TRAFFIC CHARACTERISTICS There are five critical components that interact in a traffic system:

1. Road users - drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and passengers

2. Vehicles - private and commercial

3. Streets and highways

4. Traffic control devices

5. The general environment

a)Road User Characteristics:

The human element is involved in all actions of the road user either as pedestrian, cyclist, cart driver
or motorist. The physical, mental and emotional characteristics of human beings effect their ability
to operate motor vehicle safely or to service as a pedestrian. Hence it is important to study the
characteristics and limitations of the road users. The various factors which effect road user
characteristic may be broadly be classified under four heads:

1. Physical

2. Mental

3. Psychological

4. Environmental

➔ Physical Characteristics:- The physical characteristics of the road user may be either
permanent or temporary. The permanent characteristics are the vision, hearing, strength
and the general reaction to traffic situations Vision plays the most important of all these.
These include the
• acuity vision, peripheral vision and eye movement.
• glare vision, glare recovery and depth judgment.

Field of clearest and acute vision is within a cone whose angle is only 3 degrees, though the vision is
fairly satisfactory up to 100 in general and even up to 200 in the horizontal plane. However in the
vertical plane the field of clear vision may be about two thirds of that in the horizontal plane.

These factors are particularly taken care of while designing and installing control devices. As the field
of clear vision is limited, the road user have to often shift their eyes with the peripheral field to
obtain clear vision. The total time taken for the eye movement depends on some of the physical
characteristics including the response to stimuli.

The effect of glare adaptability to changes of light should also be studied. The depth judgment is
important for a driver in judging distance and speed of vehicles and other objects ahead. Hearing
helps drivers in a way, though it is more important for pedestrians and cyclists. Though strength is
not an important factor in general, lack of strength may make parking activity difficult, particularly
for heavy vehicles. The reaction to traffic situation depends on the time required to identify and
understand the traffic situation and to take the appropriate action.
This depends on many factors such as:

a) permanent and temporary physical factors, mental and psychological set up, speed and
environmental factors.
b) the time required to take appropriate action depends on the type of the problem and the
familiarity.
c) The temporary physical characteristics of the road affecting their efficiency are fatigue,
alcohol or drugs and illness.

➔ Mental Characteristics

Knowledge, skill, intelligence, experience and literacy can affect the road user characteristics.
Knowledge of the vehicle characteristics, traffic behavior, driving practice, rules of road and
psychology of road users will be quite useful for safe traffic operations.

Reactions to certain traffic situations become more spontaneous with experience. Understanding
the traffic regulation and special instruction .

Timely action depends on intelligence and literacy.

➔ Psychological factors

These affect reaction to traffic situations of road users to a great extent. The emotional factors such
as attentiveness, fear, anger, superstition, impatience, general attitude towards traffic and
regulations and maturity also comes under this.

Distractions by non-traffic events and worries reduce attentiveness to traffic situations. Dangerous
actions are likely due to impatience. Some road users do not pay due regard to the traffic regulations
and do not have the right attitude towards the traffic.

➔ Environmental Factors

The various environmental conditions affecting the behavior of road users are traffic stream
characteristics, facilities to the traffic, atmospheric conditions and the locality.

The traffic stream may consist of mixed traffic or heavy traffic whereas the facilities to overtake for
faster vehicles may be limited. The adaptability to different traffic stream characteristics depend on
the driver's characteristics as well as the motivation. The purpose of entering the traffic stream can
be social, recreational, business, routine movement or an emergency dash. The time, place and
route are fundamentally chosen by the road user based on the needs. Whatever be the motive of
moment, once the individual enters the traffic stream, the road user, is usually motivated by the
desire for time-distance economy on one hand and comfort and safety on the other. The locality
maybe is shopping center or a place with other distractions to the road users, thus affecting their
behavior.

The other environmental factors of importance are the weather visibility and other atmospheric
conditions.
 b) Vehicular Characteristics

It is quite important to study the various vehicular characteristics which effect the design and
traffic performance because it is possible to design a road for any vehicle but not for an indefinite
vehicle. The basic criterion of highway engineering is to cater for the needs of existing and
anticipated traffic. It will not be economically feasible to keep on increasing the geometric standards
and thickness of pavements from time to time to meet the needs of a few vehicles whose
dimensions and weight are increased.

The various vehicular characteristics affecting the road design may be classified as static and
dynamic characteristic of the vehicle.

Static Characteristics of vehicle affecting road design are the dimensions, weight and maximum
turning angle.

o The height of vehicle affects the clearance of the overhead structures.

o The height of driver seat affects the visibility distance and the height of head light affects the
headlight sight distance at valley curves.
o The field of vision ahead for the driver also depends on the design of wind shield and front
portion of the vehicle body.
o The clearance below the chassis, approach, departure and ramp angles of the vehicle affects
the design of vertical profile of drive ways, humps and dips.
o The minimum turning radius depends on the length of wheel base and the features of the
steering system and this effects design of sharp curves for the movement/activity of vehicles
at slow speeds.
o Gross weight, axle and wheel loads of vehicle govern the structural design of payments and
cross drainage structures.

Dynamic characteristics of the vehicle affecting road design are speed, acceleration and breaking
characteristics and some aspects of vehicle body design.

➢ The speed and acceleration depends upon the power of the engine and the resistance to be
overcome and are important in all the geometric design elements.
➢ The deceleration and breaking characteristics guide safe vehicle operation.
➢ The stability of vehicle and its safe movement on horizontal curves are affected by the width
of wheel base and the height of center of gravity.
➢ The riding comfort on vertical curves depends on the design of suspension system of the
vehicle.

Some of the vehicle characteristics have been discussed below in detail:-

• Vehicle Dimensions
• Weight of loaded Vehicle
• Power of Vehicle
• Speed of Vehicle
• Braking Characteristics
• Off Tracking

Vehicle Dimensions:-
 The dimensions to be mainly considered are the overall width, height and length of different
vehicles, particularly of the largest ones.

The width of the vehicle affects the width of the traffic lanes, shoulders and parking facilities. If the
width of the lanes are not adequate in view of the widest vehicle using the roads, the capacity of
road will decrease.

Height of the vehicle effects the clearance to be provided under structures such as over bridges,
under bridges, electric and other service lines.

Length of the vehicle is an important factor in the design of horizontal alignment as it affects the
extra width of pavement and minimum turning radius. Length affect the safe overtaking distance,
capacity of a road and parking facilities. The length should be considered in the design of valley
curves and dips. The maximum allowable width, height and length of the vehicle have been
standardized by the Indian Road Congress (IRC).

Weight of loaded Vehicle :-

The maximum weight of loaded vehicle affects the design of pavement thickness and gradients.

Power of Vehicle:-

The power of the heaviest vehicle and their loaded weights governs the permissible and limiting
values of gradient on roads.

Speed of Vehicle:-

The vehicle speed affects

• Sight distance

• Superelevation, length of transition curve and limiting radius on the horizontal curves

• Length of transition curve on vertical valley curves and on humps

• Width of pavement and shoulders on straight and on horizontal curves

• Design gradient

• Capacity of traffic lane

• Design and control measures on intersections

Braking Characteristics :-

The deceleration and breaking characteristics of vehicle depend on the design and type of breaking
system and its efficiency. The safety of vehicle operation, stopping distance and the spacing
between the two consecutive vehicles in a traffic stream are affected by the braking capacity.
Breaking distance 𝐿 = 𝑢2/2𝑔𝑓

Off Tracking :-

When a four or six wheeled vehicle, such as car or bus negotiates a horizontal curve at relatively
slow speed, the rear wheels do not trace the same path as the corresponding front wheels. The
difference in distance between the curved wheel path of a particular set of front and rear wheels is
called off tracking or the mechanical widening for a vehicle which is equal to 𝑙2 /2𝑅

Thus the off tracking depends on two factors

• The length of wheel base or the distance between the front and rear axles of the vehicle

• The turning angle or the mean radius of the horizontal curve traversed.

c) Road Characteristics
• Road Surface
• Lightning
• Roughness
• Pavement Colors
• Night Visibility
• Geometric aspects

Road Surface

The type of pavement is determined by the volume and composition of traffic, the availability of
materials, and available funds. Some of the factors relating to road surface like road roughness, tire
wear, tractive resistance, noise, light reflection, electrostatic properties etc. should be given special
attention in the design, construction and maintenance of highways for their safe and economical
operation. Unfortunately, it is impossible to build road surface which will provide the best possible
performance for all these conditions. For heavy traffic volumes, a smooth riding surface with good
all-weather anti-skid properties is desirable. The surface should be chosen to retain these qualities
so that maintenance cost and interference to traffic operations are kept to a minimum.

Lightning

Illumination is used to illuminate the physical features of the road way and to aid in the driving task.
A luminaire is a complete lighting device that distributes light into patterns much as a garden hose
nozzle distributes water. Proper distribution of the light flux from luminaires is one of the essential
factors in efficient roadway lighting. It is important that roadway lighting be planned on the basis of
many traffic information such as night vehicular traffic, pedestrian volumes and accident experience.

Roughness

This is one of the main factors that an engineer should give importance during the design,
construction, and maintenance of a highway system. Drivers tend to seek smoother surface when
given a choice.

On four-lane highways where the texture of the surface of the inner-lane is rougher than that of the
outside lane, passing vehicles tend to return to the outside lane after execution of the passing
maneuver. Shoulders or even speed-change lanes may be deliberately roughened as a means of
delineation.

Pavement Colors

When the pavements are light colored (for example, cement concrete pavements) there is better
visibility during day time whereas during night dark colored pavements like bituminous pavements
provide more visibility.
Contrasting pavements may be used to indicate preferential use of traffic lanes. A driver tends to
follow the same pavement color having driven some distance on a light or dark surface, he expects
to remain on a surface of that same color until he arrives a major junction point.

Night Visibility

Since most accidents occur at night because of reduced visibility, the traffic designer must strive to
improve night time visibility in every way he can. An important factor is the amount of light which is
reflected by the road surface to the drivers' eyes. Glare caused by the reflection of oncoming
vehicles is negligible on a dry pavement but is an important factor when the pavement is wet.

Geometric aspects

The roadway elements such as pavement slope, gradient, right of way etc., affect transportation in
various ways. Central portion of the pavement is slightly raised and is sloped to either sides so as to
prevent the ponding of water on the road surface. This will worsen the riding quality since the
pavement will be subjected to many failures like potholes etc.

Minimum lane width should be provided to reduce the chances of accidents.

Also the speed of the vehicles will be reduced and time consumed to reach the destination will also
be more.

One important other road element is the gradient. It reduces the tractive effort of large vehicles.
Again the fuel consumption of the vehicles climbing a gradient is more.

The other road element that cannot be avoided are curves. Near curves, chances of accidents are
more. Speed of the vehicles is also affected.

c)Speed Studies

Speed is considered as a quality measurement of travel as the drivers and passengers will be
concerned more about the speed of the journey than the design aspects of the traffic. It is defined as
the rate of motion in distance per unit of time.

Mathematically speed or velocity 𝑣 is given by, 𝑣 = 𝑑 /t.

where, v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s, d is distance traveled in m in time t seconds. Speed of
different vehicles will vary with respect to time and space.

To represent these variation, several types of speed can be defined. Important among them are:-

▪ spot speed
▪ running speed
▪ journey speed
▪ time mean speed
▪ space mean speed

Spot Speed:-

▪ Spot speed is the instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a specified location.

▪ Spot speed can be used to design the geometry of road like horizontal and vertical curves,
super elevation etc. Location and size of signs, design of signals, safe speed, and speed zone
determination, require the spot speed data.
 ▪ Accident analysis, road maintenance, and congestion are the modern fields of traffic
engineer, which uses spot speed data as the basic input.
▪ Spot speed can be measured using an enoscope, pressure contact tubes or direct timing
procedure or radar speedometer or by time-lapse photographic methods.

Running speed:-

• Running speed is the average speed maintained over a particular course while the vehicle is
moving and is found by dividing the length of the course by the time duration the vehicle
was in motion. i.e. this speed doesn’t consider the time during which the vehicle is brought
to a stop, or has to wait till it has a clear road ahead.
• The running speed will always be more than or equal to the journey speed, as delays are not
considered in calculating the running speed.

Journey speed:-

▪ Journey speed is the effective speed of the vehicle on a journey between two points and is
the distance between the two points divided by the total time taken for the vehicle to
complete the journey including any stopped time.
▪ If the journey speed is less than running speed, it indicates that the journey follows a stop-go
condition with enforced acceleration and deceleration.
▪ A uniformity between journey and running speeds denotes comfortable travel conditions.

Time mean speed and space mean speed :-

Time mean speed is defined as the average speed of all the vehicles passing a point on a highway
over some specified time period.

Time mean speed is a point measurement while space mean speed is a measure relating to length of
highway or lane.

In many speed studies, speeds are represented in the form of frequency table. Then the time mean
speed is given by, 𝑣𝑡 = ∑ 𝑞𝑖𝑣𝑖 𝑛 𝑡=1 ∑ 𝑞𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 Where 𝑞𝑖 is the number of vehicles having speed 𝑣𝑖 ,
and 𝑛 is the number of such speed categories.

Space mean speed is defined as the average speed of all the vehicles occupying a given section of a
highway over some specified time period.

Both mean speeds will always be different from each other except in the unlikely event that all
vehicles are traveling at the same speed.

Space mean speed (𝒗s ) The space mean speed also averages the spot speed, but spatial weightage is
given instead of temporal. This is derived as below. Consider unit length of a road, and let 𝑣𝑖 is the
spot speed of 𝑖 𝑡ℎ vehicle. Let 𝑡𝑖 is the time the vehicle takes to complete unit distance and is given
by 1 /vi .

The relation between time mean speed (𝑣𝑡 ) and space mean speed (𝑣𝑠 ) is given by the following
relation: 𝑣t = 𝑣s + 𝜎 2 /𝑣s.
Maximum dimensions and weights of vehicles allowed in India:-