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Review MODULE – BASIC TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

HIGHWAY ENGINEERING JAM DENSITY AND FREE FLOW SPEED
FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAFFIC FLOW
Jam Density (𝒌𝒋 ) – the density at which the speed of traffic is approaching
Speed (𝝁) – distance traveled per unit of time. zero.
Time Mean Speed (𝝁𝒌 ) – arithmetic mean of the speeds observed at some Free Flow Speed (𝝁𝒇 ) – the speed at which the density of traffic is
designated point along the roadway. approaching zero.
Space Mean Speed (𝝁𝒔 ) – harmonic mean of the speeds observed at some
designated point along the roadway. Relationship between free flow speed and jam density.
.

1. The following data were taken on five vehicles travelling a 1.5km portion of 𝒌 𝒖
the NLEX. Determine the space mean speed and the time mean speed. 𝒖 = 𝒖𝒇 (𝟏 − ) 𝒌 = 𝒌𝒋 (𝟏 − )
𝒌𝒋 𝒖𝒇
Vehicles Time (minute)
1 1.2
Capacity/Maximum Flow (𝒒𝒎𝒂𝒙 ) – ability of a roadway to accommodate
2 1.0
traffic. Maximum number of vehicles that can pass a given point in unit time.
3 1.4
4 1.3 𝝁𝒇 𝒌𝒋 𝝁𝒇 𝒌𝒋
5 1.1 𝒒𝒎𝒂𝒙 = 𝝁𝒐𝒑𝒕 𝒌𝒐𝒑𝒕 = ( )( ) =
𝟐 𝟐 𝟒
2. The data below shows the result of the flow of traffic at certain part of the
highway by observing the arrival times for four vehicles at two sections A and 1. Two platoons of cars are timed over a distance of 0.5 km. Their flows are
B that are 150 m apart. Compute the space mean speed and time mean speed recorded. The first group is timed at 40 seconds, with the flow at 1350 vehicles
of the vehicles. per hour. The second group took 45 seconds, with a flow of 1800 vehicles per
hour.
Vehicles Section A Section B a. Determine the free flow speed in kph.
1 T T + 7.24 sec b. Determine the jam density in veh/km.
2 T + 3 sec T + 9.37 sec c. Determine the maximum flow of the traffic stream in veh/hr.
3 T + 6 sec T + 12.47 sec
2. A portion of the extension of SLEX is known to have a free – flow speed of
4 T + 12 sec T + 21.78 sec 50kph and a capacity of 3500 veh/hr. If in a given hour, 3350 vehicles were
countered at a specified point along this highway, determine the space mean
speed of these 3344 vehicles.

SPEED, DENSITY AND FLOW RELATIONSHIP QUEUING THEORY

Traffic Flow (q) – the rate at which vehicles pass a given point in a roadway
given in terms of vehicles per unit of time.
Traffic Density (k) – measure of the number of vehicles occupying a length
of roadway.
Space Headway – the distance between successive vehicles moving in the
same lane measured from head to head at any instance.
Time Headway – the time interval between the passage of successive
vehicles moving in the same lane measured from head to head as they pass
a point on the road.
Queue – vehicles/individuals lining up and waiting for service.
Arrival Rate (𝝀) – the rate at which vehicles arrive at the queue point.
Departure Rate (𝝁) – rate at which vehicles leave the queue point.
Traffic Intensity (𝝆) – ratio of arrival rate and departure rate.
D/D/1 QUEUING
This queueing model is the simplest having deterministic arrivals, deterministic
departure and one departure channel.

Relationship between traffic flow, space mean speed and density.
𝒒 = 𝝁𝒔 𝒌
1. Six vehicles are observed in a 200m section of a highway. Average time
headway is 4sec.
a. Determine the density in vehicles / km.
b. Determine the traffic flow in vehicles/hr.
c. Determine the space mean speed.
1. The Northern Luzon Expressway is designed to have a roadway capacity of
120 vehicles per minute. But due to resurfacing of the portion of the
expressway, the road capacity was reduced to 60 vehicles per minute. The
traffic arrivals are 80 vehicles per minute. The traffic then resumes after
30minutes.
a. In how many minutes will the queue dissipate?
b. Determine the length of queue 20 mins after the collision.
c. Determine the maximum length of queue if the average length of one car is
4.5m.
d. How many vehicles were affected by the accident?
e. Compute the total delay and the average delay per vehicle.

2. The vehicle time headway is 2.5 sec/vehicle and the spacing of cars
measured at a point along the North Luzon Expressway from a single lane is
60 m/veh over the course of an hour.
a. Compute the traffic density.
b. Determine the space mean speed in kph.

3. If 2340 vehicles passes a certain lane of road for one hour with an average
speed of 52kph, determine the appropriate spacing of the vehicles.