FUNDAMENTALS

OF
TRAFFIC FLOW
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Module 1
 Traffic Stream Characteristics
 Description
 Measurement
 Analysis

of Microscopic and Macroscopic Characteristics

of Flow, Speed and Density

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What is Traffic Engineering?
 Traffic engineering is that phase of engineering that deals
with the planning, geometric design and traffic operations of
roads, streets and highways and their networks, terminals,
abutting lands and relationships with other modes of
transportation for the achievement of safe, efficient and
convenient movement of people and goods.

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Macroscopic Approach

 In this approach the flow is considered in an

aggregate sense.
 This approach is most appropriate for studying
steady-state phenomenon of flow and hence
describes the overall operational efficiency of
the system.
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Microscopic Approach
 In this approach the response of each and individual vehicle is
studying in a disaggregate manner.
 The individual driver-vehicle combination is examined like
car maneuvering.
 A mathematical model that captures the movement of
individual vehicles.
 This approach is extensively used in highway safety work.

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Mesoscopic Approach
 In this approach the movement of clusters or platoons of
vehicles are study.
 It incorporates equations to indicate how these clusters
interact.

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Parameters of Traffic Flow
 There are at least eight basic variables or
measures used in describing traffic flow.
 The first three primary variables are:
1. Speed (v)
2. Traffic Volume (q)
3. Traffic Density (k)

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 The other three variables used in traffic flow analysis
are:
1. Headways (h)
2. Spacing (s) and
3. Occupancy (R)

 Corresponding to measure spacing and headways

there are two other parameters:
1. Clearance and
2. Gap

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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.
 Speed of different vehicles will vary with respect to time and space.
 To represent these variation, several types of speed can be defined.
 These are spot speed, running speed, journey speed, time mean
speed and space mean speed.

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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.
 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.

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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.
 Delays and stopping time is not considered in running
speed.

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Journey speed
 Journey speed is the effective speed of the vehicle on a
journey between two points.
 It is distance between the two points divided by the total time
taken for the vehicle to complete the journey including any
stopped time.
 The journey speed is less than running speed, indicates that
the journey follows a stop-go condition with enforced
acceleration and deceleration.

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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.
 This is the arithmetic mean of measured speed of all vehicles.
 TMS =

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 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.
 SMS =
 SMS =

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Traffic Volume and Flow Rate
 Volume is the actual number of vehicles observed or
predicted to be passing a point during a time interval.
 The rate of flow represents the number of vehicles
passing a point during a time interval less than 1
hour, but expressed as an equivalent hourly rate.

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Variation in Traffic Volume
 Traffic volume may vary with time i.e. from month to month, day
to day, hour to hour or within an hour.
 Volume variations can also be observed from season to season.
 The most significant variation is from hour to hour.
 The peak hour traffic is more than the traffic in off peak hours.
 The peak hour traffic is measured as the 8 to 10 percent of total
daily traffic.
 During the peak hour most of the trips are work trips which are
stable with time and more of less constant from day to day.

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Types of Volume Measurement
 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. These are:
 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT)
 Annual Average Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
 Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
 Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)

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 Annual Average 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.
 Annual Average 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.

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 Average Daily Traffic(ADT): An average 24-
hour traffic volume at a given location for
some period of time less than a year.
 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.

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 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 these 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.
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Flow Rate
 Volume observed for period of less than one
hour are generally expressed as equivalent of
hourly rates of flow.
 Flow rate = number of vehicles during
observation / observation time
 For most practical purposes, 15 minutes is
considered as the minimum period of time.

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Peak Hour Factor
 Ratio of the volume occurring during the peak
hour to a maximum rate of flow during a given
time period within the peak hour.
 PHF = hourly volume/maximum rate of flow
 PHF =
 Where, x is the analysis period in minutes and
Vx is the flow during that period

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Traffic Density
 Density or concentration is defined as the number of vehicles
occupying a given length of lane or roadway, averaged over
time , expressed as vehicle/km.
 Direct measurement of density can be obtained through aerial
photography.
 The most common method to determine density is q = k*v
 Density represents the proximity of vehicle in the traffic
stream describes the freedom of maneuverability.

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Evaluation
 Mid sem: 30 marks
 End sem: 50 marks
 Quiz: 10 marks (5 marks before mid sem and 5 marks
before end sem)
 Class participation: 5 marks (5 to 10 CPs having weightage
in the range of 0.5 to 2 marks)
 Assignment: 5 marks (2 assignments before and after mid
sem)

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Fundamentals of traffic flow
1. Introduction
2. Macroscopic approach
3. Microscopic approach
4. TMS and SMS relationship and problems
5. Moving observer method
6. Point data collection
7. Short section and length of road data collection
8. Intrusive technologies
9. Non-intrusive technologies

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Spacing (Space Headway)
 It is defined as the distance between two successive vehicles in a
traffic stream as measured from front bumper to front bumper.
 It can be measured from aerial photographs.
 If all the space headways in a particular distance (say x) are
measured then sum of all the space headways will give the
distance x.
 If the density is measured over the same distance x and the
number of vehicles are n then Density (k) = n/x

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 Sav is the average space
headway

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Time Headway (h)
 Time headway or simply headway is the time difference
between successive vehicles when measured from front to
front or rear to rear bumper.
 Both spacing and headway are related to speed, flow rate and
density.
 If all headways measured over the time t then
 The flow rate (q) is the no. of vehicles in time t, hence

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 hav is the average time headway between
successive vehicles.

 If q is measured for 1 hr. period then q = 3600/hav

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Clearance
 It is the distance between two successive vehicles
when measured from rear bumper of front vehicle to
the front bumper of rear vehicle.
 The difference between spacing and clearance is the
average length of the vehicle.

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Gap (g)
 It is the time difference between two successive vehicles
measured at a point from rear bumper of front vehicle to the
front bumper of rear vehicle.
 Difference between headway and gap is the time equivalence
of the average length of the vehicle. (L/v)
 L is the length of vehicle and g = h – (L/v)
 v is the average speed.

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Time Space Diagram
 Time space diagram shows the trajectory of a
vehicle in a two dimensional plot.
 It can be plotted for single vehicle as well as
multiple vehicles.

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 Time Space Diagram for Single Vehicle

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Time-Space diagram

Distance s V = s/h

Time

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 Volume-time headway relationship

Q = n/T

Distance T=
hi
X Q = n/

Q = 1/

Time
T

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 Density-space headway
relationship

K = n/L

Distance L=

si L K = n/

K = 1/

Time

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 V = s/h

V=

V = Q/K

Q = KV

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TMS and SMS is determined through weighted average
(weight in the form of density and flow based on nature
of data collection)

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Approximate relation between
TMS and SMS

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Fundamental diagram of road
traffic

Low Q High V

High Q Low V

Max Q Medium K

Max K No V or Q

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Numericals
 A person recorded speed of five speeds A, B, C, D, and E:
44.7 km/hr, 66.4 km/hr, 41.2 km/hr, 49.9 km/hr, and 53.9
km/hr. Another person was tracking the same 5 vehicles (A
to E) for a distance of 1.9 km and found that the travel
time of vehicles A, B, C, D, and E were 153 s, 103 s, 166 s,
137 s, and 127 s respectively. Determine time mean speed
and space mean speed. Also provide your inference on the
results as well as by observing the given data.

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 TMS =
 SMS =
 TMS = 51.22 km/hr
 SMS = 49.8 km/hr

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 For the data given below,compute the time
mean speed and space mean speed. Also verify
the relationship between them. Finally compute
the density of the stream.
Speed range Frequency
0-10 5
10-20 15
20-30 20
30-40 25
40-50 30

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 Speed Range Vi Qi QiVi V^2 Qi*V^2 Qi/Vi

0 10 5 5 25 25 125 1

10 20 15 15 225 225 3375 1

20 30 25 20 500 625 12500 0.8

30 40 35 25 875 1225 30625 0.71429

40 50 45 30 1350 2025 60750 0.66667

Total 95 2975 107375 4.18095

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 Time mean speed Space mean speed
Vt =
Vs =

Vt = 31.31 Vs = 22.72

Variance
Density
= (-Vt)^2 +
K = Q/Vs
( = 149.94 K = 4.18

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Measurement at a point
 Flow is the main traffic parameter measured at
a point.
 Flow can be defined as the no of vehicles
passing a section per unit time.

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Types of Volume Measurement
 Volume count varies considerably with time

 Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)

 Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
 Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
 Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)

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Average Annual Daily Traffic
(AADT)
 This is given by the total no. of vehicles passing through a
section in a year divided by 365.
 Used for:
 1. Measuring the present demand for service by the street or
highway
 2. Developing the major or arterial street
 3. Evaluating the present traffic flow with respect to the street
system
 4. Locating areas where new facilities or improvements to
existing facilities are needed.

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 Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT) This is
defined as the average 24-hour traffic volume
occurring on weekdays over a full year.
 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.

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 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.

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Numerical

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Type of Counts
 Cordon Count These are made at the perimeter of an
enclosed area (CBD, shopping center etc.). Vehicles
or persons entering and leaving the area during a
specified time period are counted.
 Screen Line Count These are classified counts taken
at all streets intersecting an imaginary line (screen
line) bisecting the area. These counts are used to
determine trends, expand urban travel data, traffic
assignment etc.

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 Pedestrian Count These are used in evaluating
sidewalk and crosswalk needs, justifying pedestrian
signals, traffic signal timings etc.

 Intersection Count These are measured at the

intersections and are used in planning turn
prohibitions, designing channelization, computing
capacity, analyzing high accident intersections etc

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Counting Techniques
 Number of vehicles can be counted either
manually or by machine depending upon the
duration of study, accuracy required, location of
study area etc.

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Manual counting
 In its simplest form an observer counts the numbers of vehicles
along with its type, passing through the section for a definite time
interval.
 For light volumes, tally marks on a form are adequate.
 Mechanical or electrical counters are used for heavy traffic.
 Although it is good to take some manual observations for every
counting for checking the instruments, some other specific uses of
manual counts are following:
 1. Turning and through movement studies
 2. Classification and occupancy studies
 3. For analysis of crosswalks, sidewalks, street corner space and
other pedestrian facilities

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Automatic counting
 These can be used to obtain vehicular counts at
non-intersection points.
 Total volume, directional volume or lane
volumes can be obtained depending upon the
equipment available.

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Permanent Counters
 These are installed to obtain control counts on a
continuous basis.
 A detector (sensor) which responds on the
passage of vehicle past a selected point is an
essential part of this type of counters.

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Portable Counters
 These are used to obtain temporary or short term counts.
 Generally these make use of a transducer unit actuated by
energy pulses.
 Each axle or vehicle passage operates a switch attached to a
counter which is usually set to register one unit for every two
axles.
 If significant number of multi-axle vehicles is present, an
error is introduced.
 A correction factor, obtained from a sample classification
count, is introduced to reduce this error.

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Counting Periods
 The time and length that a specific location should be counted
depends upon the data desired and the application in which the data
are used.
 Counting periods vary from short counts at spot points to
continuous counts at permanent stations.
 Hourly counts are generally significant in all engineering design,
while daily and annual traffic is important in economic calculations,
road system classification and investment programmes.
 Continuous counts are made to establish national and local highway
use, trends of use and behaviour and for estimating purposes.

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Counting period intervals
 24-hour counts normally covering any 24-hour period
between noon Monday and noon Friday. If a specific day
count is desired, the count should be from midnight to
midnight.
 16 hour counts usually 5:30 am to 9:30 pm or 6 am to 10 pm.
 12 hour counts usually from 7 am to 7 pm
 Peak Period counting times vary depending upon size of
metropolitan area, proximity to major generators and the type
of facility.
 Commonly used periods are 7 to 9 am and 4 to 6 pm.

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Variation of Volume Counts and
Peak Hour Factors
 Variation of volume counts can be further sub-divided into
daily, weekly and seasonal variation.
 For studying the daily variation, the flow in each hour has
been expressed as percentage of daily flow.
 Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays usually show different
patterns.
 That’s why comparing day with day is much more useful.
 Peak Hour Volume is very important factor in the design of
roads and control of traffic, and is usually 2 - 2.5 times the
average hourly volume.

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 Similar to daily variation, weekly variation gives
volumes expressed as a percentage of total flow for the
week.
 Weekdays flows are approximately constant but the
weekend flows vary a lot depending upon the season,
weather and socio-economic factors.
 Seasonal variation is the most consistent of all variation
patterns and represents the economic and social
condition of the area served.

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Peak Hour Factor
 Ratio of the volume occurring during the peak
hour to a maximum rate of flow during a given
time period within the peak hour.
 PHF = hourly volume/maximum rate of flow
 PHF =
 Where, x is the analysis period in minutes and
Vx is the flow during that period

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 In absence of field measurements reasonable
approximations for peak hour factor can be
made as follows:
 0.95 for congested condition
 0.92 for urban areas
 0.88 for rural areas

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 General guidelines for finding future PHF can
be found in the Development Review
Guidelines, which are as follows:
 0.85 for minor street inflows and outflows
 0.90 for minor arterial
 0.95 for major streets

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Numerical
 The table below shows the volumetric data observed
at an intersection. Calculate the peak hour volume,
Peak Hour Factor (PHF), and the actual (design)
flow rate for this approach.

Time
15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150
interval

Cars 30 26 35 40 49 55 65 50 39 30

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 Highest volume: 219
 15 min highest volume: 65
 PHF: 0.84
 actual (design) flow rate:
 peak hour volume/PHF = 219/65 = 260 veh/hr

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Passenger Car Unit (PCU)
 A Passenger Car Unit is a measure of the impact
that a mode of transport has on traffic variables
(such as headway, speed, density) compared to
a single standard passenger car.
 This is also known as passenger car equivalent.

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Chandra’s method
 This method uses two factors:
 velocity of vehicle type and
 its projected rectangular area to calculate the
PCU value.

 (PCU)i = (Vc/Vi)/(Ac/Ai)

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Numerical
Find PCU value for Bus, Auto, and Bike
Spot speed data
Bus Auto Car Bike
7.4 8.67 11.32 6.67
6.09 7.25 6.74 8.27
5.88 9.68 11.11 7.75
6.38 6.98 6.67 6.12
5.66 8.77 8.11 9.52
5.66 8.77 7.41 11.9
5.55 9.52 8.11 6.97
6.12 9.40 9.93 6.97

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 SMS:

 SMS: Bus Auto Car Bike

6.05 8.52 8.34 7.70
 PCU: Bus Auto Car Bike
6.33 0.81 1.00 0.24

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Measurement over a Short Section
 The actual speed of traffic flow over a given
route may fluctuate widely, as because at each
time the volume of traffic varies.
 Accordingly, speeds are generally classified
into three main categories:
 Spot speed
 Running speed
 Journey speed

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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.
 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.

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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.
 Delays and stopping time is not considered in running
speed.

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Journey speed
 Journey speed is the effective speed of the vehicle on a
journey between two points.
 It is distance between the two points divided by the total time
taken for the vehicle to complete the journey including any
stopped time.
 The journey speed is less than running speed, indicates that
the journey follows a stop-go condition with enforced
acceleration and deceleration.

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Methods of Measurement

Radar gun

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Methods of Measurement

Pavement markings
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Enoscope or Mirror box
Enoscope consists of a simple open housing containing a mirror
mounted on a tripod at the side of the road in such a way that
an observer’s line of sight turned through 90o.

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 Road Detector
 Electronic-Principle Detector (Photography)

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Data Presentation
Frequency Distribution Table
 After the collection of data in the given
conditions, arrange the spot speed values in
order to their magnitudes.
 Then select an interval speed (e.g. 5 kmph) and
make grouping of data which come under this
range. Now, prepare the frequency distribution
table.

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Data Presentation
Frequency Distribution Table
 After the collection of data in the given
conditions, arrange the spot speed values in
order to their magnitudes.
 Then select an interval speed (e.g. 5 kmph) and
make grouping of data which come under this
range. Now, prepare the frequency distribution
table.

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Frequency Distribution Curve
 For each speed group, the % frequency of
observations within the group is plotted versus
the middle (mid-mark) speed of the group(s).
 Generally the shape of the curve follows the
normal distribution curve, this because the most
of the vehicles move on road near by mean
speed and very few deviate from mean speed.

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Cumulative Frequency Distribution
Curve
 For each speed group, the % cumulative
frequency of observations is plotted versus the
higher limit of the speed group.
 The cumulative frequency distribution curve,
however, results in a very useful plot of speed
versus the percent of vehicles traveling at or
below the designated speed.

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Distribution Characteristics
Measures of central tendency
 Measure which helps to describe the
approximate middle or center of the
distribution.
 Measures of central tendency include the
average or mean speed, the median speed, the
modal speed, and the pace.

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Mean speed

TMS Relation between TMS and SMS

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Median Speed
 The median speed is defined as the speed that
divides the distribution in to equal parts (i.e.,
there are as many observations of speeds higher
than the median as there are lower than the
median).
 It is a positional value and is not affected by the
absolute value of extreme observations.

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Modal Speed
 The mode is defined as the single value of
speed that is most likely to occur.
 As no discrete values were recorded, the modal
speed is also determined graphically from the
frequency distribution curve.
 A vertical line is dropped from the peak of the
curve, with the result found on the horizontal
axis.

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Measure of Dispersion
 Measures describe the extent to which data
spreads around the center of the distribution.
 Measures of dispersion include the different
percentile speeds i.e. 15th, 85th,etc. and the
standard deviation.

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 Standard deviation

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Percentile Speeds
 The 85th and 15th percentile speeds give a general description of the high
and low speeds observed by most reasonable drivers.
 It is generally thought that the upper and lower 15% of the distribution
represents speeds that are either too fast or too slow for existing
conditions.
 These values are found graphically from the cumulative frequency
distribution curve.
 The 85th and 15th percentile speeds can be used to roughly estimate the
standard deviation of the distribution σest.

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Numerical
Calculate:
• Mean speed
• Standard deviation of speed
• Plot frequency distribution
curve and cumulative frequency
distribution curve and estimate
median speed, modal speed and
pace
• From graph estimate 85th 15th
and 98th percentile speeds

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Measurement along a Length of
Road
 This is normally used to obtain variations in speed over a
stretch of road.
 Usually the stretch will be having a length more than 500
meters.
 We can also get speed ,travel time and delay.
 Speed and travel time are the most commonly used
indicators of performance for traffic facilities and networks.
 Delays are often used to measure the performance of traffic
flow at intersections.

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Travel time study
 Travel time may be defined as the total elapsed time of
travel, including stop and delay, necessary for a vehicle to
travel from one point to another point over a specified route
under existing traffic.
 Travel time studies provide the necessary data to determine
the average travel time.
 Combined with the length of the corridor under study, this
data can be used to produce average travel speed.

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Travel time study
 Travel time and delay are two of the principal measures of
roadway system performance used by traffic engineers,
planners and analysts.
 Since vehicle speed is directly related to travel time and
delay, it is also an appropriate measure-of-performance to
evaluate traffic systems.

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Delay studies
 Delay is defined as an extra time spent by drivers
against their expectation. Delay can have many
forms depending on different locations.
 A study made to provide information concerning the
amount, cause, location, duration and frequency of
delay as well as travel time and similar value.
 The time lost by traffic due to traffic friction and
traffic control device is called delay.

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Types of delay

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Methods for obtaining travel time
and delay study
 Floating Car Method
 Average Speed Method
 Moving-vehicle method
 Maximum-car method
 Elevated Observer method
 License Plate Method
 Photographic Method
 Interview Method
 Highway Capacity Manual

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Numerical: Moving observer method. The data from
four moving observer test methods are shown in the
table. Column 1 gives the sample number, column 2
gives the number of vehicles moving against the
stream, column 3 gives the number of vehicles that had
overtaken the test vehicle, and last column gives the
number of vehicles overtaken by the test vehicle

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Numerical: Time space diagram
 Two Ariel Photographs were taken, 30 sec apart over
a 1000 m length of a section of highway and the
following result were recorded:
Vehicle No. Photo 1 Photo 2
1 800 1000
2 700 900
3 650 850
4 500 800
5 320 750
6 250 700
7 200 600
8 180 520
9 100 300
10 0 250

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Numerical: Time space diagram
 Plot the time-space diagram.
 Determine average headway measured at 400
m section and spacing between the vehicles at
20 sec.
 Draw a trap of 200 m at a distance of 400 m
and 600 m and determine time mean speed
and space mean speed

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Numerical: Time space diagram
1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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Numerical: Time space diagram
1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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Numerical: Time space diagram
1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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Numerical: Time space diagram
1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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 TMS =
 SMS =

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 END
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