FOREWORD

"There are not books, lumps of lifeless

paper, but minds alive on the shelves.
From each of them goes out its own voice
… and just as the touch of a button on
our set will fill the room with music, so
by taking down one of these volumes and
opening it, one can call into range the
voice of a man for distant in time and
space, and hear him speaking to us, mind
to mind, heart to heart."

..Gibert Highet

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"Beauty is the splendor of truth", so said a dictum of Plato (c. 428 B.C-347 or 348,
Athens). Analogically speaking, an adequate and efficient transportation system is
essential to any program for national development. It is particularly vital where an
accelerated economic development program is required, as in the state of Pakistan.
The Government of Pakistan has recognized this need, and has given high priority to
the development of highway transport facilities in current and future economic
planning. However, high-speed, divided, multilane, motorways have been constructed
or are under construction and the future plans are in the pipeline of the Government.

Nevertheless, there are many indication of the complexity of living in today's world.
The population of the world has doubled in the last century. There is even a greater
increase in the number of city dwellers as opposed to those who stay on the land. We
travel about 15 times faster and more often than we did 100 years ago. Fortunately,
our productivity has increased at a rate commensurate with the problems we have
created. We have developed more and more complex solutions to the problems that
perplex us. Although this complexity manifests itself in virtually every aspects of
modern life, nowhere as it as dramatically exhibited as in our society--on our streets
and roads.

The effect of highway transportation on our lives is indeed profound. Transportation

costs rank, for example, along with food and lodging as the principal expense for the
average Pakistani family. Indeed, the countries of the world can be ranked according
to their transportation capabilities. Thus it is truism to state that transport is an
essential part of human activity and economic development.

However, in many developing countries, poor or unavailable transport services and

facilities are often the norm rather than the exception. Given the many other problems
which face third world countries at all stages of development-including extremes of
weather, long distances between population centers and scarcity of all types of
resources-poor transport can seriously impede the day-to-day process of living, as
inhibiting growth in the economy and in the availability of the most basic standard of
health and other social services. Bad roads, inadequate fleets of buses or trucks,
irregular or overcrowded trains or aero planes, congested ports are a common feature
of the developing world. In parallel with these physical problems, there is often the
lack of a sufficiently large number of suitably trained transport managers and
planners.

As it is, the planning of a system of streets and highways to hand the continually
increasing volume of traffic is no doubt, costly technical undertaking. But it has to be
made possible. Building better cities and excellent communication systems, within
cities and for that matter, country as a whole, should be encouraged without any
reservation. Intricate traffic problems will sure to be faced which are to be solved with
a broader understanding of the subject.

Ironical enough—an axiomatic truth—we keep ourselves saying: Stop worrying

about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey. However, if prior
information about the condition of the road is to be known, one goes by a Chinese
proverb: to know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

There are five distinct bases on which a book on traffic engineering can be organized.

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First are the chronological phases through which the traffic engineering effort passes,
such as characteristics, planning, design, and operation--in that order. Second are the
logical research steps, such as theory formulation, theory verification and application.
Third are the parts of traffic analysis, such as traffic demand and highway capacity.
Fourth are the tools of traffic engineering, such as probability distributions, queuing
theory, control theory, and physical analogies. Fifth are the elements of the traffic
system, the driver, the vehicle, the road, the intersection, etc.

Thus, it can well be concluded that an attempt to encapsulate the key factors into a
book of manageable size is a formidable task. The authors have to make fine choices
regarding the amount of detail to be accorded to each chapter of the book and,
inevitably some particularly specialists areas have had to be omitted all together. As
such, in carrying out our balancing act, we have almost certainly have neglected
topics which some readers would wish to see addressed more thoroughly, or
concentrated on aspects which other readers will feel have already been adequately
treated in separate publications. For this we make no apology. Rightly or wrongly, our
focus is on the "public safety" on the nation's highways and to highlight the inert-
related obvious factors in this field of traffic engineering. Nevertheless, all along, we
have kept in mind the course work as prescribed to the civil engineering students for
the subject of Transportation Engineering (Highway & Traffic Engineering.) per se,
the primary purpose of this book is to present traffic engineering as the science it is,
so as to challenge and convert young minds. A second purpose, equally ambitious, is
to provide practicing traffic engineers with an insight into the contemporary traffic
research approaches.

Our debts are many and can scarcely be repaid properly by a simple
acknowledgement. Amid these limitations and deep gratitude goes to the Faculty of
Civil Engineering, City & Regional Planning and Architecture of Mehran University
of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.

Nevertheless, we have all the praise for our family members, Advocate Mrs. Ghazala
Shah and Dr. Fariha, who made available their time, advices and efforts towards the
compilation of this volume. God bless them.

Nevertheless, the authors are highly obliged by Mr. Farooq Ahmed Memon, who
laboriously typed the manuscript and gave his valuable suggestions towards its
formation. God bless him.

It may not be possible within the space that is available to do justice to the many-
sided scholarship and learning that Ms Gulafshan, I/C, M/S Ferozsons (Pvt.) Ltd.,
Karachi, showed in dealing with topics that form the subject-matter of this discourse.
A dedicated person as she is, our ever good wishes are for her and her family
members. God bless them.

It is almost invidious to pick out individuals, but we feel our sacred duty to present
our special thanks to Mr. Zaheer Salam, Managing Partner, M/S Ferozsons (Pvt.) Ltd.,
Lahore, Pakistan. His invaluable specialist help in publishing this writing will always
be remembered. As said, “a great aim of education is not knowledge but action”; Mr.
Zaheer Salam is a person of action who enlightens the humanity on the globe. Sir
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living what we get, we make a life what we

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give.”

We all hope that "Traffic Engineering For Civil Engineers" will make an interesting
and useful help reading to the students of Civil Engineering, City & Regional
Planning as well as the practicing engineers and planners throughout Pakistan.

As it is, we would like to inform the reader that in order to save space, the authors
were forced to do without a list of the numerous articles from the prestigious journals
which they referred for this book. A bibliography of the most important books used is
given at the end of the book.

However, it is regrettable that no worthwhile data or analysis was supplied by the

relevant government organizations. Unfortunately, the authorities are least aware that
traffic data are one of the most important elements for economic highway studies
since they give a picture of the present situation of transport flows and their evolution
in the past. There are many reasons why traffic engineering skills are needed in
developing countries.

Proverbial, it is said that a newspaper is like a nation talking to itself. Even more true
it would be to say that literature is like a society talking about itself, to itself, and
quite possible also to the world. This, more or less, is what Barbara W. Tuchman is set
out to say: "Books are the carriers of civilization… They are companions, teachers,
magicians, bankers of the treasures of the minds. Books are humanity in print”. In the
same breath we may quote here a few words by Franz Kafka (1883-1924), “A book
must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul”. As a society we honor
those who bring meaning to our lives and what can be more meaningful than a good
book? A South African slogan so rightly says: "Books talk. Are you listening?"

As individual we can all celebrate the myriad ways in which books touch our lives
and pay tributes to authors, publishers and all those involved with furthering social,
cultural and technical progress. So switch off that computer and lose yourself in a
good book; you may find more in it than you ever expected:
"The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things,
There is no armor against Fate,
Death lays his icy hand on kings,
Septic and Crown
Must tumble down

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked Scyth and spade."
..James Shirley (1596-1666)

Akhtar
Masroor
D-3, Tando Jehania,
Hyderabad (Cantt.),
Sindh, Pakistan.

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