TRAFFIC

ENGINEERING

By
Dr. Moustafa Kamel

DEFINTION
The theory of traffic flow can be
defined as: a mathematical study of
the movement of vehicles over road
net-work.
The subject is a mathematical
approach to define, characterize and
describe different aspects of vehicular
traffic.
 Traffic Studies

Data Types
Physical inventory
Population characteristics
Operational data
Special-purpose data

Physical Inventory Data

Details of existing street and highway

network including:
streets and highway links
traffic control devices
Parking provisions
roadway defects
 Condition Diagram

Shows all physical inventory data with

necessary dimensions
Collect data from the site
Draw the condition diagram using any drawing
tool, like MS PowerPoint, AutoCAD

Managing the Inventory System

Advanced tools, like Geographic Information

Systems (GIS) combines
Geographic data with latitude and longitude
Roadway network data
Transit network data
Roadway inventory data
Crash data
Socioeconomic data
Others
 Population Characteristics Data

Data on the road users

Number of road users
Vehicle type
Roadways used
Amount of driving (say, annual)
Reaction time
Crash experience
Others

Operational Data

Volume data
Using traffic counters
Manual counting
Speed data
Using speed gun at a spot
Density data
Calculated using volume and speed data
 Operational Data

Travel Time and Delay data

By traveling through a specific roadway
Headway and Spacing data
Using electro-mechanical device

Special Purpose Data

Crash data
From the department of State Police
Parking studies
Manual survey and interview
Pedestrian studies
Manual survey and interview
Older driver studies
Driver and crash information and interview
 Purpose of Traffic Studies

Data collection
Manually
Using any device
From available hard copy or electronic data
Data reduction
Compiling raw data into a shorter form
Data analysis
Analytical process to interpret the data

PARAMETERS CONNECTED WITH

TRAFFIC FLOW

1. HEADWAY (h)
1. SPEED (V)
2. SPACING (S)
2. VOLUME (q) = FLOW 3. OCCUPANCY ( R )
3. DENSITY (K) 4. CLEARANCE (C )
5. GAP (g)
 ( 1 ) SPEED ( V )
Rate of motion ( Distance / Unit time)

There are 5 types of speeds:

1- Spot Speed

2- Running Speed

3- Overall Speed

4- Space Mean Speed (Vs)

Vs = L / (Ti /n ) = n L / (Ti)

5- Time Mean Speed (Vt)

Vt = Vi /n
 Volume and Rate of Flow
Volume is the actual number of
vehicles observed or predicted to be
passing a point during a given time
interval.

The rate of flow represents the number

of vehicles passing a point during a time
interval less than 1 hour, but expressed
as an equivalent hourly rate

Thus, a volume of 200 vehicles

observed in a 10-minutc period
implies a rate of flow of (200 X
60)/10 = 1200 veh./hr.

Note that 1200 vehicles do not

pass the point of observation
during the study hour, but they
do pass the point at that rate
for 10 minutes.
 Density or Concentration
It is defined as the number of
vehicles occupying a given
length of a roadway, averaged
over time, usually expressed as
vehicles per mile (veh./mi).
q=v*k

Spacing and headway

Spacing (s) is defined as the distance
between successive vehicles in a traffic
stream as measured from front bumper to
front bumper.
Headway is the corresponding time
between successive vehicles as they pass
a point on a roadway.
Clearance and Gap

Analysis of Speed, Flow, and

Density Relationship:
Empirical Studies of Traffic Stream
characteristics:
Greenshields Model
Vs = Vf - (Vf /kj) k

Vf