Introduction

• Traffic flow
– Complex movements
Fundamental parameters of – Stochastic in nature
traffic flow • Traffic Engineering
– Control and management of
Transportation Systems Engineering facilities
– By modeling driver, vehicle,
road, and environmental
conditions

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Traffic stream parameters Traffic stream parameters

• Measures • Fundamental parameters
– Quantitative (for modeling) – Speed
– Qualitative (for evaluation) – Flow
– Density
• Characteristics • Derived parameters
– Macroscopic – Time headway
– Microscopic – Space headway
– Travel time

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Speed Speed
• A quality measurement of travel • Various types
– Drivers and passengers perception of journey
– Rate of motion in distance per unit of time – Spot speed

– Speed or velocity is given by

– Running speed

– Journey speed
– Where
• v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s – Time mean speed
• d is the distance traveled in meters
• t time in seconds – Space mean speed

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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 1

 Speed Speed
• Spot Speed • Spot Speed measurement
– instantaneous speed at a point
– Application: – Enoscope
• Geometrical design – Pressure contact tubes
• Location and size of signs
– Radar speedometer
• Design of signals
• Safe speed – Time-lapse photography
• Speed zoning – Video image processing
• Accident analysis
• Congestion analysis

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Speed Speed
• Running speed • Journey speed
– Average speed over a stretch of road – Effective speed between two points
– Does not consider stop time – Journey speed < Running speed
– Takes care of variability in traffic and • journey follows a stop-go traffic
geometric conditions
– Journey speed ≈ Running speed
• comfortable travel conditions.

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Time and space mean speeds Time and space mean speeds

• Time mean speed vt • Time mean speed vt

– Average speed of all the vehicles passing a
point on a highway over time period
– Mean speed of vehicles over a period of time
• Space mean speed vs at a point in space
– Point measurement

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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 2

 Time and space mean speeds Flow
• Definition
• Space mean speed vs
– Number of vehicles that pass a point on a
– Average speed of all the vehicles in a given
road during a specific time interval
section of a highway at a given time instant
– Mean speed over a space at a given instant of
time
– It is an instantaneous measurement – nt number of vehicles passing a particular
point in a road
• Relationship
– t time duration in hours
– vs ≠ vs normal traffic
– q the flow vehicles/hour
– vs = vs if all vehicles have same speed
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Flow Flow
• Units
• Type of averaging
– Vehicle/day
– Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)
– Vehicle/hour
– Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
– Vehicle/second
– Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
• Variations of Volume with time
– Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)
– Monthly
– Weekly
– Daily
– Hourly

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Flow Flow
• Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) • Average Annual Weekday Traffic
– The average 24-hour traffic volume at a given (AAWT)
location over a full 365-day year – The average 24-hour traffic volume occurring
– Total number of vehicles passing the site in a on weekdays over a full year
year divided by 365 – It is computed by dividing the total weekday
traffic volume for the year by 260

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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 3

 Flow Flow
• Average Daily Traffic (ADT) • Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)
– An average 24-hour traffic volume at a given – Average 24-hour traffic volume occurring on
location for a period of time less than a year weekdays for some period of time less than
• Six months or a season one year
• A month or week • Six months or a season
– ADT is a valid only for the period over which it • A month or week
was measured
– AWT is a valid only for the period over which it
was measured

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Flow Density
• Definition
• Measurements
– Number of vehicles occupying a given stretch
– manual counting
of road expressed as vehicles per km.
– detector/sensor counting
– moving-car observer method

– nx number of vehicles in the stretch

– x distance in km
– k flow vehicles/km

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Density Derived parameters

• Importance of density • Derived parameters
– Density is most perceived parameter by a
– time headway or headway
driver
• related to flow
– One of the level of service concept
– distance headway or spacing
– Used in most of the traffic flow models
• related to density
– travel time
• related to speed

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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 4

 Derived parameters Derived parameters

• Time headway • Distance headway

– Time difference between any two successive – Distance between corresponding points of two
vehicles when they cross a given point successive vehicles at any given time
– Adding all headways
– Adding all the spacing

– But flow is defined as – But density is defined as

– Av. Headway = Inverse of flow – Av. Spacing = Inverse of density

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Derived parameters Time-space diagram

• Travel time • Trajectory
– Travel time is inversely proportional to the – A graph which gives position of vehicle with
speed respect to time

– In practice, the speed of a vehicle fluctuates – The trajectory provide an intuitive, clear, and
over time and the travel time represents an complete summary of vehicular motion in one
average measure dimension.

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Time-space diagram Time-space diagram

• Single vehicle • Multiple vehicle

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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 5

 Conclusion
• Fundamental Parameters
– Flow or volume q
– Density or concentration k
– Speed: Time and space mean vs and vt Thank You
• Derived Parameters
– Headway h tomvmathew@gmail.com
– Spacing s
– Travel time t
• Time-Space diagram
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Transportation Systems Engineering Lecture Notes by Prof. Tom V Mathew 6