Speed study

1. Spot speed observation at a particular link provides the following data, calculate maximum
speed limit, minimum speed limit, design speed and modal speed for regulation of traffic.
speed range
(kmph) Frequency
6-10 1
10-14 4
14-18 7
18-22 20
22-26 44
26-30 80
30-34 82
34-38 79
38-42 49
42-46 36
46-50 26
50-54 9
54-58 10
58-62 3

2. Twenty-five spot speed observations were taken in Kmph and were as under:
50, 40, 60, 54, 45, 31, 72, 58, 43, 52, 46, 56, 43, 65, 33, 69, 34, 51, 47, 41, 62, 43, 55, 40,
49
Calculate: (i) Time mean speed (ii) Space mean speed and (iii) Verify the relation between
two. (ans: 49.56 Kmph and 47.26 Kmph)

3. Following are the data collected in a spot speed study carried out at certain stretch of a
highway. Determine i) 85th percentile and 15th percentile speeds for the regulation of mixed
traffic. ii) the 98th percentile design speed for checking design elements of highway.

S/N Speed Range No of vehicles observed

1 0-10 15
2 10-20 20
3 20-30 45
4 30-40 89
5 40-50 200
6 50-60 275
7 60-70 120
8 70-80 45
9 80-90 30
10 90-100 10
4. A certain traffic stream has a mean speed of 40 kmph and standard deviation of 2 kmph.
Assuming that speed follows a normal distribution, what percentage of vehicles in the
stream will have the speed exceeding 43 kmph? (ans: 6.68)

5. In a field survey of spot speed measurement, the following twenty observations were taken.
Find the time mean speed, and space mean speed.
50,40,60,54,45,31,72,58,43,52,46,56,43,65,33,69,34,51,47,41
Also, assuming these vehicle speeds are fixed over a half km segment, calculate the
corresponding travel times and show that the space mean speed calculated using travel
times is equal to the point estimate.

6. The following speed data were collected during a two-minute segment of a-spot speed
study (speed in Kmph).
45,55, 48, 52, 60, 48,60,42,52, 65, 64,63, 58, 56, 68, 54, 68, 64,66,70 .
Calculate: (i) The time mean speed; (ii) The space mean speed.
What will be the average density of the above traffic stream if the mean headway is 4.5
sec?

7. Calculate: (i) Time mean speed (ii) Space mean speed and (iii) Verify the relation between
two.

S/N Speed Range No of vehicles observed

1 0-10 15
2 10-20 20
3 20-30 45
4 30-40 89
5 40-50 200
6 50-60 275
7 60-70 120
8 70-80 45
9 80-90 30
10 90-100 10

8. The spot speeds at a particular location are normally distributed with a mean of 51.7
Kmph and a standard deviation of 8.3 Kmph, what is the probability that
i) The speed exceeds 65 Kmph
ii) The speed lie between 40 Kmph and 70 Kmph
iii) What is the 98th percentile speed?
9. Speed and delay studies by floating car method were conducted on a stretch of city road of
3km length running north south. The data collected is given below. Find out
i) Average traffic volume
ii) Journey speed
iii) Running speed of the traffic system along either direction
Total
Stopped From
Direction Journey Time Delay opposite
Trip no of Trip (min) (min) Overtaking Overtaken direction
1 N-S 5.5 1.5 4 7 250
2 S-N 6.25 1.67 5 5 200
3 N-S 5.36 1.5 5 3 240
4 S-N 6.33 2.25 3 1 230
5 N-S 5.63 1.16 2 6 230
6 S-N 6.3 1.33 2 3 250
7 N-S 5.33 1.67 2 7 210
8 S-N 6.53 1.83 3 2 180
9 N-S 5.16 1.5 2 4 200

Ans:

Journey Running
Flow speed speed
Direction (veh/min) (Kmph) (Kmph)
N-S 18.095 32.5578 4.0626
S-N 19.279 28.4514 4.5565

10. Three vehicles are travelling a 1.5 km segment of a highway and the following observations
are made:

Vehicle A: 1.2 min

Vehicle B: 1.5 min
Vehicle C: 1.7 min
i) What is the average travel speed of the three vehicles?
ii) What is the time mean speed and space mean speed of three vehicles?

11. ABCD is a street running to south comprising of Three adjacent sections. The table below
gives the length of each section:

Section AB B BC C CD
Length
(Km) 500 Intersection 600 Intersection 450
Again the following table gives the details of observations (Average of test runs) by moving
observer team:
 Moving Observer Travelling South
Vehicle in the same
Vehicle met within opposing
Sections Time taken to travel (sec) direction
direction
Overtaking Overtaken
AB 152 25 4 3
B 15 - - -
BC 172 31 2 2
C 10 - - -
CD 134 28 3 4
Moving Observer Travelling North
Vehicle in the same
Vehicle met within opposing
Sections Time taken to travel (sec) direction
direction
Overtaking Overtaken
DC 132 50 2 1
C 12 - - -
CB 160 55 3 4
B 18 - - -
BA 145 45 1 1

Calculate the flows and running speeds in each section in both directions and the overall journey
speeds in each directions
Ans:

For South Bound Direction For South Bound Direction

Journey Journey
Running Running
Flows speed Flows speed
Section speed Section speed
(veh/hr) From A (veh/hr) From A
(Kmph) (Kmph)
to D to D
AB 557 12.4 BA 303 12.4
BC 596 12.6 11.50 CB 326 12.6 11.90
CD 654 11.3 Kmph DC 387 13.2 Kmph

12. A bicycle racer practices every day in the morning. Her route includes a ride along 800 m
bikeway and back. Since she is traffic engineer, she has made it a habit to count the numbers
of cars in lane A that she meets white riding southward, the number of cars in lane A that
overtake her while riding northward and the number of cars in lane A that she overtakes
while riding northward as shown in table below. Find average traffic flow and time of lane
A.

Average Nos. of Nos. of

Travel Speed Nos. of Overtaken Overtaking
(Km/hr) vehicle met Vehicle Vehicle
32 117 10 74
34 93 25 41
32 30 15 5
33 70 18 9