=1.0  fp=1.0
 vp = 2105 vphpl  vp = 1579 vphpl  V = 5143 vph
 S=58 mph  S=65.5 mph  Vcapacity= 7676 vph
 D= 36 pcpmpl  D= 24 pcpmpl  Spare capacity = 2533
 LOS E  LOS C vph