CE 434 Lecture 5

TRAVEL TIME AND DELAY STUDIES

 Travel time and delay are two of the principal measures of

highway system performance used by traffic engineers,
planners, and analysts.
Vehicle speed is directly related to travel time and delay and is
also used to evaluate traffic and highway systems.
Travel-time and delay studies are conducted when the sources
and amounts of delay occurring within the section are also
noted.

Engineers and planners use data from travel-time and

delay studies in a number of tasks, including:
Determining the efficiency of a route
Providing input to capacity analysis of roadway
segments
Identifying problem locations as indicated by delay
Evaluating the effectiveness of traffic operation
improvements
Providing input to transportation planning models, trip
assignment models, and route-diversion models
Providing input to economic analyses of alternatives
Generating travel-time contour maps

METHODS OF STUDY
Travel-time and delay studies may be conducted using the
(1) Average vehicle,
(2) Moving vehicle,
(3) License plate,
(4) Direct observation,
(5) Interview method.
The first two methods require test vehicles, while the other
methods do not.
The choice of method depends on the purpose of the study;
the type of roadway segment under study; the length of the
segment; the time of day of interest; and the personnel,
equipment, and resources available.

 AVERAGE VEHICLE METHOD

The average vehicle method measures travel time;
running time; distance travelled; and the type,
location, duration, and cause of traffic delays along the
study route.
The data are recorded as the test vehicle traverses the
study route. From these data, travel speed, spacemean speed, and running speed may be calculated.
This method is applicable to any type of route, but is
most widely used on arterial streets with at-grade
intersections.

Time of Study
Agencies usually study travel time and delay during the
peak hours in the directions of heaviest traffic flow. It may
also be desirable to compare travel times, speeds, and
delays between peak and off-peak periods or between sets
of other conditions.
Some of these other conditions include good versus
adverse weather and commuter versus special event traffic.
Personnel and Equipment
The average vehicle method requires a test car and the
means to record time and distance. These can be recorded
manually or automatically.

Manual Data Collection

Manual Data Collection requires a driver and observer/recorder,
two stopwatches, and data collection forms.
The distances between control points and the length of the total
route may be obtained from accurate, drawn-to-scale plans or
maps or from the vehicle odometer.
Automatic Data Collection
Several varieties of hand-held and laptop computers with
accompanying software are available to perform travel-time and
delay studies.

Field Procedure
Before test runs begin, observers select the start point, end
point, and control point locations along the route where they
will record time measures.
On arterial and other types of surface streets, these locations
are usually at major intersections or other easily identifiable
control points.
The choice of the near curb, or center of the intersection as
the control point should be consistent throughout the study
route.

Test Car Technique

The driver of the test vehicle proceeds along the study route in
accordance with one of the following techniques:
Average-car technique: test vehicle travels according to the drivers
judgement of the average speed of the traffic stream.
Floating-car technique: driver floats with the traffic by attempting
to safely pass as many vehicles as pass the test vehicle.
Maximum-car technique: test vehicle is driven at the posted speed
limit unless impeded by actual traffic conditions or safety
considerations.
The selection of test car technique is based on the purpose of the
study and the study teams judgement of the technique that best
reflects the traffic stream being investigated. Most study teams
prefer the average-car technique.

Moving Vehicle Method

Moving vehicle method provides estimates of hourly volume,
average travel-time, and space mean speed.
A number of test runs are made along the study stretch and a
group of observers record various details like record time
between various control points, individual delays, number of
vehicles over taking the test vehicle and over taken by the test
vehicle, opposing traffic.
This method is applicable only on two way routes where
opposing traffic is visible at all times.

LICENSE PLATE METHOD

This method produces travel time only, from which average travel
speed may be calculated once the distance between observation
points is measured.
A test vehicle is not required. Observers position themselves at the
entrance and exit to the test section and at other major intersections
along the route.
As vehicles pass the observers at each location, the observers record
the last three or four digits of the license tag along with the time from
a stopwatch. A tape recorder is useful to avoid missing vehicles.
The tag numbers and times are then matched in the office, either
manually or by computer, to obtain travel times. The matching is
laborious if done manually.
Computer software for matching license plate numbers is available
(Center for Microcomputers in Transportation, 1992).

DIRECT OBSERVATION METHOD

Observers at an elevated vantage point can measure
travel time directly between two points a known
distance apart.
The method requires good visibility and is not
suitable for sections greater than mile in length.

INTERVIEW METHOD
Selected individuals who are willing to cooperate may provide a
satisfactory sample from which to obtain travel times and delays
without the use of a test vehicle or observers.
These persons are asked to record their start and end times for
designated routes. They also record the times and durations of
delay.
This is a variation on the average car method, except that in place
of a single test vehicle, there are multiple test vehicles. Employees
who drive on the job, truck drivers, and taxi drivers often make
good subjects.
This method is useful when a large amount of data is needed in
short time (Pignataro, 1973).
The interview method requires some training and equipment (e.g.,
stopwatches) for the subjects.
The reliability of the results may not equal that of methods that
employ better-trained data collectors.

Intersection Delay Study

Control delay is best defined as time-in-queue delay plus time
losses due to deceleration from and acceleration to ambient
speed. The 2000 Highway Capacity Manual defines a field
measurement technique for control delay using the field sheet.
Actual measurements start at the beginning of the red phase of
the subject lane. There should be no overflow queue from the
previous green phase when measurement start. The following
tasks are preformed by the two observers;

Observer 1
Keep track of the end of standing queues for each cycle by
observing the last vehicle in each lane that stops due to the
signal. This count includes vehicles that arrive on green but
stop or approach within one car length of queued vehicles
that have not yet started to move.
At intervals between 10s and 20 s, the number of vehicles in
queue are recorded on the field sheet.
An the end of the survey period, vehicle-in-queue counts
continue until all vehicles that entered the queue during the
survey period have exited the intersection.

Observer 2
During the entire study period, separate counts are maintained of vehicles
arriving during the survey period and of vehicles that stop one or more times
during the survey period. Stopping vehicles are counted only once, regardless of
how many times they stop.
It is than assumed that the average time-in-queue for a counted vehicle is the
time interval between counts.
Then:

TQ

= ( Is *
VT

iq

) * 0 .9

The adjustment factor (0.9) adjusts for errors that generally occur when this
type of sampling techniques is used. Such errors usually result in an
overestimate of delay.
A further adjustment for acceleration/deceleration delay requires that
two values be computed: (1) the average number of vehicles stopping per
lane, per cycle, and (2) the proportions of vehicles arriving that actually
stop.

VSLC
VSLC =

V STOP =

VSTOP
=
NC * N L
number of vehicles stopping per lane, per cycle (veh/in/cycle)
total count of stopping vehicles

N C = number of cycles included in the survey

NL = number of lanes in the survey lane group

VSTOP
FVS =
VT
Where FVS = fraction of vehicles stopping (other variable as previously
defined)
Using the number of stopping vehicles per lane, per cycle , and the
measured free-flow speed for the approach in question, correction factor
is found in Table
Adjustment factor for acceleration /deceleration Delay
Free-Flow
Speed
(mi/h)

37
37-45
>45

Vehicles Stopping Per Lane, Per Cycle

(V SLC )
7vehs

8-19vehs

20-30vehs

+5
+7
+9

+2
+4
+7

-1
+2
+5

The final estimate of control delay is then computed as:

d = T Q + ( FVS * CF )

Where:
d = total control delay, Sec/Veh
CF = correction factor from

Table Sample Data For a Signalized Intersection Delay Study

Clock Time

5:00PM
5:01PM
5:02PM
5:03PM
5:04PM
5:05PM
5:06PM
5:07PM
5:08PM
5:09PM

iq

= 132vehs

Cycle
Number

Number of vehicle in Queue

+0secs

+20secs

+40secs

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

4
6
3
2
5
5
6
3
2
4

7
6
5
6
3
4
8
4
4
3

5
5
5
4
3
5
4
3
3
5

Total

40

50

42

VT = 120vehs

V STOP = 75

FFS = 35mi / h

The approach has two lanes, and the signal cycle length is 60 seconds. Ten
cycle were surveyed, and the vehicle-in-queue count interval is 20 seconds.
Sum of all vehicles in queue is 132. The average time in queue is computed :

132
TQ = 20* * 0.9 =19.8s / veh
120
VSLC =
FVS =

75
= 3.75vehs
10* 2

75
= 0.625
120

Using this and the measured free-flow speed of 35 mi/h, the correction
factor
is
+5
seconds.
The
control
delay
is

d = 19.8 + (0.625 * 5) = 22.9 s / veh