CE3025 TRAFFIC ENGINEERING

ASSIGNMENT 1

1. Observers stationed at two sections XX and YY, 152 m apart on a highway,

record the arrival times of four vehicles as shown in the accompanying
table. If the total time of observation at XX was 15 sec, determine (a) the
time mean speed, (b) the space mean speed, and (c) the flow at section
XX. (5 marks)

2. Two sets of students are collecting traffic data at two sections, xx and yy,
of a highway 450 m apart. Observations at xx show that five vehicles
passed that section at intervals of 3, 4, 3, and 5 sec, respectively. If the
speeds of the vehicles were 80, 70, 65, 55 and 50 km/h respectively, draw
a schematic showing the locations of the vehicles 20 sec after the first
vehicle passed section xx. Also determine (a) the time mean speed, (b)
the space mean speed, and (c) the density on the highway. (5 marks)
3. If 40 vehicles pass a given point in 1 minute and traverse a length of 1 km,
calculate the flow, density, and time headway?
(3 marks)
4. Speed data collected on an urban roadway yielded a standard deviation in
speeds of 5.6 km/h.
(5 marks)
a) If an engineer wishes to estimate the average speed on the
roadway at a 95% confidence level so that the estimate is within ± 2
km/h of the true average, how many spot speeds should be
collected?
b) If the estimate of the average must be within ± 1 km/h, what should
the sample size be?
5. An engineer wishing to obtain the speed characteristics on a bypass
around her city at a confidence level of 95%, and an acceptable limit of ±
2 km/h collected a total of 104 spot speed samples and determined that
the standard deviation is 4.8 km/h. Has the engineer met with all of the
requirements of the study? (2 marks)
6. Using the data given below, draw the histogram frequency distribution and
cumulative percentage distribution and determine (a) average speed, (b)
85th-percentile speed, (c) 15th-percentile speed, (d) mode, (e) median,
and (f) pace.
(10 marks)

7. Data obtained from aerial photography showed six vehicles on a 182

m-long section of road. Traffic data collected at the same time indicated
an average time headway of 4 sec. Determine (a) the density on the
highway, (b) average space headway, (c) the flow on the road, and (d) the
space mean speed.
(4 marks)
8. Which speed is higher, SMS or TMS? Justify your answer in physical terms.
(3 mark)
9. Table given below shows data obtained in a travel time study on a section
of highway using the moving-vehicle technique. Estimate (a) the travel
time and (b) the volume in each direction at this section of the highway.
(7 marks)
10. Data collected at a parking lot indicate that a total of 300 cars park
between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. 5% of these cars are parked for an average of
2 hr, 20% for an average of 3 hr, 10 % for an average of 4 hr and the
remaining cars are parked for an average of 9 hr.
a. Determine the space-hours of demand at the lot.
b. If 10% of the parking bays are vacant on average (between 8 a.m.
and 6 p.m.) at the parking lot, determine the number of parking
bays in the parking lot. Assume an efficiency factor of 0.85.
c. The owner of the parking lot is planning an expansion of her lot to
provide adequate demand for the following 5 years. If she has
estimated that parking demand for all categories will increase by 5%
a year, determine the number of additional parking bays that will be
required. (6 marks)