Traffic Flow Parameters

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 16

Traffic Flow Parameters

Traffic flow is a difficult phenomenon to describe without the use of a common


set of terms. The following paragraphs will introduce most of the common
terms that are used in discussions about traffic flow.

Speed (v)

The speed of a vehicle is defined as the distance it travels per unit of time. Most
of the time, each vehicle on the roadway will have a speed that is somewhat
different from those around it. In quantifying the traffic flow, the average speed
of the traffic is the significant variable. The average speed, called the space
mean speed, can be found by averaging the individual speeds of all of the
vehicles in the study area.

Volume

Volume is simply the number of vehicles that pass a given point on the
roadway in a specified period of time. By counting the number of vehicles that
pass a point on the roadway during a 15-minute period, you can arrive at the
15-minute volume. Volume is commonly converted directly to flow (q), which
is a more useful parameter.

Flow (q)

Flow is one of the most common traffic parameters. Flow is the rate at which
vehicles pass a given point on the roadway, and is normally given in terms of
vehicles per hour. The 15-minute volume can be converted to a flow by
multiplying the volume by four. If our 15-minute volume were 100 cars, we
would report the flow as 400 vehicles per hour. For that 15-minute interval of
time, the vehicles were crossing our designated point at a rate of 400
vehicles/hour.

Peak Hour Factor (PHF)

The ratio of the hourly flow rate ( q60) divided by the peak 15 minute rate of
flow expressed as an hourly flow (q15). PHF= q60/ q15

Density (k)

Density refers to the number of vehicles present on a given length of roadway.


Normally, density is reported in terms of vehicles per mile or vehicles per
kilometer. High densities indicate that individual vehicles are very close
together, while low densities imply greater distances between vehicles.

Headway, spacing, gap, and clearance are all various measures for describing
the space between vehicles. These parameters are discussed in the paragraphs
below and are shown graphically in figure 1.0.

Headway (h)

Headway is a measure of the temporal space between two vehicles.


Specifically, the headway is the time that elapses between the arrival of the
leading vehicle and the following vehicle at the designated test point. You can
measure the headway between two vehicles by starting a chronograph when the
front bumper of the first vehicle crosses the selected point, and subsequently
recording the time that the second vehicle’s front bumper crosses over the
designated point. Headway is usually reported in units of seconds.

Spacing (s)

Spacing is the physical distance, usually reported in feet or meters, between the
front bumper of the leading vehicle and the front bumper of the following
vehicle. Spacing complements headway, as it describes the same space in
another way. Spacing is the product of speed and headway.

Gap (g)

Gap is very similar to headway, except that it is a measure of the time that
elapses between the departure of the first vehicle and the arrival of the second
at the designated test point. Gap is a measure of the time between the rear
bumper of the first vehicle and the front bumper of the second vehicle, where
headway focuses on front-to-front times. Gap is usually reported in units of
seconds.

Clearance (c)

Clearance is similar to spacing, except that the clearance is the distance


between the rear bumper of the leading vehicle and the front bumper of the
following vehicle. The clearance is equivalent to the spacing minus the length
of the leading vehicle. Clearance, like spacing, is usually reported in units of
feet or meters.
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS

Vehicle flow, speed, and density parameters are fundamental to the


management of highway traffic. Over a given section of open roadway,
such as a freeway, they are related through equation 2-1 and their
values are usually expressed on a per lane basis. Hence,

Flow (vph) = Speed (mi/h) x Density (vpm)

where

vph = vehicles per hour per lane,

mi/h= miles per hour, and

vpm = vehicles per mile per lane.

Flow or volume flow rate is the time rate of flow in vehicles per hour
used to characterize traffic volume. A transition in terminology is
occurring as "flow" or "flow rate" has taken the place of "volume."()
Because of the mix of old and new terminology, there is some
inconsistency in the use of "volume" and "flow rate" in the literature.

This can be seen in the capacity curves of Figure 2-1 that illustrate the
relation between speed and flow on the open roadway. Capacity is
expressed as "volume/lane" in units of flow rate (passenger cars per
hour). The term "flow" is also used to describe the general condition of
traffic on the roadway, such as "free-flow" or "congested flow."()

The volume flow rate data by themselves are not sufficient to define
how well traffic is moving. For example, if counts show a flow rate of
1200 vehicles per hour, it is not known whether traffic is moving briskly
at 55 mi/h (88.5 km/h) or is congested and creeping along at 10 mi/h
(16.1 km/h).

On the other hand, by measuring density and knowing the speed–flow


characteristic for a given highway type, speed–density and flow–density
curves can be estimated as shown in Figures 2-2 and 2-3, respectively.
When density is a performance indicator, as shown by the shape of the
curve in Figure 2-2, there is no longer any ambiguity with respect to
speed. If density is measured at 20 vehicles per mile per lane (32
v/km/lane), then speed is 55 mi/h (88.5 km/h). If density is 120 vehicles
per mile per lane (192 v/km/lane), then speed is 10 mi/h (16.1 km/h).
Likewise, Figure 2-3 shows that a flow rate of approximately 1200
vehicles per hour per lane (1920 v/h/lane) corresponds to these same
density measurements of 20 and 120 vehicles per mile per lane,
respectively.

1 Overview

Traffic engineering pertains to the analysis of the behavior of traffic and to design

the facilities for a smooth, safe and economical operation of traffic. Traffic flow,

like the flow of water, has several parameters associated with it. The traffic

stream parameters provide information regarding the nature of traffic flow, which

helps the analyst in detecting any variation in flow characteristics. Understanding

traffic behavior requires a thorough knowledge of traffic stream parameters and

their mutual relationships. In this chapter the basic concepts of traffic flow is
presented.

2 Traffic stream parameters

The traffic stream includes a combination of driver and vehicle behavior. The

driver or human behavior being non-uniform, traffic stream is also non-uniform in

nature. It is influenced not only by the individual characteristics of both vehicle

and human but also by the way a group of such units interacts with each other.

Thus a flow of traffic through a street of defined characteristics will vary both by
location and time corresponding to the changes in the human behavior.

The traffic engineer, but for the purpose of planning and design, assumes that

these changes are within certain ranges which can be predicted. For example, if

the maximum permissible speed of a highway is 60 kmph, the whole traffic


stream can be assumed to move on an average speed of 40 kmph rather than
100 or 20 kmph.

Thus the traffic stream itself is having some parameters on which the

characteristics can be predicted. The parameters can be mainly classified as :

measurements of quantity, which includes density and flow of traffic and

measurements of quality which includes speed. The traffic stream parameters

can be macroscopic which characterizes the traffic as a whole or microscopic

which studies the behavior of individual vehicle in the stream with respect to each
other.

As far as the macroscopic characteristics are concerned, they can be

grouped as measurement of quantity or quality as described above, i.e. flow,

density, and speed. While the microscopic characteristics include the measures

of separation, i.e. the headway or separation between vehicles which can be

either time or space headway. The fundamental stream characteristics are


speed, flow, and density and are discussed below.

3 Speed

Speed is considered as a quality measurement of travel as the drivers and

passengers will be concerned more about the speed of the journey than the

design aspects of the traffic. It is defined as the rate of motion in distance per unit
of time. Mathematically speed or velocity v is given by,

where, v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s, d is distance traveled in m in

time t seconds. Speed of different vehicles will vary with respect to time and
space. To represent these variation, several types of speed can be defined.

Important among them are spot speed, running speed, journey speed, time mean
speed and space mean speed. These are discussed below.

3.1 Spot Speed

Spot speed is the instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a specified location. Spot

speed can be used to design the geometry of road like horizontal and vertical

curves, super elevation etc. Location and size of signs, design of signals, safe

speed, and speed zone determination, require the spot speed data. Accident

analysis, road maintenance, and congestion are the modern fields of traffic

engineer, which uses spot speed data as the basic input. Spot speed can be

measured using an enoscope, pressure contact tubes or direct timing procedure

or radar speedometer or by time-lapse photographic methods. It can be

determined by speeds extracted from video images by recording the distance


travelling by all vehicles between a particular pair of frames.

3.2 Running speed

Running speed is the average speed maintained over a particular course while

the vehicle is moving and is found by dividing the length of the course by the time

duration the vehicle was in motion. i.e. this speed doesn’t consider the time

during which the vehicle is brought to a stop, or has to wait till it has a clear road

ahead. The running speed will always be more than or equal to the journey
speed, as delays are not considered in calculating the running speed

3.3 Journey speed


Journey speed is the effective speed of the vehicle on a journey between two

points and is the distance between the two points divided by the total time taken

for the vehicle to complete the journey including any stopped time. If the journey

speed is less than running speed, it indicates that the journey follows a stop-go

condition with enforced acceleration and deceleration. The spot speed here may

vary from zero to some maximum in excess of the running speed. A uniformity
between journey and running speeds denotes comfortable travel conditions.

3.4 Time mean speed and space mean speed

Time mean speed is defined as the average speed of all the vehicles passing a

point on a highway over some specified time period. Space mean speed is

defined as the average speed of all the vehicles occupying a given section of a

highway over some specified time period. Both mean speeds will always be

different from each other except in the unlikely event that all vehicles are

traveling at the same speed. Time mean speed is a point measurement while

space mean speed is a measure relating to length of highway or lane, i.e. the

mean speed of vehicles over a period of time at a point in space is time mean

speed and the mean speed over a space at a given instant is the space mean
speed.

4 Flow

There are practically two ways of counting the number of vehicles on a road. One

is flow or volume, which is defined as the number of vehicles that pass a point on

a highway or a given lane or direction of a highway during a specific time interval.


The measurement is carried out by counting the number of vehicles, n , passing a
t
particular point in one lane in a defined period t. Then the flow q expressed in

vehicles/hour is given by

Flow is expressed in planning and design field taking a day as the measurement

of time.

4.1 Variations of Volume

The variation of volume with time, i.e. month to month, day to day, hour to hour

and within a hour is also as important as volume calculation. Volume variations

can also be observed from season to season. Volume will be above average in a

pleasant motoring month of summer, but will be more pronounced in rural than in

urban area. But this is the most consistent of all the variations and affects the
traffic stream characteristics the least.

Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays will also face difference in pattern. But

comparing day with day, patterns for routes of a similar nature often show a
marked similarity, which is useful in enabling predictions to be made.

The most significant variation is from hour to hour. The peak hour observed

during mornings and evenings of weekdays, which is usually 8 to 10 per cent of

total daily flow or 2 to 3 times the average hourly volume. These trips are mainly

the work trips, which are relatively stable with time and more or less constant
from day to day.

4.2 Types of volume measurements


Since there is considerable variation in the volume of traffic, several types of

measurements of volume are commonly adopted which will average these


variations into a single volume count to be used in many design purposes.

1. Average Annual Daily Traffic(AADT) : The average 24-hour traffic

volume at a given location over a full 365-day year, i.e. the total number of

vehicles passing the site in a year divided by 365.

2. Average Annual Weekday Traffic(AAWT) : The average 24-hour traffic

volume occurring on weekdays over a full year. It is computed by dividing


the total weekday traffic volume for the year by 260.

3. Average Daily Traffic(ADT) : An average 24-hour traffic volume at a

given location for some period of time less than a year. It may be

measured for six months, a season, a month, a week, or as little as two

days. An ADT is a valid number only for the period over which it was

measured.

4. Average Weekday Traffic(AWT) : An average 24-hour traffic volume

occurring on weekdays for some period of time less than one year, such
as for a month or a season.

The relationship between AAWT and AWT is analogous to that between AADT

and ADT. Volume in general is measured using different ways like manual

counting, detector/sensor counting, moving-car observer method, etc. Mainly the

volume study establishes the importance of a particular route with respect to the

other routes, the distribution of traffic on road, and the fluctuations in flow. All

which eventually determines the design of a highway and the related facilities.

Thus, volume is treated as the most important of all the parameters of traffic
stream.
5 Density

Density is defined as the number of vehicles occupying a given length of highway

or lane and is generally expressed as vehicles per km. One can photograph a
length of road x, count the number of vehicles, n , in one lane of the road at that
x

point of time and derive the density k as,

This is illustrated in figure 1. From the figure, the density is the number of

vehicles between the point A and B divided by the distance between A and B.

Density is also equally important as flow but from a different angle as it is the

measure most directly related to traffic demand. Again it measures the proximity

of vehicles in the stream which in turn affects the freedom to maneuver and
comfortable driving.

Figure 1: Illustration of density

6 Derived characteristics
From the fundamental traffic flow characteristics like flow, density, and speed, a

few other parameters of traffic flow can be derived. Significant among them are

the time headway, distance headway and travel time. They are discussed one by
one below.

6.1 Time headway

The microscopic character related to volume is the time headway or simply

headway. Time headway is defined as the time difference between any two

successive vehicles when they cross a given point. Practically, it involves the

measurement of time between the passage of one rear bumper and the next past
a given point. If all headways h in time period, t, over which flow has been

measured are added then,

But the flow is defined as the number of vehicles n measured in time interval t,
t

that is,

where, h is the average headway. Thus average headway is the inverse of flow.
av

Time headway is often referred to as simply the headway.

6.2 Distance headway

Another related parameter is the distance headway. It is defined as the distance


between corresponding points of two successive vehicles at any given time. It
involves the measurement from a photograph, the distance from rear bumper of

lead vehicle to rear bumper of following vehicle at a point of time. If all the space
headways in distance x over which the density has been measured are added,

But the density (k) is the number of vehicles n at a distance of x, that is


x

Where, s is average distance headway. The average distance headway is the


av

inverse of density and is sometimes called as spacing.

6.3 Travel time

Travel time is defined as the time taken to complete a journey. As the speed

increases, travel time required to reach the destination also decreases and vice-

versa. Thus travel time is inversely proportional to the speed. However, in

practice, the speed of a vehicle fluctuates over time and the travel time
represents an average measure.

7 Time-space diagram

Time space diagram is a convenient tool in understanding the movement of

vehicles. It shows the trajectory of vehicles in the form of a two dimensional plot.

Time space diagram can be plotted for a single vehicle as well as multiple
vehicles. They are discussed below.

7.1 Single vehicle


Taking one vehicle at a time, analysis can be carried out on the position of the

vehicle with respect to time. This analysis will generate a graph which gives the

relation of its position on a road stretch relative to time. This plot thus will be
between distance x and time t and x will be a functions the position of the vehicle

for every t along the road stretch. This graphical representation of x(t) in a (t,x)

plane is a curve which is called as a trajectory. The trajectory provide an intuitive,


clear, and complete summary of vehicular motion in one dimension.

Figure 2: Time space diagram for a single vehicle

In figure 2(a), the the distance x goes on increasing with respect to the origin

as time progresses. The vehicle is moving at a smooth condition along the road

way. In figure 2(b), the vehicle at first moves with a smooth pace after reaching a

position reverses its direction of movement. In figure 2(c), the vehicle in between
becomes stationary and maintains the same position.
From the figure, steeply increasing section of x(t) denote a rapidly advancing

vehicle and horizontal portions of x(t) denote a stopped vehicle while shallow

sections show a slow-moving vehicle. A straight line denotes constant speed

motion and curving sections denote accelerated motion; and if the curve is

concave downwards it denotes acceleration. But a curve which is convex


upwards denotes deceleration.

7.2 Multiple Vehicles

Time-space diagram can also be used to determine the fundamental parameters

of traffic flow like speed, density and volume. It can also be used to find the

derived characteristics like space headway and time headway. Figure 3 shows

the time-space diagram for a set of vehicles traveling at constant speed. Density,

by definition is the number of vehicles per unit length. From the figure, an

observer looking into the stream can count 4 vehicles passing the stretch of road
between x and x at time t. Hence, the density is given as
1 2

We can also find volume from this time-space diagram. As per the definition,
volume is the number of vehicles counted for a particular interval of time. From
the figure 3 we can see that 6 vehicles are present between the time t and t .
1 2

Therefore, the volume q is given as


Again the averages taken at a specific location (i.e., time ranging over an

interval) are called time means and those taken at an instant over a space
interval are termed as space means.

Another related definition which can be given based on the time-space

diagram is the headway. Space headway is defined as the distance between

corresponding points of two successive vehicles at any given time. Thus, the

vertical gap between any two consecutive lines represents space headway. The

reciprocal of density otherwise gives the space headway between vehicles at that
time.

Similarly, time headway is defined as the time difference between any two

successive vehicles when they cross a given point. Thus, the horizontal gap

between the vehicles represented by the lines gives the time headway. The
reciprocal of flow gives the average time headway between vehicles at that point.

Figure 3: Time space diagram for many vehicles

8 Summary
Speed, flow and density are the basic parameters of traffic flow. Different

measures of speed are used in traffic flow analysis like spot speed, time mean

speed, space mean speed etc. Time-space diagram also can be used for

determining these parameters. Speed and flow of the traffic stream can be
computed using moving observer method.

You might also like