Lesson 1.

3
Design Criteria for
Highways & Railways
 In order to design highways, the designers must have an understanding of
the basic design controls and criteria associated with the highways. Besides the
highway functional classification, other important design controls and criteria
are as follows

VEHICLES DRIVERS & PEDESTRIANS TRAFFIC

Design Vehicles, Characteristics of Traffic volume, design

Physical Characteristics drivers and pedestrians, hourly volume, peak
and performance. performance of drivers hour factor,
design designation, etc.
and pedestrians
Vehicles
✓ Physical characteristics and
proportions of vehicles of various
sizes using the highway.
✓ Each design vehicle has larger
physical dimensions and a larger
minimum turning radius.
Design Vehicles

Key controls in highway geometric design are the physical and

dynamical characteristics of vehicles using the highway.
Considering the many types of vehicles in the traffic stream, it is
necessary to establish several classes of vehicles, and select a
representative vehicle within each class for design use.
Design Vehicles

There are generally four classes of design vehicles:

(1) Passenger cars,
(2) Buses,
(3) Trucks, and
(4) Recreational vehicles
Design Vehicles

The selection of a (design vehicle), whose characteristics will

encompass nearly all vehicles expected to use the highway,
is used to determine criteria for geometric design,
intersection design and sight distance requirements.
Driver
Driver performance is
essential to proper highway
design and operation.
Highway engineers need to
keep in mind that facilities must
be designed to accommodate
drivers with a wide range of
skills and ages.
Driver’s Performance
❑ Designer should consider driver performance in their geometric design.
❑ Performances of different age groups are different. Older drivers have
special needs.
❑ Each driver when driving will handle three types of information: Control,
Guidance and Navigation.
 The driving task depends
on drivers receiving and using
information for correct
decisions. Many driving errors
are caused by deficiencies in
drivers capabilities.
Driver’s Performance
Geometric design of a highway should consider users,
especially drivers’ performance limits. There are limits to a
driver’s vision, perception, reaction, concentration, and
comfort that could impact the highway safety and operating
efficiency.
When driving, most drivers receive information visually from
their views of the roadway alignment, markings and signs.
They do receive other information through vehicle feedback
from the suspension system and steering control, and
roadway noise.
Driver’s Performance

Driver expectancies are built up over time, with consistent

road design. Unusual or unexpected geometric design or
event always leads to longer reaction and response time.
The geometric design of highway should be in accordance
with the driver’s expectation.
Pedestrians
Interactions of pedestrians
with traffic are a major
consideration in highway planning
and design.
A walking speed of 1.2
m/sec is generally assumed for
traffic signal timing.
Pedestrians Facilities

Sidewalks Crosswalks
Pedestrians Facilities

Curb Cuts and Ramps Bus Stops

Traffic
Design of highway and its
features should be based on
explicit consideration of the traffic
volumes, design speed and traffic-
related characteristics to be
served.
Traffic Characteristics

❑ Traffic volumes indicate the need for the

improvement and directly affect the geometric design
features, such as:

(1) number of lanes

(2) lane width
(3) alignments
(4) grades