Spot Speed Study and

Moving observer method

 Spot Speed Studies
• Useful for:
– Monitoring speed trends
– Establishing traffic operation and control
parameters
– Establishing highway design elements
– Evaluating highway capacity
– Assessing highway safety
– Measuring effectiveness of changes
The methods available for measuring spot speed can be grouped
as

1) Those observations that require time taken by a vehicle to cover a known distance.
It consist of
a) Long base methods- vehicles are timed over a long distance.
b) Short base methods- vehicles are timed over a Short distance, say about 2m.

2) Radar Speedometer which automatically records instantaneous speed.

3) Photographic method.
Those observations that require time taken by a vehicle to cover a
known distance.
 Long base methods
 Direct timing Procedure
 Enoscope
a)Direct timing Procedure
 Simplest method
 Two reference points are marked on the pavement at a suitable distance apart
and an observer starts and stops stopwatch as a vehicle crosses these two
marks.
 From known distance and time, speed can be calculated.

 Disadvantage: errors due to parallax effect.

 Observation by two observers one at each reference points

 First observer standing at the point in which the vehicle pass first, signals
and seconds observer starts the stop watch. The second observer stops the
stop watch when he observes the same vehicle passing the reference point.

 Disadvantage: reaction time of two observers.

b). Enoscope
 Also known as mirror box
 L-shaped box, open at both ends ,with a mirror set at 45 ˚ to
the arms of the instrument.
Spot speed equipment (Enoscope)
 Works on the Doppler principle.
 Speed of a moving body is proportional to change in frequency
between the Radio wave transmitted to the moving body and the
radio wave received back.

 Instrument directly measures speed.

 Instrument is setup near the edge of carriageway at a height of
1m.

 The speed meter is so kept that the angle between direction of

travel of vehicle and axis of transmission of
50
radio wave is as low as possible, say within 20˚.
 Speed of vehicles in both directions can be observed.
 Time-lapse camera photography can be used.
 Photographs are taken at fixed intervals of time(say one
second per frame) on a special camera.

 By projecting the film on a screen, the passage of any

vehicle can be traced with reference to time.

 Images by video cameras can be also used.

51
Spot Speed : Instantaneous speed of a vehicle at a specified location
Various Methods
Enoscope
Pressure contact Tubes
Radar Speed Meters
Problem
Mid Speed kmph 5 15 25 35 45 55 65 75 85 95
No. of vehicles observed 12 18 68 89 204 255 119 43 33 9

The following data were obtained from the spot speed studies Suggest
i) Upper Speed limit for regulation
ii) Speed to check geometric design elements
iii) Lower speed group causing congestion
iv) Dispersion v) Median speed and vi) Modal speed .
 Study Considerations
• Select roadway section with typical travel speed;
• Unless a specific requirement of the speed study, make an attempt to avoid the following,
primarily to avoid accelerating/decelerating vehicles:
– Traffic signals and other junctions
– Intersections
– Work zones
– Curves
– Parking zones
– Active crosswalks
• Consider free flow vehicles only (those not impacted by speed
of preceding vehicle, such as the first vehicle in a platoon);
 Study Considerations
• Consider date and time
– Typical weekdays (Tues., Wed., Thur.) preferred
• Avoid unusual conditions, including:
• Unique events
• Inclement weather
• Holidays
• If using Radar, consider:
- the angle of measurement to assure accurate speeds
- remain inconspicuous so as not to influence speeds
Frequency distribution of spot speed Data
Speed range Mid speed Frequency Frequency in % Cumulative
kmph Kmph frequency
0-10 5 12 1.41=(12/850)x1 1.41
00
10-20 15 18 2.12 3.53
20-30 25 68 8 11.53
30-40 35 89 10.47 22
40-50 45 204 24 46
50-60 55 255 33 76
60-70 65 119 14 19
70-80 75 43 5.06 95.06
80-90 85 33 3.88 98.94
90-100 95 9 1.06 100
Total = 850
 Cumulative frequency in %

Mid speed in kmph

i)Upper Speed limit for regulation =85 th percentile speed = 60kmph
ii) Speed to check geometric design elements = 98 th percentile speed = 84kmph
iii) Lower speed group causing congestion = 15 th percentile speed = 30kmph
iv) Dispersion = 85 th percentile speed - 15 th percentile speed = 30kmph
v) Median speed = 50 th percentile speed = 41kmph
Frequency distribution curve of the spot
speeds

Frequency in %

Mid speed in kmph

Modal speed is 48 Kmph
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD
• Moving observer method of traffic stream measurement has been developed
to provide simultaneous measurement of traffic stream variables.

• Speed data are collected from measurements at a point or over a short section
or over an area.

• Traffic flow data are collected at a point.

• Moving observer method is one in which both speed and traffic flow data are
obtained by a single experiment.

• It has the advantage of obtaining the complete state with just four observers,
and a vehicle.
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD
• Determination of any of the two parameters of the traffic
flow will provide the third one by the equation q = uk
• Thus, moving observer method is the most commonly used
method to get the relationship between the fundamental
stream characteristics.

• q ----------- flow
• u ------------speed
• k ------------ density 17
MOVING OBSERVER METHOD

WITH AGAINST
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD
• Consider a stream of vehicles moving in the north bound direction.
• Two different cases of motion can be considered. The first case considers
the traffic stream to be moving and the observer to be stationary.
• If No is the number of vehicles overtaking the observer during a period
of T ,then

N0 = q × T

Where q is the flow

 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD
The second case assumes that the stream is stationary and the observer
moves with speed V0.

If Np is the number of vehicles overtaken by observer over a length L, then

Np = k × L
Np = k × V0 × T
Where k is the density (veh/km)
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD

• Now consider the case when the observer is moving within the stream.
• In that case Mo vehicles will overtake the observer and Mp vehicles will be
overtaken by the observer in the test vehicle.

• Let the difference M is given by Mo - Mp, then

M = Mo - Mp = q T − k Vo T
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD
The test vehicle is run twice once with the traffic stream and another one
against traffic stream, so

Mw = q Tw − k Vw Tw
Ma = q Ta + k Va Ta
 MOVING OBSERVER METHOD

1) q = mw + ma /(tw + ta )

2)

3)

4)
Moving observer method

• The length of a road stretch used for conducting the moving observer
test is 0.5 km and the speed with which the test vehicle moved is 20
km/hr. Given that the number of vehicles encountered in the stream
while the test vehicle was moving against the traffic stream is 107,
number of vehicles that had overtaken the test vehicle is 10, and the
number of vehicles overtaken by the test vehicle is 74, find the flow,
density and average speed of the stream.
Moving observer method
Time taken by the test vehicle to reach the other end of the stream while it is
moving along with the traffic is tw = 0.5/20= 0.025 hr

Time taken by the observer to reach the other end of the stream while it is moving
against the traffic is ta = tw = 0.025 hr

q = mw + ma /(tw + ta )
Flow is given by equation, q = (10-74)+ 107) /(0.025+0.025) = 860 veh/hr
Moving observer method

Stream speed vs can be found out from equation

• Density can be found out from equation as k = 860/5 = 172veh/km