ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

ENEV 475
Traffic Engineering

Lecture 2: Characteristics of road, vehicle

and road users

1 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering 2021 Fall

Lecture 2: Characteristics of road, vehicle

and road users

2 *Notes adopted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Learning Objectives and Outline

• Become familiar with the main components of
the highway mode
• Understand the relationships among different
components
• Understand the human response process
• Become familiar with the driver and vehicle
characteristics that concern the geometric design
of the highway

3 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.1 Driver Characteristics

Transportation engineers face the problem of

varying skills and perceptual abilities of drivers on
the highway

Studies have shown that these characteristics may

also vary in an individual under different conditions

4 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Human Response Process

Visual Perception
– Visual Acuity
– Peripheral Vision
– Color Vision
– Color Vision Recovery
– Depth Perception

Hearing Perception

5 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Visual Acuity
• Ability to see fine details of an object
• Measured using Snellen eye chart
• Represented by the visual angle, which is the angle that a
viewed object subtends at the eye:

6 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Peripheral Vision

— Ability to see objects beyond the cone of

clearest vision

— Example: Driver sees a vehicle approaching

from his/her side because of peripheral vision

— Age influences peripheral vision

7 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Color Vision

— Ability to differentiate one color from

another

— Deficiency of this ability (color blindness)

does not affect highway driving
significantly because other ways of
recognizing traffic information
compensate for it

8 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Glare Vision and Recovery

— Direct glare vision:

— Bright light in the field of vision
— Specular glare vision:
— Reflection of the bright light in the field of
vision

— Time required by a person to recover (glare

recovery): 3-6 seconds

9 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Depth Perception

— Ability to see objects in three

dimensions and estimate speed and
distance

— Important on two-lane highways

during passing maneuvers

10 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.2 Perception – Reaction Process

— Perception
— Driver sees the object
— Identification
Driver identifies the object and understands
—
the stimulus
— Emotion
— Driver decides what action to take
— Reaction/Volition
— Driver executes the action decided

11 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Perception – Reaction Process

— PIEV (perception-reaction time) is an important
factor for braking distances

— It dictates the minimum sight distance required

on a highway and the length of the yellow phase
at a signalized intersection

— This value depends on how complicated the

situation is, driver training, environmental
conditions, age, and influence of drugs or alcohol

12 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.3 Older Driver’s Characteristics

— In 2009, 3.25 million Canadians aged 65 and
over - three-fourths of all Canadian seniors - had
a driver's licence. (Statistics Canada, 2012)
(Source: https://tests.ca/driving-statistics/)

— As a person grows older

— Sensory, cognitive, and physical functioning
abilities decline
— Older drivers mostly depend on automobile, therefore
taking their needs into consideration while designing
highways is critical

13 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.4 Pedestrian Characteristics

— Pedestrian control devices include:
— Pedestrian signals
— Safety zones and islands at intersections
— Pedestrian underpasses
— Elevated walkways
— Crosswalks
— Apart from visual and hearing characteristics,
walking characteristics also play a big role on
these controls

14 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.5 Bicyclists and Bicycles Characteristics

— Bicycles are an important component of the
highway mode, especially in urban areas
— Automobile driver human factors also apply to
the bicyclist in terms of perception-reaction
— However, unlike those drivers bicyclists provide
power for the bicycle
— AASHTO defines three skill levels:
— A: Can comfortably ride in traffic
— B: Prefers bike paths and neighborhood streets
— C: Uses mainly residential streets

15 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.6 Vehicle Characteristics

— Criteria for the geometric design of highways are
partly based on the static, kinematic, and
dynamic characteristics of vehicles

— Designing a highway involves the selection of a

design vehicle, whose characteristics will
determine criteria for all vehicles expected to be
used on the highway

16 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Static Characteristics

— Size of the design vehicle determines the

design standards for several physical
components of the highway:
— Lane width
— Shoulder width
— Length
— Width
— Length and width of parking bays
— Lengths of vertical curves

17 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Static Characteristics

— In the U.S. and Canada, the overall gross

weight of a group of two or more
consecutive axles are determined by the
Bridge formula:

18 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Static Characteristics
— AASHTO selected general classes of
vehicles for design purposes:
— Passenger cars
— Utility vehicles, minivans, vans, pick-up trucks, etc.
— Buses
— Transit buses, school buses, etc.
— Trucks
— Single unit trucks, semitrailers, etc.
— Recreational vehicles
— Motor homes, camper trailers, etc.

19 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Kinematic Characteristics
— Primary element among kinematic
characteristics is the acceleration
capability of the vehicle.
— It is important in several traffic
operations. For example:
— Passing maneuvers
— Gap acceptance
— Freeway ramp and passing lane dimensions
— Acceleration

20 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Kinematic Characteristics
— If we consider a vehicle moving along a
straight line from point “o” to point “m”, a
distance “x” in a reference plane “T”, the
position of the vector of vehicle after time
“t” can be expressed as:

21 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Example Minimum :Turning Path

22 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Dynamic Characteristics

— Several forces act on a vehicle while

in motion:
— Air resistance
— Grade resistance
— Rolling resistance
— Curve resistance

23 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Air Resistance
— A Vehicle has to overcome the resistance of
the air in front of it as well as the force due to
the frictional action of the air around it. This
force can be estimated by:

24 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Grade Resistance

— When the vehicle moves up a grade, a

component of the weight of the vehicle
acts downward on the plane of the
highway
— This creates a force acting in the
direction opposite to the motion
direction

25 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Rolling Resistance

— These forces are mainly due to

frictional effects on moving parts of
the vehicle
— They also include the frictional slip
between the pavement surface and
the tires

26 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Rolling Resistance

— Rolling resistance force for

passenger cars can be determined
from:

27 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Curve Resistance

— When a passenger car is maneuvered to

take a curve, external forces act on the
front wheels of the vehicle

— This resistance depends on:

— Radius of the curve
— Gross weight of the vehicle
— Velocity at which the vehicle is moving

28 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Power Requirements

The engine power required to overcome the

resistive forces is:

29 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Braking Distance

— Action of the forces on a moving vehicle

and the effect of perception-reaction time
are used to determine important
parameters related to the dynamic
characteristics of the vehicle

30 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Braking Distance

31 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Minimum Radius of a Circular Curve

— When a vehicle is moving around a circular

curve, there is an inward radial force acting on
the vehicle
— This is usually referred to as the centrifugal force
and can be determined by:

32 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Minimum Radius of a Circular Curve

33 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

3.7 Road Characteristics

— Sight Distance
— Stopping sight distance (SSD): Minimum sight
distance required for a driver to stop a vehicle
after seeing an object in the vehicle’s path
without hitting that object
— Decision sight distance: When the stimulus is
unexpected, longer SSDs are usually required
— Passing sight distance: Minimum sight
distance required on a two-lane, two-way
highway that will permit a driver to complete a
passing maneuver without collision

34 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials

 ENEV 475 – Traffic Engineering

Summary
• The most important characteristic of the driver is
the driver response process
• The actual distance a vehicle travels before
coming to rest is the sum of the distance traveled
during the perception time of the driver and the
distance traveled during the actual braking
maneuver
• Static, kinematic, and dynamic characteristics of
the vehicle are also important because they are
used to determine the minimum radii of
horizontal curves, acceleration speeds, and
resistance
35 *Notes adapted by Cengage lecture materials