Workshop Week 2

Courses: CVEN 2401/2402/3401/3402

(11 March 2015)
Introduction to traffic flow theory
Part 1. Understanding a stream of vehicles.
Objective: become familiar with the basics of traffic flow.
The town of Congestington (pop. 5400) has recently received an influx of complaints about the
driving behaviour of its populace. Congestington has only a single road, 5 km in distance, that
connects the sides of town. Congestington is not a wealthy town, and so theyve hired you (an
independent contractor) to evaluate their traffic situation. Unfortunately, due to the presence of
endangered bears (see Figure 1), there is no way for Congestington to take measurements on the
road itself.

Figure 1. The Congestington Road Network

Being very poor indeed, the town of Congestington has managed to provide you with only the
following data for the entire 5km length of the only road into the town:
Vehicle

Entrance time
(s)

Exit time (s)

290

22

233

60

190

80

300

100

439

150

384

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Help Congestington understand their traffic situation by performing the following series of steps.
1. Begin by visualising your data. Create a time-space diagram. Do you need to make any
important assumptions?
2. Calculate headways, time-mean, and space-mean speeds when = 1000,4000 and =
150,300.
3. Consider how you would represent other situations, such as encountering a bear in the road.
Consider and discuss safety implications of this dataset. Is this analysis micro- or macro-scopic?

Part 2. Understanding the fundamental properties of traffic and how they are related.
Objective: review fundamental theories of traffic flow.
The following figures depict the Greenshields diagrams, which can be used to evaluate the state of
the traffic stream according to three variables: the mean speed, the density and the flow.
4. Draw a diagram showing the relationship between speed - density.

Figure 2. Speed - density diagram

a. What does corresponds to?
b. In what state is the traffic if the mean speed is equal to ?

5.

Draw a diagram showing the relationship between flow - density.

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Figure 3. Flow - density diagram

a. In what dimension is the traffic flow expressed?

b. Describe the state of the traffic at point A.

6. Draw a diagram showing the relationship between speed - flow.

Figure 4. Speed - flow diagram

a. Describe the state of the traffic at point B.

b. Describe the state of the traffic at point C, what can we do to improve it?

Part 3. Follow up numerical questions.

Objective: apply the fundamental theory to numerical problems.
7. You go back to the town of Congestington and request further data. Congestington decides to
implement a novel technique to gather traffic data based on satellite images, so the bears are
undisturbed.

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Vehicle time headways and spacings were measured at a point along the Congestington expressway,
from a single lane, over the course of an hour. The average values were calculated as 2.5 s/veh for
headway and 61 m/veh for spacing. Calculate the average speed of the traffic.

8. Finally, Congestington conducts a study of freeway flow at a site along the expressway and after
analysis, resulted in calibrated speed-density relationship as follows:
= 57.5(1 0.008)
For this relationship, determine: (a) the free flow speed, (b) jam density, (c) the speed-flow
relationship, (d) the flow-density relationship, and (e) capacity
Assumptions of units: Speed (S) = km/hr,
Density/Density (D) =vehicles/km/lane
Flow (Q) = vehicles/hr/lane

Part 4. Level of service analysis.

Objective: consider the concept of level of service.
9. The town of Congestington is so pleased with your previous work that theyve asked for you to
perform another analysis. More people have been moving to Congestington lately and now the
town council wants to know about the level of service on their expressway. Using their novel
technology, the town provides you with a traffic count in two locations, a and b.
The recorded speed for the same time period at a and b was 85 kph and 35 kph. Estimate the
level of service in each location and describe any necessary assumptions.

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