Transportation Engineering

Chapter 6 Fundamental
Principles of Traffic Flow

Indicative Textbook:
Traffic and Highway Engineering Fifth Edition, by Nicholas
J. Garber, Lester A. Hoel, 2015.
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 Contents
Traffic flow, density, and speed. Flow-density relationship, flow-speed
relationship, and speed-density relationship.
Mathematical traffic flow models (Greenshields and Greenberg
models).

Shock Waves in Traffic Streams.

Gap and Gap Acceptance.

Introduction to Queuing Theory.

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 Introduction
Fundamentals of traffic flow help understanding the traffic flow
theory which involves the development of mathematical relationships
among the primary elements of a traffic stream: flow, density, and
speed.

These relationships help the traffic engineer in planning, designing,

and evaluating the effectiveness of implementing traffic engineering
measures on a highway system.

Another important application of traffic flow theory is simulation

where mathematical algorithms are used to estimate the effect of
changes in traffic flow on factors such as crashes, travel time, air
pollution, and gasoline consumption.

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 Traffic Flow Elements
The primary elements of traffic flow are flow, density, and speed.
Another element, associated with density, is the gap or headway
between two vehicles in a traffic stream.
Flow (q) is the equivalent hourly rate at which vehicles pass a point on
a highway during a time period less than 1 hour. It can be determined
by:
3600
= /

Where:
n = the number of vehicles passing a point in the roadway in T sec.
q = the equivalent hourly flow.

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 Traffic Flow Elements (continue)
If you have only one car spinning
on a track at 5 revolutions per
minute (rpm), what will be the
hourly traffic volume at Section A?

A
The traffic flow at Section A = 5 60 = 300 vehicles/hour

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 Traffic Flow Elements (continue)
Density (k), sometimes referred to as concentration, is the number of
vehicles traveling over a unit length of highway at an instant in time.
The unit length is usually 1 mile (mi) thereby making vehicles per
mile (veh/mi) the unit of density.

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 Traffic Flow Elements (continue)
Speed (u) is the distance traveled by a vehicle during a unit of time. It
can be expressed in miles per hour (mi/h), kilometers per hour (km/h),
or feet per second (ft /sec).
We usually have a large number of vehicles traveling on the road at
various speeds. Which speed value should I consider as the travel
speed on the road?
The mean speed. There are two types of mean speeds: time mean
speed and space mean speed.

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 Time Mean Speed
t is the arithmetic mean of the speeds of vehicles passing a point
on a highway during a fixed period of time.

1
=

=1
Where:
n = number of vehicles passing a point on the highway.
ui = speed of the ith vehicle (ft /sec).

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 Space Mean Speed
L

u1 = L/t1, u2 = L/t2, u3 = L/t3, u4 = L/t4, .. ..un = L/tn.

= = + + + + +
1 2 3 4


= = 2 3 4
=1 1
+ + + + +


=
=1 1
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 Travel Speed
The time mean speed is always higher than the space mean speed.
Why?
Because space mean speed weighs slower vehicles speeds more
heavily, as the slower vehicles are within the segment of interest for a
longer period of time.
The difference between these speeds tends to decrease as the absolute
values of speeds increase.
Field data shows the relationship between the two speeds as:

2
= +

Garber and Sankar developed a more direct relationship using data
collected at several sites on freeways:

= 0.966 + 3.541; /
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 Traffic Flow Elements (continue)
Time headway (h) is the difference between the time the front of a
vehicle arrives at a point on the highway and the time the front of the
next vehicle arrives at that same point.
Time headway is usually expressed in seconds.

Space headway (d) is the distance between the front of a vehicle and
the front of the following vehicle.

It is usually expressed in feet.

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 Example: Problem 6-3, P 259
Two sets of students are collecting traffic data at two sections, xx and
yy, of a highway 1500 ft apart. Observations at xx show that five
vehicles passed that section at intervals of 3, 4, 3, and 5 sec,
respectively. If the speeds of the vehicles were 50, 45, 40, 35, and 30
mi/hr respectively, draw a schematic showing the locations of the
vehicles 20 sec after the first vehicle passed section xx. Also
determine (a) the time mean speed, (b) the space mean speed, and (c)
the density on the highway.

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 Solution
The distance traversed by each vehicle 20 seconds after crossing
section x-x is calculated as follows:
Vehicle A:
/
xa = 50 mi/h 1.47 20 sec = 1470 feet
1 /
Similarly:
xb = (45)(1.47)(20-3) = 1125 ft
xc = (40)(1.47)(20-3-4) = 764 ft
xd = (35)(1.47)(20-3-4-3) = 515 ft
xe = (30)(1.47)(20-3-4-3-5) = 221 ft

E D C B A y-y
x-x
221 515 764 1125 1470
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 Solution (continue)
ut = (50+45+40+35+30) / 5 = 40 mi/h

us = 5 / (1/50+1/45+1/40+1/35+1/30) = 5 / 0.1291 = 38.7 mi/h

=

q = (5 veh / 15 sec)(3600 sec / hr) = 1200 veh/h

k = 1200 / 38.7 = 31.0 veh/mi

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