Lecture #2: Fundamental
Parameters of Traffic Flow
Transportation Engineering
FMEsguerra
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
THE THREE FUNDAMENTAL
PARAMETERS
TRAFFIC FLOW (q)
SPEED (v)
DENSITY (k)
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
TRAFFIC FLOW is defined as
q=traffic flow in vehicles per unit time
n=number of vehicles
t=duration or time interval
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
CATEGORIES OF TRAFFIC FLOW
UNINTERRUPTED FLOW Can occur on facilities
that have no fixed elements, such as traffic
signals, external to the traffic stream, that
cause interruptions to traffic flow.
INTERRUPTED FLOW Occurs on transportation
facilities that have fixed elements causing
periodic interruptions to traffic flow. Such
elements include traffic signals, stop signs,
and other types of controls.
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
TYPES OF VOLUME MEASUREMENTS
Because there is considerable variation in the
volume of traffic, several type of volume
measurements are commonly adopted for
design purposes.
1. AVERAGE
(AADT)
2. AVERAGE
(AAWT)
3. AVERAGE
4. AVERAGE
ANNUAL DAILY TRAFFIC
ANNUAL WEEKLY TRAFFIC
DAILY TRAFFIC (ADT)
WEEKLY TRAFFIC (AWT)
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
SPEED is defined as the rate of motion, as
distance per unit time.
Spot speed - instantaneous speed or the speed
at a certain time.
Average speed is defined in two ways:
1. Time-mean Speed
2. Space-mean Speed
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Time-mean Speed arithmetic mean of the
vehicle speeds observed at some designated
point along the roadway.
where:
t = time-mean speed in unit distance per time.
ui = spot speed of the ith vehicle
n = number of measured vehicle
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Space-mean Speed determined on the basis of the
time necessary for a roadway to travel some known
length of the roadway.
where:
s = space-mean speed in unit distance per time.
l = length of roadway used for travel time
measurement of vehicles
t = average travel time
ti = time of the ith vehicle
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Sample problem:
(time-mean speed vs space-mean speed)
1. The speeds of five vehicles were measured
(with radar) at the midpoint of a 0.5-mile
section of roadway. The speeds measured were
44, 42, 51, 49, and 46 mi/h. Assuming all
vehicles were travelling at constant speed over
this section of the roadway section, calculate
the time-mean speed and space-mean speeds.
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
TRAFFIC DENSITY is defined as
where:
k = traffic densityin vehicles per unit distance.
n = number of vehicles occupying some length
of roadway at some specified time.
l = length of roadway
s= spacing of vehicles
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
THE FUNDAMENTAL EQUATION OF TRAFFIC FLOW
Based on the definitions presented, a simple
identity provides the basic relationship among
traffic flow, speed(space-mean), and density.
q = uk
where:
q = traffic flow, typically in veh/h
u = space-mean speed, typically in units of mi/h or km/h
K= density, in units of veh/mi or veh/km
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Other Important Parameters:
TIME HEADWAY The time between the passage of
the front bumpers of successive vehicles at some
designated highway points.
t = duration of time interval
hi = time headway of the ith vehicle (the elapsed time
betweet the arrival of the vehicles i and i-1)
n = number of measured vehicle time headways at
some designated roadway point.
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Other Important Parameters:
SPACING - is defined as the distance between
successive vehicles in a traffic stream as
measured from front bumber to front bumber.
Also known as distance headway.
Some additional relationships including spacing
and time headway are:
*ave. k = 1/(ave. s)
*ave. h = (ave. s)/(ave. us)
*ave. q = 1/(ave. h)
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Other Important Parameters:
LANE OCCUPANCY is the measure of the
sum of the lengths of vehicles on a given
roadway section.
R=sum of vehicle lengths/length of roadway
To estimate density (k) given the occupancy,
k = R/average lengths of vehicles
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Other Important Parameters:
CLEARANCE and GAP
g = h ( L / us ) and c = g x us
where: g = mean gap (sec)
L = mean length of vehicles
c = mean clearance
h = mean headway
us = mean speed
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Sample problems:
2. Calculate the rate of flow of vehicles
from the following data:
TIME PERIOD VOLUME(VEHICLES)
4:00-4:15 700
4:16-4:30 812
4:31-5:00 1635
TOTAL 3147
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Sample problems:
3. Four vehicles 18, 20, 21, 22 ft long,
are distributed over a length of a
freeway lane 500 ft long. What is the
occupancy and density?
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
Sample problems:
4. Vehicle time headways and spacings
were measured at a point along the
highway, from a single lane, over the
course of an hour. The average values
we calculated as 2.5s/veh for headway
and 61m/veh for spacing. Calculate the
average speed of the traffic.
TRAFFIC FLOW PARAMETERS
REFERENCES
Hoel, L. & Garber, N. (2007). Traffic & Highway
Engineering 4th Ed. University of Virginia: Cengage
Learning
Khisty, C. & Lall, B. (1998). Transportation
Engineering: an Introduction. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall
Mannering, F., Kilareski, W., & Washburn, S. (2007).
Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic
Analysis. John Wiley & Sons.
Matthew, T. & Krishna Rao, K. (2007). Introduction to
Transportation Engineering. NPTEL Online Courses
