University of Duhok

College of Engineering
Civil Department
Fourth Year Students
2020-2021

Traffic Engineering
Lecture 5

Lecturer: Dr. Nasreen A. Hussein

1
VOLUME STUDIES
Traffic volume studies are conducted to collect data on the number of vehicles and/or
pedestrians that pass a point on a highway facility during a specified time period. This time period
varies from as little as 15 minutes to as much as a year depending on the anticipated use of the
data.

Traffic volume: the number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway, or a given lane or
direction of a highway, during a specified time interval, (veh/h or veh/day).
There are several volume parameters that are widely used in traffic engineering:
1. Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) is the average of 24-hour counts collected every day of
the year.

AADTs are used in several traffic and transportation analyses for:

a. Estimation of highway user revenues
b. Computation of crash rates in terms of number of crashes per 100 million vehicle miles
c. Establishment of traffic volume trends
d. Evaluation of the economic feasibility of highway projects
e. Development of freeway and major arterial street systems
f. Development of improvement and maintenance programs

2. Average Daily Traffic (ADT) is the average of 24-hour counts collected over a number of days
greater than one but less than a year.

ADT is used for several transportation analyses:

a. Measurement of current demand
b. Evaluation of existing traffic flow

3. Peak Hour Volume (PHV) is the maximum number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway
during a period of 60 consecutive minutes.
PHVs are used for:
a. Functional classification of highways

2
 b. Design of the geometric characteristics of a highway, for example, number of lanes,
intersection signalization, or channelization.
c. Capacity analysis
d. Development of programs related to traffic operations, for example, one-way street
systems or traffic routing
e. Development of parking regulations

4. Vehicle Classification (VC) records volume with respect to the type of vehicles, for example,
passenger cars, two-axle trucks, or three-axle trucks.

VC is used in:

a. Design of geometric characteristics, with particular reference to turning-radii

requirements, maximum grades, lane widths, and so forth
b. Capacity analyses, with respect to passenger-car equivalents of trucks
c. Adjustment of traffic counts obtained by machines
d. Structural design of highway pavements, bridges,…

Methods of Conducting Volume Counts

Traffic volume counts are conducted using two basic methods:
1. Manual
2. Automatic

1. Manual Method
Manual counting involves one or more persons recording observed vehicles using a counter. With
this type of counter, several buttons are used to record volume data for different movements
and different types of vehicles. The main disadvantages of the manual count method are that:

 It is labor intensive and therefore can be expensive,

 It is subject to the limitations of human factors,
 It cannot be used for long periods of counting.

2. Automatic Method
Automatic counters can be classified into two general categories:

3
  Those that require the laying of detectors (surface such as pneumatic road tubes or subsurface
such as magnetic or electric contact devices ),
 Those that do not require the laying of detectors such as Doppler principles and laser scanning.

Types of Volume Counts

 Cordon Counts
 Screen Line Counts
 Intersection Counts
 Pedestrian Volume Counts
 Periodic Volume Counts
 Continuous Counts.
 Control Counts.
 Coverage Counts.

Typical Counting Periods

 24-hour counts normally covering any 24-hour period
 16 hour counts usually 6 am to 9 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.
Special periods should be avoided in counting unless the purpose of the count is to obtain these
unusual conditions:

 Special events (holidays, sport, …)

 Abnormal weather condition (rain, snow, …)
 Temporary closure of street affecting the volume pattern
 Transit or tracking strikes

Traffic Volume Data Presentation

1. Traffic Flow Maps
Volume of traffic on each route is represented by the width of a band.

4
2. Intersection Summary Sheets
These sheets are graphic representations of the volume and directions of all traffic movements
through the intersection.

5
3. Time-Based Distribution Charts
These charts show the hourly, daily, monthly, or annual variations in traffic volume in an
area or on a particular highway.

4. Summary Tables

These tables give a summary of traffic volume data such as PHV, Vehicle Classification (VC), and ADT
in tabular form.

6
Adjustment of Periodic Counts
Expansion factors, used to adjust periodic counts from shorter to longer periods.
1. Hourly expansion factor (HEF)

These factors are used to expand counts of durations shorter than 24 hour to 24-hour volumes
by multiplying the hourly volume for each hour during the count period by the HEF for that hour
and finding the mean of these products.

Table 1

2. Daily expansion factor (DEF)

DEF is used to determine weekly volumes from counts of 24-hour duration by multiplying the
24-hour volume by the DEF.

7
Table 2

3. Monthly expansion factor (MEF)

The AADT for a given year may be obtained from the ADT for a given month by multiplying this
volume by the MEF.

Table 3

8
Example 1: Calculating AADT Using Expansion Factors
A traffic engineer urgently needs to determine the AADT on a rural primary road that has the
volume distribution characteristics shown in Tables 1, 2, 3 shown above. She collected the data
shown below on a Tuesday during the month of May. Determine the AADT of the road.

Time interval Vehicles

7:00 – 8:00 400
8:00 – 9:00 535
9:00-10:00 650
10:00-11:00 710
11:00-12 noon 650

Solution:

 Estimate the 24-hr volume for Tuesday using the factors given in Table 1.

 Adjust the 24-hr volume for Tuesday to an average volume for the week using the factors
given in Table 2.

 Since the data were collected in May, use the factor shown for May in Table 3 to obtain the
AADT.

5. Design Hourly Volume (DHV): Traffic volume used for design calculations, typically between
the 10th and 50th highest volume hour of the year (30th highest is most common). It is the

9
 30th highest hourly volume and is defined as the hourly volume that will be exceeded by only
29 times in a year and all other hourly volumes of the year will be less than this value.
𝐷𝐻𝑉 = 𝐾 ∗ 𝐴𝐴𝐷𝑇
Where
DHV= Design Hourly Volume (typically, the 30th highest annual hourly volume),
AADT: Annual Average Daily Traffic (veh/day),
K= Proportion of AADT occurring in the peak hour (used to convert annual average daily traffic
to a specified annual hourly volume).
as a proportion of AADT

Highest 100 Hourly Volumes Over

Hourly volume

a One-Year (Period for a Typical

Roadway)

Number of hours (annually) with

highest or greater volumes

6. Directional distribution factor (D)

 Factor reflecting the proportion of peak-hour traffic traveling in the peak direction
 Often there is much more traffic in one direction than the other
In the design and analysis of some highway types (such as freeways and multilane highways), the
concern lies with directional traffic flows. Thus a factor is needed to reflect the proportion of
peak-hour traffic volume traveling in the peak direction. This factor is denoted D and is used to
arrive at the directional design-hour volume (DDHV) by application of

𝐷𝐷𝐻𝑉 = 𝐾 ∗ 𝐷 ∗ 𝐴𝐴𝐷𝑇

Example 2: If AADT is 3500 vpd and the 30th highest hourly volume for the year is 420 vph
what is the K-factor for that facility.

10
𝐷𝐻𝑉 = 𝐾 ∗ 𝐴𝐴𝐷𝑇
𝐷𝐻𝑉
𝐾=
𝐴𝐴𝐷𝑇
420
𝐾= = 0.12
3500

Example 3: What’s the impact of choosing different K factor for design? If AADT is 3500 vpd,
how will the design volume differ for k-factor = 8% vs. 12%?

𝐷𝐻𝑉 = 𝐾 ∗ 𝐴𝐴𝐷𝑇
𝐷𝐻𝑉(𝐾 = 8%) = 0.08 ∗ 3500 = 280 𝑣𝑝ℎ
𝐷𝐻𝑉(𝐾 = 12%) = 0.12 ∗ 3500 = 420 𝑣𝑝ℎ
The design volume differ about:
420-280=140 vph

7. Rate of flow: the equivalent hourly rate at which vehicles pass over a given point of highway
during a given time period less than 1hour, usually 15min.

8. Peak Hour Factor (PHF): describes the relationship between hourly volume and maximum
rate of flow within the hour.
The PHF is typically calculated from traffic counts. It is the average volume during the peak 60
minute period V 60av divided by four times the average volume during the peak 15 minute’s
period V 15av.

The Highway Capacity Manual advises that 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

11
Example 4: 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 interval Cars

4:00 - 4:15 30
4:15 - 4:30 26
4:30 - 4:45 35
4:45 - 5:00 40
5:00 - 5:15 49
5:15 - 5:30 55
5:30 - 5:45 65
5:45 - 6:00 50
6:00 - 6:15 39
6:15 - 6:30 30
Solution
We can locate the hour with the highest volume and the 15 minute interval with the highest
volume. The peak hour is shown in blue below with the peak 15 minute period shown in bold
font.

Time interval Cars

4:00 - 4:15 30
4:15 - 4:30 26
4:30 - 4:45 35
4:45 - 5:00 40
5:00 - 5:15 49
5:15 - 5:30 55
5:30 - 5:45 65
5:45 - 6:00 50
6:00 - 6:15 39
6:15 - 6:30 30

 The peak hour volume is just the sum of the volumes of the four 15 minute intervals within
the peak hour=219.
 The peak 15 minute volume is 65 in this case.
 The peak hour factor (PHF) is found by dividing the peak hour volume by four times the
peak 15 minute volume.

12
 219
𝑃𝐻𝐹 = = 0.84
4∗65
 The actual (design) flow rate can be calculated by dividing the peak hour volume by the PHF

219
𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = = 260 𝑣𝑒ℎ/ℎ𝑟
0.84

Or by multiplying the peak 15 minute volume by four

𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 4 ∗ peak 15 minute volume

𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 4 ∗ 65 = 260 𝑣𝑒ℎ/ℎ𝑟

𝑉60
𝑃𝐻𝐹 =
4 ∗ 𝑉15

13