Fundamentals of Transportation and Traffic Flow

Fundamentals of Transportation

Traffic Flow is the study of the movement of individual drivers and vehicles between two points
and the interactions they make with one another. Unfortunately, studying traffic flow is difficult
because driver behavior cannot be predicted with one-hundred percent certainty. Fortunately,
drivers tend to behave within a reasonably consistent range; thus, traffic streams tend to have
some reasonable consistency and can be roughly represented mathematically. To better represent
traffic flow, relationships have been established between the three main characteristics: (1) flow,
(2) density, and (3) velocity. These relationships help in planning, design, and operations of
roadway facilities.

Traffic Jam in Portugal

Traffic flow theoryEdit

Time-Space DiagramEdit

Time-space diagram showing trajectories of vehicles over time and space

Traffic engineers represent the location of a specific vehicle at a certain time with a time-space
diagram. This two-dimensional diagram shows the trajectory of a vehicle through time as it
moves from a specific origin to a specific destination. Multiple vehicles can be represented on a
diagram and, thus, certain characteristics, such as flow at a certain site for a certain time, can be
determined.

Flow and densityEdit

Flow (q) = the rate at which vehicles pass a fixed point (vehicles per hour) , = Average
measured time headway
Density (Concentration) (k) = number of vehicles (N) over a stretch of roadway (L) (in units of
vehicles per kilometer) [1]
where:

 = number of vehicles occupying a highway segment of length

 = equivalent hourly flow
 = length of roadway
 = density
SpeedEdit
Measuring speed of traffic is not as obvious as it may seem; we can average the measurement of
the speeds of individual vehicles over time or over space, and each produces slightly different
results.

Time mean speedEdit

Time mean speed () = arithmetic mean of speeds of vehicles passing a point
Space mean speedEdit
Space mean speed () is defined as the harmonic mean of speeds passing a point during a period
of time. It also equals the average speeds over a length of roadway.
Relating time and space mean speedEdit
Note that the time mean speed is average speed past a point as distinct from space mean speed
which is average speed along a length.

The two speeds are related as

The time mean speed higher than the space mean speed, but the differences vary with the amount
of variability within the speed of vehices. At high speeds (free flow), differences are minor,
whereas in congested times, they might differ a factor 2.

HeadwayEdit
The following definitions give what is referred to as the brutto gap (Asela) (Italian for gross), in
contrast to netto gaps (Italian for net). Netto gaps give the distance or time between the rear
bumper of a vehicle and the front bumper of the next.
Time headwayEdit
Time headway () = difference between the time when the front of a vehicle arrives at a point on
the highway and the time the front of the next vehicle arrives at the same point (in seconds)
Average Time Headway () = Average Travel Time per Unit Distance * Average Space Headway
Space headwayEdit
Space headway () = difference in position between the front of a vehicle and the front of the next
vehicle (in meters)
Average Space Headway ()= Space Mean Speed * Average Time Headway
Note that density and space headway are related:

Fundamental Diagram of Traffic FlowEdit

Traditional fundamental diagram of traffic

Flow varying by density on detector 688 (I-94 at 49th/53rd Avenue in Minneapolis) on November 1st 2000

The variables of flow, density, and space mean speed are related definitionally as:

Traditional Model (Parabolic)Edit

Properties of the traditional fundamental diagram.

 When density on the highway is zero, the flow is also zero because there are no vehicles on the
highway
 As density increases, flow increases
 When the density reaches a maximum jam density (), flow must be zero because vehicles will line
up end to end
 Flow will also increase to a maximum value (), increases in density beyond that point result in
reductions of flow.
 Speed is space mean speed.
 At density = 0, speed is freeflow (). The upper half of the flow curve is uncongested, the lower
half is congested.
 The slope of the flow density curve gives speed. Rise/Run = Flow/Density = Vehicles per hour/
Vehicles per km = km / hour.
Observation (Triangular or Truncated Triangular)Edit
Actual traffic data is often much noisier than idealized models suggest. However, what we tend
to see is that as density rises, speed is unchanged to a point (capacity) and then begins to drop if
it is affected by downstream traffic (queue spillbacks). For a single link, the relationship between
flow and density is thus more triangular than parabolic. When we aggregate multiple links
together (e.g. a network), we see a more parabolic shape.

Microscopic and Macroscopic ModelsEdit

Models describing traffic flow can be classed into two categories: microscopic and macroscopic.
Ideally, macroscopic models are aggregates of the behavior seen in microscopic models.
Traffic phases in a the microscopic fundamental diagram (truncated triangular)

Traffic phases in the queueing cumulative input-output (Newell) diagram

Microscopic ModelsEdit
Microscopic models predict the following behavior of cars (their change in speed and position)
as a function of the behavior of the leading vehicle.

Macroscopic ModelsEdit
Macroscopic traffic flow theory relates traffic flow, running speed, and density. Analogizing
traffic to a stream, it has principally been developed for limited access roadways (Leutzbach
1988). The fundamental relationship “q=kv” (flow (q) equals density (k) multiplied by speed (v))
is illustrated by the fundamental diagram. Many empirical studies have quantified the component
bivariate relationships (q vs. v, q vs. k, k vs. v), refining parameter estimates and functional
forms (Gerlough and Huber 1975, Pensaud and Hurdle 1991; Ross 1991; Hall, Hurdle and Banks
1992; Banks 1992; Gilchrist and Hall 1992; Disbro and Frame 1992).

The most widely used model is the Greenshields model, which posited that the relationships
between speed and density is linear. These were most appropriate before the advent of high-
powered computers enabled the use of microscopic models. Macroscopic properties like flow
and density are the product of individual (microscopic) decisions. Yet those microscopic
decision-makers are affected by the environment around them, i.e. the macroscopic properties of
traffic.

While traffic flow theorists represent traffic as if it were a fluid, queueing analysis essentially
treats traffic as a set of discrete particles. These two representations are not-necessarily
inconsistent. The figures to the right show the same 4 phases in the fundamental diagram and the
queueing input-output diagram.