CE461

Module 1
Traffic stream characteristics
 Traffic Engineering
• It is a branch of engineering associated with the
planning, monitoring, geometric design and traffic
operations of roads and their networks

• The objective of traffic engineering is to achieve

efficient, free and rapid flow of traffic, with least
number of traffic accidents and environmentally
sustainable
 Traffic Engineering
• It focuses mainly on research and construction of the
infrastructure necessary for safe and efficient traffic
flow, such as road geometry, sidewalks and crosswalks,
segregated cycle facilities, shared lane marking, traffic
signs, road surface markings and traffic lights

• It is the phase of transportation engineering that deals

with the planning, geometric design and traffic
operations of roads, streets and highways, their
networks, terminals, abutting lands, and relationships
with other modes of transportation
 Elements of Traffic engineering
• Traffic studies and characteristics
• Performance evaluation
• Facility design
• Traffic control
• Traffic operations
• Transportation system management
• Integration of ITS technologies
 Functions of a traffic engineer

• Collection, analysis and interpretation of data

pertaining to traffic
• Traffic and transportation planning
• Traffic design
• Measures for operation of traffic
• Administration
 Characteristics of traffic elements
• Human characteristics
– Physical
– Mental
– Psychological
– Environmental
• Vehicle characteristics
– Static
– Dynamic
• Road characteristics
 Road user characteristics
• Physiological characteristics
– Vision, Hearing
• Mental characteristics
– Knowledge, skill, intelligence, experience and
literacy
• Psychological characteristics
– Perception, Intellection, emotion, volition
• Environmental characteristics
– Traffic stream characteristics, road side features,
atmospheric conditions, weather, visibility, etc.
 Road user characteristics - Vision
• The test is a standard chart-reading exercise that
measures static visual acuity - that is, the ability to see
small stationary details clearly.

• Fields of vision
– Acute or clear vision cone
– Fairly clear vision cone
– Peripheral vision
Road user characteristics - Vision
Human characteristics – Visual acuity
Human characteristics – Visual acuity
Human characteristics – Visual acuity
Human characteristics – Visual acuity

• Acute or clear vision

• Fairly clear vision
• Peripheral vision
• Dynamic visual acuity, depth perception
• Glare vision
• Colour vision
 Human characteristics – Visual acuity
• Acute or clear vision cone
– 3° to 10° around the line of sight; legend can be
read only within this narrow field of vision.

• Fairly clear vision cone

– 10° to 12° around the line of sight; color and shape
can be identified in this field.

• Peripheral vision
– This field may extend up to 90° to the right and left
of the centre line, and up to 60° above and 70°
below the line of sight.
Road user characteristics - Psychological

• PIEV time (2.5 seconds for most of the

computations)

• PIEV time value is believed to approximately a

90th percentile criterion

• Factors influencing PIEV time: Age, Fatigue,

Complexity of reaction and presence of alcohol
and/or drugs in the driver’s system
 Pedestrian characteristics
• Pedestrian walking speed in cross walks, side walks,
safety zones, islands, over and under passes
• Gap acceptance behaviour of pedestrians
• Impacts of drugs and alcohol on pedestrians
• Impact of aging
• Psychological, personality and related factors
• Average pedestrian walking speed 1.5 to 2 m/sec
Driving simulator
 Vehicular characteristics
• Vehicles can be grouped into
– Motorized two wheelers
– Motorized three wheelers
– Passenger car
– Bus
– Single axle trucks
– Multi axle trucks
– Truck trailer combinations
– Slow non motorized vehicles
 Vehicular characteristics
• Static characteristics
– Vehicle dimensions (width, length, height)
– Weight of the vehicle
– Maximum turning angle
– Power of vehicle
• Dynamic characteristics
– Speed and acceleration of vehicle
– Braking characteristics
– Off-tracking
 Vehicular characteristics
• Width of vehicle affects width of lanes, shoulders,
parking facility

• Height of vehicle affects Clearance height of structures

like over-bridges, under-bridges and electric and other
service lines and also placing of signs and signals

• Length of vehicle affects extra width of pavement,

minimum turning radius, safe overtaking distance,
capacity, parking facility
 Vehicular characteristics
• Weight and axle configuration
– Weight of vehicle is transferred to pavement through
axles
– Design parameters are fixed on basis of number of
axles
– Power to weight ratio
• Measure of ease with which a vehicle can move
• More important for heavy vehicles
• Determines length to which a positive gradient can
be permitted taking into consideration case of
heavy vehicles
 Vehicular characteristics
• Turning radius and turning path
– Dependent on the design and class of the vehicle
– Effective width of vehicle is increased on a turning
– Important at an intersection, round about, terminals, and
parking areas
• Acceleration characteristics
– Dependent on mass, resistance to motion and available
power
– Acceleration rates are highest at low speeds, decreases
as speed increases
– Heavier vehicles have lower rates of acceleration than
passenger cars
 Road characteristics
• Road surface
– Roughness, tire wear, tractive resistance, noise, light
reflection, electrostatic properties

• Lighting
– Planned on basis of night vehicular traffic,
pedestrian volumes and accident experience
 Road characteristics
• Roughness
• Texture of surface of inner-lane is rougher than that
of the outside lane
• Shoulders or even speed change lanes deliberately
roughened as a means of delineation
• Pavement colors
• Night visibility
• Geometric aspects
– Pavement slope
– Gradient
– Right of way
 Braking test
• In a braking test, a vehicle traveling at a speed of 30
kmph was stopped by applying brakes fully and the skid
marks were 5.8 m length. Determine the average skid
resistance of the pavement surface.

• A vehicle travelling at 40 kmph was stopped within 1.8

seconds after the application of brakes. Determine the
average skid resistance.

• A vehicle was stopped in 1.4 sec by fully jamming the

brakes and the skid marks measured 7.0 m. Determine the
average skid resistance developed.
 Braking characteristics
• A driver takes 3.2 s to react to a complex situation
while traveling at a speed of 80 km/h. How far does
the vehicle travel before the driver initiates a physical
response to the situation (i.e. putting his or her foot on
the brake)?

• A driver traveling at 100 km/h rounds a curve on a

level grade to see a truck overturned across the
roadway at a distance of 130 m. If the driver is able
to decelerate at a rate of 3 m/s2, at what speed
will the vehicle hit the truck? Comment on the result
for reaction times ranging from 0.5 to 5 seconds
 Braking characteristics

• A car hits a tree at an estimated speed of 50 km/h

on a 3% down grade. If skid marks of 30 m are
observed on dry pavement (f = 0.45), followed by
80 m (f= 0.20) on a grass stabilized shoulder,
estimate the initial speed of the vehicle just
before the pavement skid was begun.
Fundamental parameters of
traffic flow
 Introduction
• Traffic flow
– Complex movements
– Stochastic in nature

• Traffic Engineering
– Control and management of
facilities
– By modeling driver, vehicle,
road, and environmental
conditions
 Traffic stream parameters
• Measures
– Quantitative (for modeling) – Density and flow
– Qualitative (for evaluation) - Speed

• Characteristics
– Macroscopic
• Volume, speed and density
– Microscopic
• Speed of individual vehicles, headway and
spacing
 Traffic stream parameters
• Fundamental parameters
– Speed
– Flow
– Density

• Derived parameters
– Time headway
– Space headway
– Travel time
 Speed
• A quality measurement of travel
– Drivers and passengers perception of journey
– Rate of motion in distance per unit of time
– Speed or velocity is given by

– Where
• v is the speed of the vehicle in m/s
• d is the distance traveled in meters
• t time in seconds
 Speed
• Spot Speed
– Instantaneous speed of vehicle at a point
– Application:
• Geometrical design
• Location and size of signs
• Design of signals
• Safe speed
• Speed zoning
• Accident analysis
• Congestion analysis
 Speed
• Spot Speed measurement
– Enoscope
– Pressure contact tubes
– Radar speedometer
– Time-lapse photography
– Video image processing
 Spot speed studies

• Spot speed by using enoscope

Speed
 Speed
• Running speed
– Average speed over a stretch of road
– Does not consider stop time
– Takes care of variability in traffic and geometric
conditions

• Journey speed
– Effective speed between two points
– Journey speed < Running speed
• journey follows a stop-go traffic
– Journey speed ≈ Running speed
• comfortable travel conditions.
 Time and space mean speeds

• Time mean speed vt

• Space mean speed vs

 Time and space mean speeds
• Time mean speed vt
– Average speed of all the vehicles passing a point
on a highway over time period
– Mean speed of vehicles over a period of time at
a point in space
– Point measurement
𝒏
𝒊=𝟏 𝑽𝒊
𝑽𝒕 =
𝒏
 Time and space mean speeds
• Space mean speed vs
– Average speed of all the vehicles in a given section
of a highway at a given time instant
– Mean speed over a space at a given instant of time
– It is an instantaneous measurement
𝟑.𝟔𝒅 𝒏
𝑽𝒔 = 𝒏 𝒕
𝒊=𝟏 𝒊
• Relationship
– vt ≠ vs normal traffic
– vt = vs if all vehicles have same speed
Presentation
of spot
speed data:

Frequency
distribution
table
Cumulative
frequency
distribution
diagram
 Example
Spot speed studies were carried out at a certain stretch of a
highway and the consolidated data collected are given below.
Speed range, No. of vehicles Speed range, No. of vehicles
kmph observed kmph observed

0 to 10 12 50 to 60 255
10 to 20 18 60 to 70 119
20 to 30 68 70 to 80 43
30 to 40 89 80 to 90 33
40 to 50 204 90 to 100 9

Determine (i) the upper and lower values or speed limits for
regulation of mixed traffic flow and (ii) the design speed for
checking the geometric design elements of the highway
 Examples
Ex1: If the spot speeds are 50, 40, 60, 54 and 45, then
find the time mean speed and space mean speed.
Ex2: The results of a speed study is given in the form
of a frequency distribution table. Find the time mean
speed and space mean speed.

Speed range Frequency

2 -5 1
6–9 4
10 - 13 0
14 - 17 7
 Flow
• Definition
– Number of vehicles that pass a point on a road
during a specific time interval

– nt number of vehicles passing a particular point in a

road
– t time duration in hours
– q the flow vehicles/hour
 Flow
• Objectives
– Planning and design of facilities, operation and
control of existing facilities
– Analysis of traffic patterns and trends
– Various volume studies: Classified volume study,
Volume distribution study, Turning movement
study, Pedestrian traffic volume study
 Flow
• Units
– Vehicle/day; Vehicle/hour; Vehicle/second

• Variations of Volume with time

– Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Hourly

• Type of averaging
– Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)
– Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
– Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
– Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)
 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

• Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)

– The average 24-hour traffic volume occurring on
weekdays over a full year
– It is computed by dividing the total weekday traffic
volume for the year by 260
 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

• Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)

– Average 24-hour traffic volume occurring on weekdays for some
period of time less than one year
• Six months or a season
• A month or week
– AWT is a valid only for the period over which it was measured
 Flow
• Methods: Automatic recorders and Manual counters
• Automatic recorders
– Automatically record the total number of vehicles
passing a section of roadway
• Manual counters
– The members of field team collect the information on
record sheets at the selected points
• Measurements
– manual counting
– detector/sensor counting
– moving-car observer method
 Density
• Definition
– Number of vehicles occupying a given stretch
of road expressed as vehicles per km.

– nx number of vehicles in the stretch

– x distance in km
– k flow vehicles/km
 Density
• Importance of density
– Density is most perceived parameter by a driver
– One of the level of service concept
– Used in most of the traffic flow models
 Derived parameters

• Derived parameters
– time headway or headway
• related to flow
– distance headway or spacing
• related to density
– travel time
• related to speed
 Derived parameters
• Time headway
– Time difference between any two successive
vehicles when they cross a given point
– Adding all headways

– But flow is defined as

– Av. Headway = Inverse of flow

 Derived parameters
• Distance headway
– Distance between corresponding points of two
successive vehicles at any given time

– Adding all the spacing

– But density is defined as

– Av. Spacing = Inverse of density

 Derived parameters
• Travel time
– Travel time is inversely proportional to the speed
– In practice, the speed of a vehicle fluctuates
over time and the travel time represents an
average measure
 Fundamental relations

• Fundamental relations

– Time and space mean speed

– Fundamental equation (q, k, v)

– Fundamental diagrams (q, k, v)

 Mean speeds
• Time mean speed
– average of all vehicles passing a point over a
duration of time
– It is the simple average of spot speed
– Expression for vt

– v i spot speed of ith vehicle

– n number of observations
 Mean speeds
• Time mean speed
– Speeds may be in the form of frequency table
– then vt

– qi number of vehicles having speed v i

– n number of such speed categories
 Mean speeds
• Space mean speed
– average speed in a stretch at an instant
– It also averages the spot speed
– But spatial weightage instead of temporal
 Mean speeds
• Space mean speed - derivation
– Consider unit length of a road
– let v i is the spot speed of ith vehicle
– Vs is the harmonic mean of spot speed

– If speeds are in a frequency table

 Mean speeds
• Relation between Vt and Vs
– If SMS is vs TMS is vt and the standard deviation of
speed is σ
– Then

– vt > vs since SD cannot be negative

– If all the speed are same, then vs = vt
 Fundamental relations
• Relationship between q, k, v
– Let there be a road with length v km
– assume all vehicles are moving with v km/hr

– Number of vehicles counted by an observer at A for

one hour be n1
– By definition, number of vehicles counted in one
hour is flow (q)
 Fundamental relations
• Relationship between q, k, v
– n1=q

– Density is the number of vehicles in unit distance

– n2 = kv
– But, n1= n2
• since all vehicle have speed v and the distance
is v
– Therefore q = kv
 Fundamental diagrams
• Flow-density (q - k) curve
 Fundamental diagrams
• Flow-density (q k) curve
– The relationship is normally represented by a
parabolic curve
– At jam density, flow will be zero because the
vehicles are not moving.
– There will be some density between zero density
and jam density, when the flow is maximum.
 Fundamental diagrams
• Speed-density (v k) curve
 Fundamental diagrams
• Speed-density (v k) curve
– Max. speed is free flow speed
– Max. density is jam density
– At zero density, speed is free flow speed
– At jam density, speed becomes zero
– Most simple assumption is a linear
– Non-linear relationships also possible
 Fundamental diagrams
• Speed-flow (v q) curve
 Fundamental diagrams
• Speed-flow (v q) curve
– Flow is zero either because there is no vehicles
or there are too many vehicles so that they
cannot move

– At maximum flow, the speed will be in between

zero and free flow speed
Fundamental diagrams
 Traffic measurement

• Point measurement
• Measurement over a short stretch
• Measurement over a long stretch
• Measurement over an area
• Moving observer method
 Traffic measurement
• Measurement Procedures
– Measurement at point on the road
– Measurement over a short section of the road (less
than 500 metres)
– Measurement over a length of the road (more than
about 500 metres)
– Wide area samples obtained from number of
locations
– Use of an observer moving in the traffic stream
 Measurements at a point
• Point Measurement
– Flow or volume count
– Manually
• Observer will stand at the point of interest
• Count the vehicles with the help of hand tallies.
• Interval of 5, 10, or 15 minutes
– Types of vehicles
– Cars, Two wheelers, Three wheelers, LCV, HCV,
Multi axle trucks
– Non-motorised vehicles
» bullock cart; hand cart
 Measurements at a point
• Point Measurement
– Automatic
• Inductive loop detector
• Pneumatic tubes
• Video camera
 Measurements at a point
• Video image processing
 Measurements at a point
• Units
– Vehicle/day; Vehicle/hour; Vehicle/second

• Variations of Volume with time

– Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Hourly

• Type of averaging
– Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT)
– Average Annual Weekday Traffic (AAWT)
– Average Daily Traffic (ADT)
– Average Weekday Traffic (AWT)
 Measurements at point
• Types of volume counts
• Cordon count
– These are made at the perimeter of an enclosed area
(i.e. CBD, shopping center, etc.)
• Screen line count
– These are used to determine trends, expand urban travel
data, traffic assignment, etc.
• Pedestrian count
– Evaluating side walks, cross walks, pedestrian signals,
traffic signal timings, etc.
• Intersection count
– Used in planning turning prohibitions, designing
channelization, computing capacity, etc.
 Measurements at a point
• Counting techniques
• Manual counters
– Uses: Turning and through movement studies,
classification and occupancy studies, analysis of
pedestrian facilities
• Automatic counting
– To obtain vehicular counts at non-intersection points
• Permanent counters
– To obtain control counts on a continuous basis
• Portable counters
– To obtain temporary or short term counts
 Measurements at a point
• Counting periods
– 24 hour counts: covers any 24 hour period between
noon Monday to noon to Friday
– 16 hour counts: usually 5:30 AM to 9:30 PM or 6 AM to
9 PM
– 12 hour counts: usually 7 AM to 7 PM
– Peak period counts: depending upon size of
metropolitan area (commonly used periods are 7 to 9
AM and 4 to 6 PM)
 Measurements at a point
• Variation of volume counts
– Seasonal, daily, hourly, etc.

• Peak hour factor (PHF)

– Applied in capacity analysis and it is a descriptive
of trip generation patterns
– Ratio of average volume during peak hour period to
four times the average volume during the peak 15
minute’s period
– 0.95 for congested condition, 0.92 for urban area,
0.88 for rural areas
 Measurements at a point
• The table below shows the volumetric data observed
at an intersection.
Calculate the Peak hour
volume, Peak hour factor,
and the design flow rate for
this approach.
The table below shows the volumetric data observed
at an intersection. Calculate the Peak hour volume,
Peak hour factor, and the design flow rate for this
approach.
 Measurements over short section
• Spot speed of vehicles
– Manual methods: Enoscope
• Base length of about 30-90 metres

Working principle of Enoscope

 Measurements over short section
• Spot speed of vehicles
– Pressure contact tube
 Measurements over short section
• Inductive loop detector
– Principle of magnetic inductance
– Metallic content in the vehicle passes over it
– A signal will be generated and the count of the
vehicle can be found automatically
– Continuous counts
– Errors due to noise signals generated by heavy
vehicle passing adjacent lanes
 Measurements over short section
• Speed data analysis
– Time and Space Mean Speed
– 85th Percentile Speed
– 95th Percentile Speed
– Median (50th Percentile Speed)
– Speed Variance: The difference in travel speeds
for vehicles on the road.
• Using the spot speed data given in table, (a) plot the
frequency distribution table (ii) obtain median speed, modal
speed (iii) compute mean and
standard deviation of speed
distribution (iv) the confidence
bounds on the estimate of the
true mean speed of the
underlying distribution with 95%
confidence (v) based on these
results, compute the sample
size needed to achieve a
tolerance of ±1.5 kmph with
95% confidence
 Measurements over long section
• Density
– Using aerial photography
– Single frame gives only density
– Time lapse photography
• several frames can give speed
• speeds can be computed from the distance
covered between the two frames and time
interval
 Measurements over long section

• Density
 Measurements over long section
• Travel time
– Stretch of length more than 500 metres
– To obtain variations in speed
 Measurement over a long section
• Delay studies
– Time lost by traffic due to traffic friction and traffic
control device is called delay
– Extra time spent by the drivers against their expectation
– Delays: Fixed delay and Operational delay
– Fixed delays occur at intersections due to traffic signals
and at level crossings
– Operational delays occur due to interference of traffic
movements i.e. turning vehicles, parking vehicles,
pedestrians etc.
Measurements over a long section

• Types of delay

– Congestion delay

– Fixed delay

– Operational delay

– Stopped delay

– Travel time delay

– Approach delay
 Measurements over a long section
• Methods of conducting speed and delay studies

– Floating car/riding check method

– License plate or vehicle number method

– Interview technique

– Elevated observations

– Photographic technique
 Measurements over a long section
• Purpose of travel time and delay studies
– To evaluate the quality of traffic movement along a
route and determine the locations, types, and
extent of traffic delays by using a moving test
vehicle
– To compare operational conditions before and after
road improvements
– Used by planners to monitor level of service for
local government comprehensive plans
 Moving observer method
• Overview
– Obtain relationship between fundamental stream
characteristics
– Observer moves in the traffic stream
– Derived by Wardrop and Charlesworth (1954)

• Suitability
– Rural traffic, Urban traffic with low volume
– Driver follows average speed
 Moving observer method
• Advantages
– This method gives an unbiased estimate of the flow
– It is equivalent to a stationary count over twice the single
journey time. Hence it is economical in manpower
– This method advantageous when analyzing the relations
between speed and flow because both can be collected
at the same time
– It gives mean values of flow and speed over a section,
thus it directly gives space mean speed
– It gives additional information on stops at intersections,
delays, parked vehicles, etc.
 Moving observer method

• Limitations
– Unsuitable for large traffic
– Unsuitable if there is major turning traffic
– Large number of observations required to
estimate reliable data
– Driver bias
 Moving observer method
• A test vehicle is driven over a given course of travel at the
average speed of the stream and a number of test runs are
made by the test vehicle along the study stretch
• A group of observers (generally 3 to 4 observers) record
various observations during each run of the test vehicle
• First observer – records the time at various control points and
duration of delays
• Second observer – time, location and cause of these delays
• Third observer – number of vehicles overtaking and overtaken
by the test vehicle
• Fourth observer – number of vehicles travelling in the
opposite direction in each trip
 Moving observer method
• The average journey time, t (minute) for all the vehicles in
a traffic stream in the direction of flow q is given by,

𝑛𝑦 𝒏𝒂 + 𝒏𝒚
t = 𝑡𝑤 − ; 𝒒=
𝑞 𝒕𝒂 + 𝒕𝒘

Where, q = flow of vehicles in one direction of stream

na = avg. no. of vehicles counted in the direction of stream
when the test vehicle travels in the opposite direction
ny = avg. no. of vehicles overtaking minus the no. of vehicles
overtaken by test vehicle when the test in the direction of stream, q
tw, ta = avg. journey time (min) when the test vehicle is
travelling with the stream and against the stream, q
 Moving observer method
• The length of a road stretch used for conducting the
moving observer test is 0.5 km and the speed with
which the test vehicle moved is 20 km/hr. Given that
the number of vehicles encountered in the stream
while the test vehicle was moving against the traffic
stream is 107, number of vehicles that had overtaken
the test vehicle is 10, and the number of vehicles
overtaken by the test vehicle is 74, find the flow,
density and average speed of the stream.
 Moving observer method
• The data from four moving observer test methods are
shown in the table. Column 1 gives the sample number,
column 2 gives the number of vehicles moving against the
stream, column 3 gives the number of vehicles that had
overtaken the test vehicle, and last column gives the
number of vehicles overtaken by the test vehicle. Find the
three fundamental stream parameters for each set of
data. (length of stretch is 0.5 km)
Sample No. 1 2 3
1 107 10 74
2 113 25 41
3 30 15 5
4 79 18 9
Traffic stream models
 Traffic stream models
• Macroscopic
– Expression of the average behavior of the vehicles
at the specific location and time

• Mesoscopic
– Small group of traffic entities with activities and
interactions

• Microscopic
– space-time behavior of the systems’ entities (i.e.
vehicle and drivers)
 Traffic stream models

• Macroscopic Stream Models

– Greenshield's model
– Greenberg's logarithmic model
– Underwood's exponential model
– Pipe's generalized model
– Multi regime models
 Greenshield's model
• Linear speed-density relationship

Relation between speed and density

 Greenshield's model
• Description

– v = mean speed
– k = density
– vf = free flow speed
Two parameter model
– kj = jam density
– When density becomes zero, speed approaches
free flow speed
 Greenshield's model

• Relation between speed and flow

 Greenshield's model

• Relation between flow and density

 Greenshield's model
• Boundary conditions
– Maximum flow
– Density corresponding to max. flow
– Speed corresponding to max. flow

• Model parameters
– Jam density
– Free flow speed
 Greenshield's model
• Density corresponding to max. flow
– We have

– Differentiating
 Greenshield's model

• Maximum flow

• Speed corresponding to max. flow

 Greenshield's model
• Calibration
– Determination of model parameters
– Free flow speed (vf)
– Jam density (kj)

where x is density and y denotes speed

 Greenshield's model
• Calibration
– Using linear regression method

(OR)
 Greenshield's model
• For the following data on speed
Sl.No. K v
and density,
1 171 5
– Calibrate Greenshields model
2 129 15
using the data give in the
3 20 40
table
4 70 25
– Find the maximum flow
– Find the density
corresponding to a speed of
30 km/hr
Greenshield's model
 Other macroscopic models
• In Greenshield's model, linear relationship between
speed and density was assumed.

• But in field we can hardly find such a relationship

between speed and density.

• Therefore, the validity of Greenshields' model was

questioned and many other models came up.

• Other models are: Greenberg’s logarithmic model,

Underwood’s exponential model, Pipe’s generalized
model, and multi-regime models
 Greenberg's model
• Logarithmic relation
– Advantage
• Analytical derivation
• Good at congestion

– Drawbacks
• Main drawbacks of this model
is that as density tends to
zero, speed tends to infinity.

• This shows the inability of the

model to predict the speeds at
lower densities.
 Underwood's model
• Exponential Model
– Advantage
• Good at low speed

– Drawbacks
• In this model, speed
becomes zero only when
density reaches infinity.

• Hence this cannot be used

for predicting speeds at
high densities.
 Pipe’s generalized model
• This model introduced a new parameter, n to
provide for a more generalized modelling
approach

• When n is set to one, Pipe’s model resembles

Greenshield’s model
 Multi-regime models
• Human behaviour will be different at different densities.
This is corroborated with field observations which shows
different relations at different range of densities.

• Therefore, the speed-density relation will also be

different in different zones of densities. Based on this,
many models were proposed generally called multi-
regime models.

• Most simple one is two regime model, where separate

equations are used to represent the speed-density
relation at congested and un-congested traffic
 Comparison of Models
100
k = 200, vf = 90, ko = 100, v0 = 45
90
Gen n = 0.5
80
Liner n = 1
70
Gen n = 2
Log
Speed V(kmph)

60

50 Exp
40

30

20

10

0
0 50 100 150 200 250

Density k (veh/km)