CE 434 : Lecture 3

Traffic Studies :

Traffic Volume Study

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Traffic studies

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Types of Studies
Volume studies
Speed studies
Travel-time & Delay studies
Accident studies
Parking studies
Origin and Destination Study

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Volume studies and

characteristics

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Volume Studies
Traffic counts are the most basic of traffic studies and are
the primary measure of demand.
All aspects of traffic engineering require volume as an
input , including highway planning and design, decisions
on traffic control and operations, detailed signal timing and
others.

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Volume and Rate of Flow

Volumethe total number of vehicles that pass over a given
point or section of a lane or roadway during a given time
interval; volumes may be expressed in terms of annual,
daily, hourly, or sub hourly periods.
Rate of flowthe equivalent hourly rate at which vehicles
pass over a given point or section of a lane or roadway
during a given time interval less than 1 hr, usually 15 min.

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The following examples further illustrate the difference between

hourly volumes and flow rates.
Time Period

Volume (Veh)

5.00-5.15
5.15-5.30
5.30-5.45
5.45-6.00
5.00-6.00

0
200
200
0
400

Rate of Flow (vph)

0
800
800
0

Volumes were observed for four consecutive 15-min periods. The

total volume is 400 vehicles, or the sum of the four counts. The rate
of flow, however, is zero in two 15-min intervals and 800 vph in the
two other 15-min intervals. Thus, a design based on the hourly
volume (400 vph) would not prove adequate.
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Peak Hour Factor

Peak rates of flow are related to hourly volumes through the
use of the peak-hour factor. This factor is defined as the ratio
of total hourly volume to the peak rate of flow with in the
hour.
PHF = Hourly Volume / Peak rate of flow (with in the hour)
If 15-mins periods are used, the PHF may be computed as
PHF = V / (4 x V15 )
V= hourly volume (vph)
V15 = volume during the peak 15 min of the peak hour
(veh/15 min)
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Basic Measurements

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Volume, Demand and Capacity

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Flow
Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)
The average 24-hour traffic volume at a given
location over a full 365-day year
Total number of vehicles passing the site in a year
divided by 365

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Flow
Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
An average 24-hour traffic volume at a given
location for a period of time less than a year
Six months or a season
A month or week

ADT is a valid only for the period over which it

was measured

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 Variations of Volume with time

Monthly
Weekly
Daily
Hourly

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Seasonal and monthly variations

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 Measurement Techniques
Manual counting
Mechanical counters
Video photography
Loop detectors and Sensors

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TRAFFIC SURVEY
Date :
Day :
Traffic Flow Direction : From...

Time

Bus

Truck
2 Axle
>2
Axle

LCV

Car

Name of the Surveyor:

Location:
To ..... Weather Condition:

Motorised
ThreeWheeler

Motorised
Two Wheeler

Bicycle Tri cycle ADV

LCV Light Commercial Vehicle

ADV- Animal Drawn Vehicle
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TOTAL TRAFFIC
ENTEREING
INTERSECTION
E/W

Eastbound Traffic

1631

NOT TO SCALE
N/S

1124

TOTAL

2755

719
68

570

818
81
121
388

543
Northbound Traffic

649

140
100

619

416

581

103
87

813

597

768

Westbound Traffic

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84

Southbound Traffic

Passenger Car Unit (PCU)

Expressing traffic volume as number of vehicles passing a
given section of road per unit time will be inappropriate
when several types of vehicles with widely varying static
and dynamic characteristics are present in the road traffic.
The problem of measuring volume of such heterogeneous
traffic has been addressed by converting the different
types of vehicles into equivalent passenger cars and
expressing the volume as Passenger Car Unit (PCU) per
hour.

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The following definition of PCU, which is based on the

performance measure, speed, proposed by Transport and
Road Research Laboratory (TRRL, 1965), London, UK
has been adopted for this study:
on any particular section of road under particular
traffic conditions, if the addition of one vehicle of a
particular type per hour will reduce the average speed of
the remaining vehicles by the same amount as the
addition of, say x cars of average size per hour,.then,
one vehicle of this type is equivalent to x PCU.

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Factors Affecting PCU Values

Vehicle characteristics
Traffic Stream characteristics
Roadway characteristics

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PCU Estimation Method

Simulation Technique:
Simulation is an innovative tool used to study the behaviour
of complex real world systems like heterogeneous traffic flow
and facilitates conduct of experiments under controlled
situations over a wide range of operational conditions.
A limited number of simulation studies have been conducted
for estimating PCU values taking the speed as the
performance measure.
For highly heterogeneous traffic conditions simulation has
been found a versatile tool to model complex systems for
study of the system characteristics over a wide range of
operating conditions.
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Indian Road Congress (IRC) Guidelines for capacity of urban roads in

plain areas. IRC:106, New Delhi, India.1990.
Vehicle Type

PCU Factors
% composition of vehicle % composition of vehicle
5% (up to 9%)
10% and Above

Two Wheelers, Motor

cycles or scooter

0.5

0.75

Passenger car

1.0

1.0

Auto rickshaw

1.2

2.0

Light commercial Vehicle

1.4

2.0

Truck or Bus

2.2

3.7

Agricultural Tractor-Trailer

4.0

5.0

Cycle

0.4

0.5

Cycle rickshaw

1.5

2.0

Hand Cart

2.0

3.0

*Horse drawn vehicle 4.00 *Small Bullock cart 6.00 *Bullock cart - 8.00
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* Rural Roads

Example 1

Vehicle Type

Volume
(Veh/hr)

Bus

220
105
185
1259
984
4008
350

Truck
Light Commercial Vehicles
Car
Motorized Three Wheeler (M.Th.W.)
Motorized Two Wheeler (M.T.W)
Bicycle

Convert the field observed Traffic Flow (Veh/hr) into PCU/h.

(Using IRC PCU values.) Dr.PV Lecture Notes