UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS DECEMBER 2008

PROGRAMME

BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering

MODULE NAME Traffic Engineering DATE Friday 5 December 2008 TIME NO. OF QUESTIONS SET 13:30 15:30 Hours 6 DURATION NO. OF QUESTIONS TO BE ATTEMPTED 2 Hours 4 MODULE CODE CIVE 3219(5)

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES Answer any 4 Questions. All questions carry equal marks.

TRAFFIC ENGINEERING CIVE 3219(5)

Answer any 4 Questions. All questions carry equal marks. Question 1 (a) Give five reasons for conducting surveys in traffic engineering. [5 marks] (b) The morning peak traffic upstream of a control section is given below. The control section consists of three exits, each of which can handle an average of one vehicle every 6 seconds. Use a graphical method to estimate the maximum queue, the longest delay to an individual vehicle and the total delay. Time period 7:00 7:10 7:10 7:20 7:20 7:30 7:30 7:40 7:40 7:50 7:50 8:00 10 min volume 200 400 500 250 200 150 Cumulative volume 200 600 1 100 1 350 1 550 1 700 [20 marks] Question 2 On a dual carriageway highway traffic in one carriageway is obstructed by roadworks which reduce the width of the carriageway from two lanes to one lane over a considerable distance. Traffic approaching the roadworks can reach a maximum of 2 500 vehicles per hour per lane. On a single lane section the maximum flow is 2 000 vehicles per hour. When stationary the average spacing between vehicles is observed to be 8 m. If the traffic flow approaching the roadworks is 4 500 vehicle per hour, calculate (i) the speed of the traffic stream a considerable distance in advance of the obstruction. the speed of the traffic stream immediately before the obstruction. List the assumptions made and illustrate your answer with speed/density and flow/density sketches. [25 marks]

(ii)

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TRAFFIC ENGINEERING CIVE 3219(5)

Question 3 (a) What are the advantages and limitations of the moving car observer method for traffic data collection? [8 marks] The observations shown below were obtained by an observer whilst travelling with and against a traffic stream, in both cases the distance travelled by the observer was 1.059 km. Calculate the mean journey speed and the flow of the traffic stream. [17 marks] Travel time of observer (minutes)

(b)

Number of vehicles met by observer whilst travelling against traffic stream

78 76 60 78 66 93 80 83 79 66

2.94 2.72 2.71 2.82 2.53 3.39 3.01 2.62 2.54 2.43

Number of vehicles passing the observer minus the number passed by observer

Travel time of observer (minutes)

-1 -1 -4 3 -1 0 -3 -4 0 -8

2.97 2.29 1.57 3.97 1.61 2.65 1.73 2.98 2.92 2.35

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TRAFFIC ENGINEERING CIVE 3219(5)

Question 4 The three modal choices available for an urban area are car (C), car sharing (CS), and bus (B) and their utility functions have been estimated as: UC UCS UB = 2.2 0.2(costC) 0.03(travel timeC) = 0.8 0.2(costCS) 0.03(travel timeCS) = -0.2(costB) 0.01(travel timeB)

The cost is in units and time is in minutes. (a) 4 000 workers depart for work during the peak hour. For all workers, the cost of using a car is 4 units with travel time of 20 minutes and the bus fare is 0.5 unit with a travel time of 25 minutes. If the car sharing option always consists of two travellers sharing cost equally, determine the number of workers using each of the three modes (Use McFaddens model). (b) If a bus lane is constructed which would reduce bus travel time to 10 minutes, (i) (ii) determine the expected modal distribution of trips. If the shared cars are also permitted to use the facility and travel time for both bus and shared car mode is 10 minutes, determine the modal distribution. Given the conditions described in (ii), determine the modal distribution if the bus ride is free. [25 marks]

(iii)

Question 5 (a) Briefly explain the concept of overall average delays to vehicles at signal controlled intersection. [5 marks] At an intersection controlled by 2 phase signal operation set at the optimum cycle time of 30 seconds, saturation flow on all approaches is equal and the flows used for design purposes are in the ratio of 2:1 for phase 1 and phase 2. A 4 second intergreen period is employed. The traffic flow on phase 2 increases by 100 per cent and a 15 second intergreen period is introduced for pedestrian use on the change of green from phase 1 to phase 2. Starting delays may be taken as 4 seconds per cycle in both cases. Show that the optimum cycle time increases by approximately 250 per cent. [20 marks]

(b)

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TRAFFIC ENGINEERING CIVE 3219(5)

Question 6 Write short notes on the following: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) The four-stage transportation modelling process. Speed, flow and density of a stream of traffic. Roundabout intersection. Level of service concept. Roles and scope of traffic management. [25 marks]

END OF QUESTION PAPER

7sg/

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