Transportation -I

Lecture 5

By
Engr. Muhammad Waseem
Lecturer Department of Civil Engineering
UET, Jalozai

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CAPACITY & LEVEL OF SERVICE ANALYSIS

➢ Most critical needs in traffic engineering is a clear understanding

of:
➢ How much traffic a given facility can accommodate
➢ and under what operating conditions.
➢ These important issues are addressed in highway capacity and
level-of-service (LOS) analysis.
➢ The basis for all capacity and level-of-service analysis is a set of
analytic procedures that relate demand or existing flow levels,
geometric characteristics, and controls to measures of the resulting
quality of operations.
 The Capacity Concept
The capacity of a facility is defined as:

“The maximum hourly rate at which persons or vehicles can be

reasonably expected to traverse a point or uniform segment of a
lane or roadway during a given time period under prevailing
roadway, traffic, and control conditions.”

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 Highway Capacity
➢ The capacity of a facility is: “the maximum hourly rate at which
persons or vehicles can be reasonably expected to traverse a point or
uniform segment of a lane or roadway during a given time period
under prevailing roadway, traffic, and control conditions.”

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 The Capacity Concept
➢ The definition contains a number of significant concepts that must
be understood when applying capacity analysis procedures.

1. Capacity is defined as a maximum hourly rate. For most cases,

the rate used is for the peak 15 minutes of the peak hour.
2. Capacity may be expressed in terms of persons or vehicles. This is
critical when:
➢ Transit and pedestrian issues are considered
➢ Consideration of high-occupancy vehicle (person-capacity)

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 The Capacity Concept
3. Capacity is defined for prevailing roadway, traffic, and control
conditions.
➢ Roadway conditions refer to the geometric characteristics of the
facility, such as the number of lanes, lane widths, shoulder widths,
and free-flow speeds.
➢ Traffic conditions refer primarily to the composition of the traffic
stream, particularly the presence of trucks and other heavy vehicles.
➢ Control conditions refer primarily to interrupted flow facilities,
where such controls as STOP and YIELD signs and traffic signals
have a significant impact on capacity.

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 The Capacity Concept
4. Capacity is defined for a point or uniform section of a facility.
➢ A “uniform section” must have consistent prevailing conditions. At any
point where these conditions change, the capacity also changes.
5. Capacity refers to maximum flows that can reasonably be expected to
traverse a section.
➢ This recognizes that capacity, as are all traffic factors, is subject to
variation in both time and space. Thus, capacity is not defined as the
single highest flow level ever expected to occur on a facility. Rather it is
a value that represents a flow level that can be reasonably achieved
repeatedly at a given location

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 Level of Service Concept
➢ Level of Service is a quality measure describing operational
conditions within a traffic stream, generally in terms of such
service measures as speed and travel time, freedom to
maneuver, traffic interruptions, and comfort and convenience.
➢ The six defined levels of service, A-F, describe operations from
best to worst for each type of facility.
➢ Every facility type now has levels of service defined in terms of a
specific measure of effectiveness.

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Level of Service Concept

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Level of Service

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The LOS Concept

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The LOS Concept

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 Level of Service
➢ Level of Service A:
▪ Free-flow conditions (traffic operates at free flow speeds).
▪ Individual users are virtually unaffected by the presence of others in the traffic
stream.
▪ Freedom to select desired speeds and to maneuver within the traffic stream is
extremely high.
▪ The general level of comfort and convenience is excellent.
➢ Level of Service B
▪ Allows speeds at or near free-flow speeds
▪ Presence of other users in the traffic stream begins to be noticeable.
▪ Freedom to select desired speeds is relatively unaffected, but there is a slight
decline in the freedom to maneuver (relative to LOS A).

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 Level of Service
➢ Level of Service C
▪ Speeds at or near free-flow speeds
▪ Freedom to maneuver is noticeably restricted (lane changes require careful
attention on the part of drivers).
▪ The general level of comfort and convenience declines significantly
▪ Disruptions in the traffic stream, such as an incident (In contrast, the effect of
incidents at LOS A or LOS B are minimal)
➢ Level of Service D
▪ conditions where speeds begin to decline slightly with increasing flow.
▪ The freedom to maneuver becomes more restricted and drivers experience
reductions in physical and psychological comfort.
▪ Incidents can generate lengthy queues because the higher density associated
with this LOS provides little space to absorb disruption in the traffic flow.

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 Level of Service
➢ Level of Service C
▪ Speeds at or near free-flow speeds
▪ Freedom to maneuver is noticeably restricted (lane changes require careful
attention on the part of drivers).
▪ The general level of comfort and convenience declines significantly
▪ Disruptions in the traffic stream, such as an incident (In contrast, the effect of
incidents at LOS A or LOS B are minimal)
➢ Level of Service D
▪ conditions where speeds begin to decline slightly with increasing flow.
▪ The freedom to maneuver becomes more restricted and drivers experience
reductions in physical and psychological comfort.
▪ Incidents can generate lengthy queues because the higher density associated
with this LOS provides little space to absorb disruption in the traffic flow.

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 Level of Service
➢ Level of Service E
▪ LOS E represents operating conditions at or near the roadway’s capacity.
▪ Even minor disruptions to the traffic stream, (changing lanes), can cause delays
as other vehicles give way to allow such maneuvers.
▪ In general, maneuverability is extremely limited
▪ drivers experience considerable physical and psychological discomfort.
➢ Level of Service F
▪ Describes a breakdown in vehicular flow.
▪ Queues form quickly behind points in the roadway where the arrival flow rate
temporarily exceeds the departure rate
▪ Vehicles typically operate at low speeds in these conditions

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 Service Flow Rate
➢ Service Flow Rate: the maximum flow rate that can be
accommodated while maintaining a designated level of service.

A Free flow
Service Flow Rate, SFA
B Reasonably free flow
SFB
C Stable flow
SFC
D Approaching unstable flow
SFD
E Unstable flow
SFE
F Forced flow

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Speed Flow Curves - Basic freeway

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Speed Flow Curves - Multilane Highways

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 The v/c Ratio and Its Use in Capacity
Analysis
➢ The comparison of true demand flows to capacity is a principal
objective of capacity and LOS analysis.

➢ The volume capacity ratio indicates the proportion of the facility’s

capacity being utilized by current or projected traffic. ➔ Used as a
measure of the sufficiency of existing or proposed capacity.

➢ It is, of course, desirable that all facilities be designed to provide

sufficient capacity to handle present or projected demands (i.e.,
that the v/c ratio be maintained at a value less than 1.00).

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 The v/c Ratio and Its Use in Capacity
Analysis
➢ When dealing with future projections, the forecast demand flow is
used and compared with the estimated capacity. A v/c ratio > 1 .00
implies that the estimated capacity is not sufficient to handle the
forecast demand flows.

➢ A v/c ratio above 1.0 predicts that the planned design facility will
operationally fail! Queue will form.

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 Types of Analysis
➢ The type of analysis that can be conducted for basic freeway
sections and multilane highways are:

1. Operational analysis

2. Design analysis

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 Operational Analysis
➢ The most common form of analysis is operational analysis

➢ All traffic, roadway, and control conditions are defined for an

existing or projected highway section, and the expected level of
service and operating parameters are determined.

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 Types of analysis
Operational analysis
➢ Use demand flow rate and the standard speed-flow curves of Figure
12.3 (freeways) or 12.4 (multilane highways).
➢ Using the appropriate free-flow speed, the curves may be entered on
the x-axis with the demand flow rate, v, to determine the level of
service and the expected average speed.

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Determination of Free Flow Speed

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Determination of Free Flow Speed

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Determination of Free Flow Speed

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 Example
➢ A six-lane urban freeway has the following characteristics:

➢ 12-ft lanes, 6-ft clearances on the right side of the roadway, rolling
terrain, an interchange density of 1.0 interchange per mile, and a
PHF of 0.92. The traffic consists of 8% trucks and no RVs, and all
drivers are regular users of the facility.

➢ The peak hour volume on the facility is currently 3,600 veh/h,

What is the current level of service on the facility

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 Determination of Free Flow Speed
➢ The free-flow speed for a multilane highway may be estimated as:

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 Determination of Free Flow Speed
➢ A base free-flow speed of 60 mi/h may be used for rural and
suburban multilane highways, if no field data is available.

➢ It may also be estimated using the posted speed limit. The base
free-flow speed is approximately 7 mi/h higher than the posted
speed limit, for speed limits of 40 and 45 mi/h.

➢ For speed limits of 50 and 55 mi/h, the base free-flow speed is

approximately 5 mi/h higher than the limit.

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Determination of Free Flow Speed

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Determination of Free Flow Speed

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 Example
➢ A 4-lane undivided multilane highway in a suburban area has
Adjustments to the base free-flow speed are as follows:

➢ The following characteristics:

➢ posted speed limit = 50 mi/h;

➢ 11-ft lanes; frequent obstructions located 4 ft from the right

pavement edge; 30 access points/mi on the right side of the
facility.

➢ What is the free-flow speed for the direction described?

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Highway Design analysis

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Maximum Service Flow Rate (Freeways)

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Maximum Service Flow Rate (Highways)

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 Highway Design analysis
Heavy Vehicle Adjustment Factor

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Recreational Vehicles

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Highway Design analysis

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 Highway Design analysis
➢ Driver Population Factor

➢ The values for fp range from 1.0 to 0.85.

➢ In general, the analyst should select 1.0, which reflects commuter

traffic (i.e., familiar users), unless there is sufficient evidence or it
is the analyst’s judgment that a lesser value reflecting more
recreational traffic characteristics should be applied

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 Example
➢ A new freeway is being designed through a rural area. The
directional design hour volume (DDHV) has been forecast to be
2,700 veh/h during the peak hour, with a PHF of 0.85 and 15%
trucks in the traffic stream. The facility will have level terrain
characteristics. If the objective is to provide level of service C,
how many lanes must be provided. Take Free flow speed of
75mile/hr.?

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Solution in Classwork

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