MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

TRAFFIC FLOW
▪CLASSIFICATION:
▪UNINTERRUPTED
▪ occurs at long sections of road
▪ regulated by vehicle-vehicle interactions and interactions between vehicles and the
roadway
▪vehicles are not required to stop by any cause external to the traffic stream

▪INTERRUPTED
▪ occurs at intersections or driveways
▪ regulated by an external means, such as a traffic signal; vehicles are required to stop
by any cause outside the traffic stream
▪vehicle-vehicle interactions and vehicle-roadway interactions play a secondary role in
defining the traffic flow

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

▪For Uninterrupted Flow
▪Traffic is defined by the following variables
A. Flow rate or volume
B. Speed
o time mean speed
o space mean speed
C. Density or concentration

D. Other Traffic Variables

o Time headway
o Spacing
o Time Occupancy
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

A. FLOW RATE OR VOLUME

o number of vehicles passing a point during a specified period of time
o Often referred to as volume over an hour

Where:
q = volume
N = number of vehicles
T = time interval

*flow rate if q in veh/min or veh/day

*volume if q in veh/hr
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

A. FLOW RATE OR VOLUME

Suppose a 15-minute count of vehicles bound for Manila was conducted at a
particular location on Quezon Avenue. using the given summary, estimate the
required traffic flow
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

TYPE 15 – min count A. In vehicles per hour

Car/van 420 B. In vehicles per minute
Jeepney 300 C. In per day
Bus 16 D. Of big vehicles per hour
Truck 28
E. Of small vehicles per day

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

A. FLOW RATE OR VOLUME

TYPE 15 – min count
Car/van 420
Jeepney 300
Bus 16 c.) q in veh/day
Solution:
Truck 28 q = 3056 * 24 = 73344 veh per day
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

a.) q in veh/ hr
N = Σ vehicle count d.) q of big vehicles:
N= 420+300+16+28 = 764 N big = Σ trucks and buses
T = 15 minutes = 0.25 hrs N big = 16+28 = 44
q = N/T = 764 veh/ 0.25 hrs q = N/T = 44 veh/ 0.25 hrs = 176 veh/hr
q = 3056 veh/hr
e.) q of small vehicles:
b.) q in veh/min N small = Σ cars/vans and jeepneys
q= 764 veh/ 15 min N small = 420+300=720
q = 50.933 vpm q = N/T = 720veh/0.25hrs*24= 69 120 veh/day
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

B.1 TIME MEAN SPEED

o Also called SPOT SPEED
o arithmetic mean of speeds of vehicles passing a point within a given time
interval
o often used as basis for establishing speed limits
o Length of road is required to measure the speed, called TRAP LENGTH
o For individual Speed: o Time Mean Speed

Where:
ui = speed of vehicle i,in kph
x = trap length
ti = time of vehicle i to traverse trap length
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

B.2 SPACE MEAN SPEED

o also called the HARMONIC MEAN SPEED
o rate of movement of a traffic stream within a given section of road
o based on the average travel time of vehicles in the stream within the section

Where:
ui = speed of individual vehicles
n = number of vehicles
t = time included

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

MEAN SPEED
The speeds of 25 cars were observed. Assuming that each car was traveling
at constant speed, determine the time mean speed, and the space mean
speed
Solution: Space Mean Speed
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

𝒏
No. of Speed, Time Mean Speed 𝑼𝒔 = σ
Cars kph σ 𝒖𝒊 𝟏/𝒖𝒊
10 35
𝑼𝒕 =
𝒏
𝟐𝟓
8 40 𝟏𝟎∗𝟑𝟓+𝟖∗𝟒𝟎+𝟐∗𝟓𝟎+𝟓∗𝟒𝟓 𝑼𝒔 = 𝟏𝟎 𝟖 𝟐 𝟓
2 50 𝑼𝒕 = + + +
𝟑𝟓 𝟒𝟎 𝟓𝟎 𝟒𝟓
𝟐𝟓
5 45
Σ = 25 𝑼𝒕 𝟑𝟗. 𝟖 𝒌𝒑𝒉 𝑼𝒔 =
𝟑𝟗. 𝟐𝟓𝟕 𝒌𝒑𝒉
=

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

C. DENSITY
o number of vehicles in a given length of road at an instant point in time
o May also be defined as the ratio of the flow rate to the space mean speed of
vehicles
Example:
Given 4 vehicles present in a
250 meter road. Determine the
density.
Where: Solution:
k = density 𝒌=
𝒏
n = number of vehicles 𝑳
𝟒 𝒗𝒆𝒉
L = definite section or distance 𝒌=
𝟐𝟓𝟎𝒎
𝒗𝒆𝒉
𝒌= 𝟏𝟔
𝒌𝒎

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.1 TIME HEADWAY

o the time interval between passage of consecutive vehicles at a specified point
on the road with the unit of time per vehicle

o Average headway for all observed vehicles:

Where:
hi = time headway of 2 consecutive vehicles

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.1 TIME HEADWAY

For longer observation period:

and

o Average time headway is related to flow rate

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.1 TIME HEADWAY

During morning peak hour, average headway of UP-Katipunan jeepneys is
estimated at 5 minutes.

If the passenger demand during the same period is 240, determine if there is
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

a need to increase the number of jeepney units (or shorten the headway) for
this route.

Assume that passenger demand is evenly distributed within that period and
the average load/occupancy is 14 passengers per jeepney

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.1 TIME HEADWAY

Solution:
𝑻
𝒉𝒕 = = 𝟓𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝑵
T = 60 minutes
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

(since we are considering the peak hour)

𝟔𝟎𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝟓𝒎𝒊𝒏 =
𝑵
𝑵 = 𝟏𝟐 𝐣𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬
To CHECK:
12 jeeps * 14 passenger capacity = 168 passengers < demand of 240
Therefore, there is a need to increase number of jeepneys

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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.1 TIME HEADWAY

Solution: cont’d
Since demand is 240 passengers
# jeepneys = 240/ 14 capacity
#jeeps = 17.18 ≈18 jeepneys
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

18 jeepneys will accommodate the demand

Applying equation of headway,

ht=60min/18 = 3.33 min < given 5 min (current)

Therefore,
increased # of jeepney, shortens headway from 5 minutes to 3.33 minutes
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.2 SPACING
o distance between two vehicles During heavy traffic congestion, it was
measure from the front bumper of observed that the average spacing of
a vehicle to that of another vehicles in queue in the innermost lane of
EDSA is 6.5 m. Determine the jam
o For average spacing of vehicles: density of stopped vehicles.
Solution:
𝑙
𝑠= ;
𝑘
Where: 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙 = 1𝑘𝑚
1000𝑚
s = spacing 6.5𝑚 =
𝑘
l = length of road section 𝑘 = 𝟏𝟓𝟑. 𝟖𝟒𝟔 𝒗𝒆𝒉/𝒌𝒎
k = density
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

D.3 TIME OCCUPANCY

o the total time a space is occupied by a vehicle
divided by the total time of observation Example:
For a 15minute period, 4 vehicles
o For n vehicles observed during time T: were observed to have stopped
at an intersection. Each vehicles
time were recorded as 10s, 15 s,
12 s and 8 s. Determine the
occupancy.
Solution:
Where: 𝟏𝟎+𝟏𝟓+𝟏𝟐+𝟖 𝒔
Ot = time occupancy 𝑶𝒕 = 𝟔𝟎𝒔 × 𝟏𝟎𝟎%
𝟏𝟓𝒎𝒊𝒏 𝟏𝒎𝒊𝒏
ti = time occupied nth vehicle(detection time) Ot = 5%
T = total observed time
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

2.1.a Major Traffic Variables

IMPORTANT TERMS TO REMEMBER

Free Flow Speed
Occurs at near zero density
Optimum density
Or critical density
Exist when traffic in lane is flowing at capacity
Jam density
Density from 0 (no flow)
Represents stopped flow or bumper to bumper flow
Gap
Time between two successive vehicles, in seconds
Clearance
Clear distance between two successive vehicles, in feet or meters
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MODULE 2: TRAFFIC FLOW THEORY AND ANALYSIS

REFERENCES:
Fundamentals of Traffic Engineering, 3.6 Queuing Theory, Ricardo G.
Sigua, UP Diliman
https://lost-
contact.mit.edu/afs/eos.ncsu.edu/info/ce400_info/www2/flow1.html

Part 2 of Module 2 Unit 1

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