Traffic Flow Parameters
Traffic Flow Parameters
Traffic Flow Parameters
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.
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)
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)
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)
where
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).
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
their mutual relationships. In this chapter the basic concepts of traffic flow is
presented.
The traffic stream includes a combination of driver and vehicle behavior. The
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
Thus the traffic stream itself is having some parameters on which the
which studies the behavior of individual vehicle in the stream with respect to each
other.
density, and speed. While the microscopic characteristics include the measures
3 Speed
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,
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.
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
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
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.
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
vehicles/hour is given by
Flow is expressed in planning and design field taking a day as the measurement
of time.
The variation of volume with time, i.e. month to month, day to day, hour to hour
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
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.
volume at a given location over a full 365-day year, i.e. the total number of
given location for some period of time less than a year. It may be
days. An ADT is a valid number only for the period over which it was
measured.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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,
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-
practice, the speed of a vehicle fluctuates over time and the travel time
represents an average measure.
7 Time-space diagram
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.
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)
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
motion and curving sections denote accelerated motion; and if the curve is
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
interval) are called time means and those taken at an instant over a space
interval are termed as space means.
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.
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.