Chapter Two

Traffic Flow Fundamentals

Section 1: Traffic Stream Variables

Section 2: Macroscopic Models of Traffic Flow
Section 3: Shock Waves in Traffic
Section 4: Highway Capacity and Level of Service

1
 Traffic Stream Variables

• Speed (v): km/h Photo: time fixed

• Volume (q): veh/h

• Density (k): veh/km
• Headway (h): sec Measurement duration:
Location fixed

• Spacing (s): m
• Occupancy (R): %
• Clearance (C): m
• Gap (g): sec
2
3
 Volume and Rate of Flow

• Volume is the actual number of vehicles

observed or predicted to be passing through a
point during a given time interval
• Rate of flow is the number of vehicles passing a
point expressed as an equivalent hourly rate.
For example, 200 vehicles observed in a 10-
minute period implies a flow rate of 1200
veh/hr.

4
 Example: Rate of Flow
Calculate the rate of flow of vehicles from the
following data:

Time Period Volume (vehicles)

4:00-4:15 700
4:15-4:30 812
4:30-5:00 1635
Total 3147

Volume = 3147 veh/hr. The individual flow rates

during the three time periods are 2800, 3248, 3270
veh/hr, respectively.
 Types of Traffic Daily Volume

• Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)

– Average 24 hour volume over a year
• Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
– Average 24 hr volume occurring on weekdays over a year
• Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
– Same as AADT, but average over period < a year (e.g., a
month)
• Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)
– Same as AAWT, but average over period < a year (e.g., a
month)
** Generally not directional
Example: Daily Volume
 Annual Traffic Census (ATC)

• By Transport Department
• 862 counting stations cover
88.5% of roads in Hong Kong

8
 Applications of AADT/ADT

• AADT Applications
– Estimation of highway use
– Estimation of trends
– Economic feasibility evaluation
– Planning
– Maintenance
• ADT Applications
– Planning
– Measurement of current demand
 Hourly Volume

• Daily volume is useful for planning

purposes, but cannot be used alone for
design and operation purposes
• Volume varies considerably over 24 hours
• Peak hour volume generally is directional
 AADT  DDHV

DDHV = AADT * K * D

DDHV: directional design hourly volume

K: proportion of daily traffic occurring in the peak hour
D: proportion of peak hour traffic traveling in the peak
direction
K and D generally decrease in high-density area

AADT: veh/day (not directional)

AADT*K: veh/h (not directional, peak hour)
AADT*K*D: veh/h (directional, peak hour)
11
 Density or Concentration

 Density is defined as the number of vehicles

occupying a given length of roadway, at a
specified time.
 If speed and rate of flow are known,
q vk Fundamental Equation

q = rate of flow (veh/hr), v =space mean speed

(km/hr), k =average density (veh/km)
1 km

12
 Spacing and Headway

• Spacing (s) in meters is 1000

the distance between s
k
successive vehicles in a s
h
traffic stream as v
measured from the front h
3600
bumper to front bumper q

• Headway (h) in seconds k = average density (veh/km)

v = average speed (m/sec)
is the corresponding
q = average flow rate (veh/hr)
time between successive
s = average spacing (m/veh)
vehicles as they pass a h = average headway (sec/veh)
point on a roadway.
13
 Speed

• Due to wide distribution of speeds of vehicles

on a highway, we consider their averages
– Car VS truck
– Senior driver VS junior driver
– etc
• Unit: km/h
• Two ways to define average speeds:
– Time Mean Speed
– Space Mean Speed
14
Time Mean and Space Mean Speed

15
 Distance 40 slow fast

Time Mean Speed 20

𝟏
𝒗𝒕 = 𝟏𝟎 ∙ 𝟐𝟎 + 𝟏𝟎 ∙ 𝟒𝟎
𝟐𝟎
= 𝟑𝟎

𝟏
Space Mean Speed 𝒗𝒔 = 𝟖 ∙ 𝟐𝟎 + 𝟒 ∙ 𝟒𝟎 = 𝟐𝟔. 𝟔𝟕 Time
𝟏𝟐 16
Spot Speeds using Radar Guns

17
 Time Mean Speed

• Time mean speed is the arithmetic mean of the measured

speeds of all vehicles passing a fixed roadside point during
a given interval of time
• The individual speeds are often referred to as "spot' speeds

n
1
vˆt 
n
 v i
spot speed of vehicle i
i 1

the number of vehicles observed

Point measure
18
 Example

Three vehicles pass a mile post at 50, 40, and 35.3

kmph, respectively. What is the time mean speed of
the three vehicles?

Average time mean speed = (50+40+35.3)/3

= 41.77 kmph

19
 Space Mean Speed
• Space mean speed is the average speed of all
vehicles occupying a given section of highway of
lane over some specified time period. slow fast
• Space mean speed can be
expressed as the harmonic
mean of spot speeds

1
vˆ s  n 𝟏
𝒗𝒔 =
1 1 𝟏 𝟏𝟎 𝟏𝟎

n
 v
= 𝟐𝟔. 𝟔𝟕
+
𝟐𝟎 𝟐𝟎 𝟒𝟎

i 1 i

20
 Relationship between Vs and Vt

1 1 T T
D
v1 
D
v2
1
v1 
1
v2 v1  v2 
k 1 v1  k 2 v 2 s1 s2 h1 h2 n1  n 2
vs 
s1 s2

s1 s2
 vs   
1 1 T T n1 n2
D D 1 1 k1  k 2   
  s1 s2 h1 v1 h2 v 2 v1 v2
s1 s2 s1 s2
1
 ki vi  ki vi vs 
 n1 n 2 
1
or in general v s  i
 i

 
k i
k  1 2 1
n  n v v 2 
i

w here k  overall density; 1

or in general v s 
v i  speed at sam e tim e 1 n 1 
 
n  i 1 v i 

21
 Space mean speed estimation

• In the absence of a radar gun, space mean

speed can be estimated by a speed trap.

L nL
vˆ s  n
 n
average travel time 1
n
 t i t i
i 1 i 1
L

L=length of the highway segment

ti=travel time of the i-th vehicle to traverse the section

22
 Example

Three vehicles are traversing a 1-km segment of a

highway and the following observation is made:

Vehicle A: 1.2 min => 0.02 hour/km = 50 kmph

Vehicle B: 1.5 min => 0.025 hour/km = 40 kmph
Vehicle C: 1.7 min => 0.0283 hour/km = 35.3 kmph

Average travel time = (0.02+0.025+0.0283)/3=0.0244

Average space mean speed = 1/0.0244=40.91 kmph

23
 Relationship between Time and Space
Mean Speeds
 
2 2

vˆt  vˆ s  s
, or, vˆ s  vˆt  t

vˆ s vˆt

 v  vˆ s 
2

 
2
s
i
variance of space mean speed
n
 v  vˆt 
2

  variance of time mean speed

2 i
t
n

Time mean speed is always greater than space mean speed

except that all vehicles travel at the same speed

vˆt  vˆ s . vˆt  vˆ s w hen v i are identical for all i

24
 Example

• Find the time and space mean speeds

25
 Example

• Find the time and space mean speeds

120  140  100
Vs   120
3

 T   T   T 
100    120    140  
 D / 100   D / 120   D / 140 
Vt 
 T   T   T 
 
  
  
 D / 100   D / 120   D / 140 
100  120  140
2 2 2

Vt   122.22
100  120  140

w here T  observation tim e

D  track length
26
q  k  v s : why v s ?

27
 Eddie’s extension (1963)

k 
n

 n  dt 
t i

L
 L  dt A

q
n

 n  dx 
x i

T
 T  dx A

q  k  v s or v s  q / k


vs  
x   t x

i i i
/
 A   A  t
i

 E d ie, 1 9 6 3 
28
 Five ways to estimate space-mean speed

29
 xi

t

30
 Two ways to estimate time-mean speed

v i

1. Apply v t  1
directly to the spot speed
N
measurements.
2. From a distance-time vehicle trajectories graph,
draw a horizontal line at location d, and find the
mean of the speeds that intercept the horizontal line.

31
Detectors

32
 Inductance Loop Signatures

Sport Car

Truck

33
 Occupancy: Surrogate Measure of Density

• Density is hard to measure directly

• Density can be calculated from occupancy by
assuming the effective detection length
(average vehicle length + detector length)
 Lane Occupancy
Space occupancy D irection of T ravel
 Lane occupancy (R) is defined by:

R 
sum of len gths of vehicles

 Li
length of roadw ay section D L (m ) C (m )
 Lane Occupancy (LO) can also be defined by:
Time occupancy
n  L  C  / 1000
LO 
total tim e vehicle d etector is occupied

t o vs 
total observation tim e T t i
i

q  n /T
LC
to  k  q / vs
vs
1000 n
t i

k  LO  ( veh / km ) k   i

LC T n  L  C  / 1000

t i
1000
Known distance k  i

T L  C  35
 Estimate Density from
Space-Occupancy
Consider a roadway segment of length D with N vehicles
moving

L L 
 Li
R  Average length of vehicles (m)
i

D N

k 
N

L i
/L

R
D L i
/R L
R 1000
k   R  veh/km 
L / 1000 L
N: number of vehicles over D km roadway segment
36
 Example

• Four vehicles, 6, 7, 8, and 9 m long, are distributed over a

length of a freeway lane 200 m long. What is the lane
occupancy and density?
Occupancy R 
L i

6789
 0 .1 5
D 200

Average length of vehicles L 

 Li
 7 .5 m
N
1000 R 0.15  1000
Density k   = 20 veh/km
L 7.5

k  R
1000
=
 Li 1 0 0 0 n L 1 0 0 0
 =  =
n
1 0 0 0
L D L D L D
37
 Estimate Density from
Time-Occupancy
N N-1 i 2 1

Detector
D
N vehicles over a road segment of length D traveling at speed vˆ s
T : Observation period
 L  C  / 1000 L, C, D: m
q  n /T vs 
  t  /n
t i
k: veh/km

k  q / vs 
n /T

 t
t i

1000
n  L  C  / 1000 T L C

 t
t i
Occupancy
38
 Example Using Occupancy Data
Consider detector occupancies of a single loop during a 60
second period: 0.39, 0.50*, 0.32, 0.46, 0.51*, 0.44, 0.43,
0.48, 0.50*, 0.47, 0.46, 0.45, 0.44.
• *=truck, n=13, 𝑳=8 m, C=3 m
• Determine occupancy, density, speed, and flow


13
t

13 5.85
t  5.85
i 1 i
LO  i 1 i
  9.75%
t 60
1000 9.75 1000
k  LO    8.86 veh/km
LC 100 8  3
LC  8  3  / 1000 n 13
vˆ s   88 km /h
= q   3600  = 780veh/hr
 
 i 1 t i /1 3
13
5.85 /13 / 3600
t 60
 Example

• During a 60-sec period a detector is occupied by

vehicles for the following times: 0.34, 0.38, 0.40,
0.32, and 0.52 sec. Estimate the values of q, k,
and v. (Assume that the loop detector length =
3 m. and that the average length of vehicles = 6
m.)

40
 Solution

Sum of t0 = 0.34+0.38+0.40+0.32+0.52 = 1.96 sec

n=5
LO = (1.96/60) x 100% = 3.27%
The average effective length of a vehicle plus distance
between loops is assumed = 3 + 6 = 9 m, then

k = (3.27/100)(1000/9) = 3.63 veh/km

vs = n(L+C)/  t o = 5(9)/1.96 = 22.96 m/sec
= 82.65 km/h
q = k x vs = 3.63x82.65 = 300 veh/hr
41
 Clearance and Gap

• Clearance and Gap correspond to Clearance (m)

Gap (sec)
L (m)

parameters of spacing (m) and c

headway (sec)
Headway (h)  Spacing (s) Spacing (m) or Headway (sec)
s
Gap (g)  Clearance (c)

sL L g = mean gap (sec)

g    h  
v  v  L = mean length of vehicle (m)
c = mean clearance (m)
c  g  v  s  L s = mean spacing (m)
v = mean speed (m/sec)
42
Example

43
Example

44
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