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vehicle types are significantly influenced by the road
geometry. Therefore, it is felt prudent to develop
relationship between capacity and operating speed of
cars i.e. standard cars considering change in roadway
and traffic conditions on two lane two-way undivided
hill roads in the absence of traffic data over full range
from free-flow to near capacity/congested traffic
conditions. Hence, the following set of relationships to
estimate the capacity of two lane roads on mountainous
and steep terrain having geometric features like varying
gradient and curvature are proposed in the study:
8.4.1 Relationship between Operating Speed and
Hill Road Geometry
The findings and equations given here are applicable to
road sections in mountainous and steep terrains having
gradients ranging from 2 to 7 % and curvatures above
200 degrees/km. The relationship derived is presented in
Equation 20. With every 1 % increase in the gradient, the
operating speed is predicted to decrease approximately
by 2 km/h. In addition, for every 100 degrees/km increase
in curvature of hill roads, the operating speed is predicted
to decrease by 2.5 km/h, for the same magnitude of
gradient.
VOS = 70.6 - 1.84 * Gradient (%) - 0.026 *
Curvature (degrees/km) ... (20)
8.4.2 Relationship between Capacity and Operating
Speed of Standard Cars
Both capacity (PCU/h) and operating speed of cars
(km/h) can be influenced by geometric and pavement
conditions simultaneously in a combined way. A
relationship between capacity and operating speed of
standard car is presented in Equation 21.
Capacity = 23.6 * Operating speed (km⁄(h))
+ 167 ... (21)
8.5 Adjustment Factor for Riding Quality
The surface condition of road is an important factor that
influences the travel speed of the traffic stream. The
relationship between operating speed of standard cars
and roughness for two lane and intermediate lane roads
in plain areas is presented in Fig. 7. It can be evident
from Fig. 7 that both types of road sections exhibit
similar slopes. The relationship between and IRI for two
lane road and intermediate lane is given in Equation 12
and 13.
The effect of road roughness on capacity in plain areas
derived is shown in Fig. 8. Summary of variation of
capacity with road roughness (IRI) across Two Lane,
Intermediate lane and Single Lane carriageways is shown
in Equation 22 to Equation 25. From the developed
models, it can be noted for every corresponding 1 m per
km increase in roughness (IRI), the capacity reduced by
275 PCU/hour on two lane with paved shoulders,
68 Journal of the indian Roads Congress, July - September, 2017
203 PCU/hour on two lane with earthen shoulder,
199 PCU/hour on intermediate lane and 24 PCU/hour
for single lane. Considering the above trends, the
adjustment factors for two lane, intermediate lane and
single road is given in Equation 26 to Equation 28.
Fig. 8 Effect of Riding Quality on Capacity
Relationship between IRI on Capacity:
Two Lane With Paved Shoulder:
Capacity = 5082 – 275*IRI ... (22)
Two Lane With Earthen Shoulder:
Capacity = 3677 – 203*IRI ... (23)
Intermediate Lane Capacity = 2956 – 199 * IRI ... (24)
Single Lane Capacity = 945 – 25*IRI ... (25)
Adjustment Factors:
AFRTL = - 0.0522*IRI + 1.1953 (R2 = 0.92) ... (26)
AFRIL =-0.1128*IRI + 1.6777 (R2 = 0.92) ... (27)
AFRSL = - 0.0402*IRI + 1.2172 (R2 = 0.99) ... (28)
9. CONCLUSIONS
The major findings derived from this study are
summarized in the following section.
The PCU value of a vehicle type is found to be sensitive
to traffic and roadway conditions. Hence, it is inferred
that a single set of PCU is not viable to be followed for
all types of traffic conditions. A small change in either
traffic volume or traffic composition may change PCU
factors substantially, especially for large size vehicles.
Hence the PCU for a given vehicle type estimated using
the Speed and area ratio proposed by Chandra has been
utilized in this paper which is subsequently adopted in
Indo - HCM Study (CSIR - CRRI, 2017).
Moreover, it was felt that the dynamic PCUs evolved in
this manual are not sufficient to understand the complete
variation in PCU for a vehicle type. Therefore, a new
concept of Stream Equivalency Factor (Se) introduced
by Dhamaniya and Chandra (2014) has been utilized in
this paper which is subsequently adopted in Indo-HCM
Study (CSIR - CRRI, 2017) as well.