Transport Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers

http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jtran.17.00073
Development of passenger car unit based Paper 1700073
Received 26/05/2017 Accepted 09/08/2017
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Keywords: mathematical modelling/roads & highways/
Sasikumar and Rajamma traffic engineering

ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Development of passenger car unit based

on acceleration noise for urban arterials
&
1 Salini Sasikumar MTech &
2 Ashalatha Rajamma PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Professor and Head, Department of Civil Engineering, Government
Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala, India College of Engineering, Kannur, Kerala, India (corresponding author:
ashu.cet@gmail.com)

1 2

Vehicular traffic in developing countries like India is highly heterogeneous in nature. For effective planning, design,
operation and management of highways, determination of traffic volume in a standard unit is a prerequisite.
Interactions among vehicles under heterogeneous traffic conditions are highly complex. The passenger car unit (PCU)
was therefore developed to represent the amount of impedance caused to the flow of traffic by a vehicle type in
comparison with that of a standard vehicle (usually a passenger car). Since urban roads are marked by frequent
changes in acceleration–deceleration characteristics, the interaction among various categories of vehicles can be
realistically determined using a parameter that represents the change in acceleration/deceleration. A methodology for
determining the PCU values of vehicles based on the concept of acceleration noise was developed in this study.
The PCU for a study section was determined as the ratio of the variance of acceleration noise of the vehicle
under consideration to that of a passenger car. PCU values were determined for four basic categories of vehicles on
four-lane divided urban road stretches.

Notation required for expressing traffic volumes. This is because, under

ANbus acceleration noise of bus heterogeneous traffic conditions, there are large differences
ANcar acceleration noise of car among vehicular characteristics such as speed, acceleration
AN2w acceleration noise of two-wheeler capability, manoeuvrability and dynamic spatial influence zone
AN3w acceleration noise of three-wheeler (Dhamaniya and Chandra, 2013).
Nb number of buses per minute
Nc number of cars per minute Researchers have developed various methodologies for deter-
N2w number of two-wheelers per minute mining the passenger car unit (PCU), considering various
N3w number of three-wheelers per minute factors like speed, headway, density and so on to express traffic
S 2(ANi) variance of acceleration noise of vehicle category i volume and capacity in terms of a common unit. For a realistic
S 2(ANcar) variance of acceleration noise of passenger car estimation of PCUs, the methodology should incorporate
factor(s) than can capture the traffic interaction for varying
compositions of vehicles. Studies on acceleration characteristics
1. Introduction have shown that urban roads are marked by frequent changes
Highly congested road networks are a major area of concern in acceleration and these variations in acceleration can be con-
for planners and developers all over the world, especially in veniently used to represent traffic interactions (Drew et al.,
developing countries. Major road networks are planned 1967; Greenwood and Bennett, 1996). Therefore, in the work
considering the capacity expected on these roads once they reported in this paper, a method was devised for determining
become fully operational. For an evaluation of existing high- the PCU taking into consideration the variation in acceleration
ways, a comparison of the volume of vehicles using the facility characteristics of vehicles on four-lane divided urban roads.
and the capacity for which the facility was designed is
required. In developed nations where homogeneous traffic con- 2. Literature review
ditions usually exist, with the majority of vehicles being pas- The term passenger car equivalent (PCE) was introduced in
senger cars, the characteristics of traffic flow such as volume the Highway Capacity Manual (HRB, 1965: p. 19) as ‘The
and capacity can be easily determined. However, in the case of number of passenger cars displaced in the traffic flow by a
countries such as India, where traffic is highly heterogeneous, truck or a bus, under the prevailing roadway, traffic and
a suitable conversion factor, based on scientific study, is control conditions’. Since then, numerous studies have been

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 Transport
conducted in various parts of the world to estimate PCE or
PCU values based on traffic parameters. Most of these studies
were conducted on roads in developed countries where traffic
is mostly homogeneous in nature. The PCU values so deter-
mined cannot be applied under heterogeneous traffic con-
ditions. The PCU is considered as a measure of the relative
interaction caused by a vehicle to the traffic stream with
respect to a passenger car under a specified set of roadway,
traffic and other conditions (Dhamaniya and Chandra, 2013).
The Indian Roads Congress has reported a set of static PCU
values for Indian urban roads (IRC, 1990). These values are
assumed to be constant for a particular category of vehicle for
all prevailing traffic conditions. However, in reality, the vehicle,
roadway, traffic and environmental factors influence the PCU
values. Several attempts have been made to derive dynamic
PCU values rather than the static values suggested in IRC 106
(IRC, 1990). Justo and Tuladhar (1984) proposed PCU values
for urban mid-block sections, signalised intersections and for
kerb parking. They concluded that the PCU value of a vehicle
on mid-block sections is directly proportional to the width and
time headway and inversely proportional to the speed of the
vehicle. Krammes and Crowley (1986) estimated the PCEs of
a truck based on mean lagging time headway for different
combinations of passenger car and truck flow patterns on
level, basic freeway segments. Headway was chosen as the
measure of effectiveness as the authors suggest that the formu-
lation to estimate PCEs for a particular roadway type should
be expressed in terms of variables that reflect the combination
of factors contributing to the overall effect of trucks on the
quality of service provided by that roadway type. A covariance
model was used to estimate the mean lagging time headway in
terms of flow rate and the speeds of the lead vehicle and the
trailing vehicle.
Webster and Elefteriadou (1999) estimated truck PCEs based
on traffic density using the freeway simulation (Fresim) model.
Traffic density was chosen because, according to the authors, it
is a good indicator of a driver’s freedom to manoeuvre and
proximity to other vehicles, and is consistent with the measure
of effectiveness for freeways. From the simulation runs, flow–
density curves were developed and PCEs were estimated for a
wide range of design and traffic conditions and a range of
vehicle performance characteristics. They concluded that PCE
values tend to increase with traffic flow, free flow speed and
grade or length of grade and tend to decrease with an increase
in the percentage of trucks and the number of lanes.
Chandra and Sikdar (2000) studied the influence of factors
such as traffic composition and road width on PCU values.
They concluded that the PCU for a particular vehicle type
decreases with an increase in the proportion of the same
vehicle type in the traffic stream. They also found that PCU
values decreased with increases in traffic volume. Similarly, an
increase in road width provides more freedom for drivers to
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Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma
choose their speed and thus the PCU values of individual
vehicles increase with an increase in road width. Chandra and
Kumar (2003) proposed that the PCU value of a vehicle is
directly proportional to the ratio of speed and inversely pro-
portional to the space requirement of that vehicle with respect
to a car and suggested an expression for this relationship. Basu
et al. (2006) studied the effects of traffic volume and traffic
composition on passenger car equivalency of different vehicle
types in a heterogeneous traffic stream for an urban mid-block
section. They adopted a neural network approach to capture
the underlying non-linear effect of traffic volume and its com-
position on the stream speed. It was found that the PCE of a
vehicle type varies in a non-linear manner with total traffic
volume and the compositional share of the vehicle type in the
traffic stream.
Brooks (2010) studied the limitations of PCU values defined
by the later version of the Highway Capacity Manual
(TRB, 2000), analysing the influence of vehicular interaction
on PCU values for different volume-to-capacity ratios. The
PCU value of a vehicle type was calculated, by a trial and
error method, as the ratio between the number of cars removed
from the homogeneous traffic stream and the number of
vehicles of the subject type added to maintain the same stream
speed. In this study, the capacity of cars on a two-lane road
under homogeneous conditions was found to be 3920 veh/h
while that under heterogeneous conditions was 3645 veh/h.
Brooks (2010) suggested that the PCU values for buses, sports
utility vehicles and motorcycles varied in the range 1·4–3·3,
1·2–2·25 and 0·25–1·3, respectively, and observed that the
PCU values obtained were more reliable than those suggested
by TRB (2000).
Arasan and Arkatkar (2011) quantified vehicular interaction,
under heterogeneous traffic, in terms of PCU values as per the
Transport and Road Research Laboratory, London, UK in
1965. The study was performed on intercity roads in plain
terrain using an indigenously developed simulation model
called Heterosim. PCU values were estimated by taking the
average stream speed as the measure of performance. It was
found that, because of the complex nature of interactions
among vehicles in heterogeneous traffic conditions, the PCU
values varied significantly with a change in traffic volume.
Dhamaniya and Chandra (2013) introduced the stream equiv-
alency factor (SEF), estimated as the ratio between the traffic
volume in PCUs per hour and the volume in vehicles per hour.
Regression models were developed to derive SEFs for various
traffic compositions and volumes for six-lane roads using
Vissim (Verkehr In Städten – SIMulationsmodell). Mehar
et al. (2014) also used the microscopic simulation model
Vissim to develop PCU values of vehicles on interurban high-
ways in India. Using Heterosim, Praveen and Arasan (2013)
attempted to estimate PCU values for different types of
vehicles under homogeneous and heterogeneous traffic con-
ditions on divided urban roads in India. They found that, by
 Transport
virtue of the interactions among vehicles under heterogeneous
traffic conditions, at low volume levels, the PCU value of
vehicles increased with increasing traffic volume while the
PCU value decreased with an increase in traffic volume under
higher volume conditions, for any given composition. Sharma
et al. (2014) made an attempt to determine the capacity of
national highways in India for four-lane and six-lane divided
carriageways using Vissim. The dynamic PCU was derived by
taking the speed and influence area of the vehicle compared
with those of a car, and PCU values were determined for
13 different categories of vehicle. Based on the speed-to-area
ratio suggested by Chandra and Sikdar (2000), Patel and
Joshi (2015) determined the optimal value of the dynamic
equivalency factor considering a car as the reference vehicle.
An optimisation technique using Microsoft Excel Solver was
employed to determine the unique value of the equivalency
factor for each mode.
This literature review reveals that many researchers have used
traffic flow parameters such as average speed, stream speed,
density headway and so on to represent PCU values. However,
in heterogeneous traffic conditions, the PCU is better
measured in terms of the interactions that occur in a traffic
stream due to the presence of a particular type of vehicle. On
urban roads in countries like India, where the same road space
is shared by different vehicles with widely varying static and
dynamic characteristics, a more realistic parameter that
accounts for vehicle interactions needs to be considered for
determining PCU values.
Drew et al. (1967) revealed that acceleration noise can be con-
sidered as one such parameter that can account for the inter-
actions among vehicles in a traffic stream. Acceleration noise is
defined as the standard deviation of acceleration and can be
considered as the deviation of the speed of a vehicle from a
uniform speed (Chung and Gartner, 1973). Greenwood and
Bennett (1996) conducted a study to predict fuel consumption
due to traffic congestion. Experiments were conducted to quan-
tify the acceleration noise for various vehicles with different
drivers. The experiments confirmed that there is a relationship
between congestion and acceleration noise. Babu and Pattnaik
(1997) identified acceleration noise as an effective measure to
assess the quality of traffic running on a roadway and derived
the level of service of urban streets on the basis of acceleration
noise along with speed and traffic volume. It is thus clear that
acceleration noise can be taken as an effective parameter to
describe interactions among vehicles on urban roads.
The literature review also points to the need to identify a suit-
able attribute to quantify interactions among vehicles in
heterogeneous traffic conditions. Studies on acceleration
characteristics have shown that acceleration noise can be con-
veniently used as a measure of traffic quality in quantitative
terms as it indicates the disturbance caused by different cat-
egories of vehicles in a traffic stream. In this context, the aim
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Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma
of this study was to develop a methodology to determine
the PCU of vehicles on urban roads in terms of acceleration
noise.
3. Background of the study
Most methods for developing PCU values in heterogeneous
conditions are based on the speed and size of vehicles
(Chandra and Sikdar, 2000; Dhamaniya and Chandra, 2013;
Sharma et al., 2014). As far as urban roads are concerned, it
has been found that they are characterised by frequent changes
in vehicle acceleration, which is mainly due to the interactions
among the vehicles. Since PCU values should represent
the amount of interactions rather than the speed or size ratio,
change in acceleration can be considered as a surrogate
measure of vehicular interaction. Studies on acceleration
characteristics suggest that while acceleration and acceleration
noise follow a normal distribution in uniform traffic con-
ditions, under unsteady traffic conditions, experimental
data have revealed that they differ from a normal distribution
(Drew et al., 1967; Greenwood and Bennett, 1996). This vari-
ation from normality can be attributed to the interactions
among vehicles. Moreover, acceleration is related to vehicle
characteristics and each category of vehicle considered in this
study differed considerably in terms of their acceleration
characteristics. An attempt was thus made to develop a
methodology to determine the PCU of a vehicle based on the
deviation of its acceleration noise from normality.
4. Methodology
A systematic procedure was devised to determine the PCU
values of four main categories of vehicles: motorised two-
wheelers, motorised three-wheelers, passenger cars and buses.
The scope of the study was limited to four-lane divided urban
mid-block sections. The algorithm adopted in the study was
as follows.
Step 1. Mid-block sections along urban corridors that
were devoid of side frictions (e.g. bus stops, pedestrians,
on-street parking), curves and gradients were identified.
Step 2. A passenger car fitted with a global positioning
system (GPS) was run on the stretch.
Step 3. Data such as latitude, longitude, speed and time
were extracted.
Step 4. Acceleration was calculated as the change of
speed per second for each second for the entire data
collection period.
Step 5. Acceleration noise was determined as the standard
deviation of accelerations.
Step 6. Steps 2 to 5 were repeated for several trials.
Step 7. The variance of acceleration noise for the passenger
car was determined.
Step 8. Steps 2 to 7 were repeated for a two-wheeler,
a three-wheeler and a bus. The variance of
acceleration noise for each category of vehicles was
then determined.
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 Transport Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma

Table 1. Traffic composition of study sections for acceleration noise per section per vehicle category. This
Average composition: % process was repeated for all five sections listed in Table 1,
which generated a dataset of 175 acceleration noise points per
Motorised Motorised vehicle category and a total of 700 data points for acceleration
Section two-wheelers three-wheelers Cars Buses noise. The average traffic volume during the data collection
IS-I 47 15 33 5 period was in the range 1950–2250 veh/h.
IS-II 49 17 30 4
IS-III 49 15 32 4
IS-IV 48 16 29 7 4.2 Determination of PCU
IS-V 51 15 28 6 As explained earlier, acceleration noise is considered to be
normally distributed for an ideal condition under smooth
traffic. However, interactions among vehicles result in a devi-
ation from this normal behaviour. This variability, or spread,
4.1 Data collection and extraction
can be measured effectively by determining the variance of the
Each category of vehicle was run with a surveyor holding a
acceleration noise values. The acceleration noise values
hand-held GPS (Garmin eTrex Vista HCx GPS (Garmin
obtained for study section IS-I are shown in Table 2. The
Corporation, 2007)). With a velocity accuracy of 0·1 m/s, this
amount of variance of acceleration noise can be linked to the
unit provided data on latitude, longitude, speed and time. The
extent of interactions among vehicles. The ratio of variance of
speed of the vehicle was obtained for every 1 s interval. Based
acceleration noise of a vehicle to that of a passenger car was
on these data, acceleration was calculated as the change in
considered as the PCU value of that category of vehicle. Thus,
speed per second. The standard deviation of the acceleration
the variance determined was used to calculate the PCU of
values gave the acceleration noise (Chung and Gartner, 1973;
a vehicle using
Drew et al., 1967). Thus, each trial yielded one set of accelera-
tion noise values for each category of vehicle.
S 2 ðANi Þ
1: PCUi ¼
The scope of the study was limited to four-lane divided urban S 2 ðANcar Þ
mid-blocks in major towns in Kerala, the southernmost state
of India, including Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of where PCUi is the PCU for vehicle category i, S 2(ANi) is
Kerala. Five mid-block sections were chosen as ideal sections the variance of acceleration noise of vehicle category
for the study (identified as IS-I to IS-V); their average traffic i and S 2(ANcar) is the variance of acceleration noise of a
composition is shown in Table 1. As already mentioned, these passenger car.
stretches were chosen as they were completely devoid of side
friction characteristics and were plain sections without any The PCU of each study stretch was calculated as the ratio of
gradients or curves. variance of acceleration noise of the vehicle under consider-
ation and that of the passenger car (Equation 1). This process
On the first day of the data collection period, the first road was repeated for all categories of vehicles in all sections
section was chosen and seven trial runs were taken for all four (IS-I to IS-V). The PCU values thus determined are shown
categories of vehicles during the peak hour. In each trial run, in Table 3.
each category of vehicle generated one single acceleration noise
value. In total, seven acceleration values were obtained As shown in Table 1, section IS-V had a higher proportion of
for each category of vehicle in the selected road stretch on day two-wheelers than the other sections. Compared with section
one. In order to obtain unbiased results, this process was IS-IV, the composition of two-wheelers in section IS-V was 3%
repeated on five subsequent days on the same stretch for all higher. According to Table 3, the PCU value of two-wheelers
the vehicles. The trial runs were carried out on Tuesdays, in section IS-V declined by 11% compared with section IS-IV.
Wednesdays and Thursdays, thus avoiding Mondays, Fridays This is due to the fact that when the proportion of two-
and weekends. This resulted in the generation of 35 data points wheelers increases the variability in their speed on urban roads

Table 2. Acceleration noise values for study section IS-I

Acceleration noise: m/s2

Category of vehicle Minimum value Maximum value Average Standard deviation Variance

Two-wheeler 0·3404 0·5336 0·4434 0·0546 0·0030

Three-wheeler 0·3697 0·6873 0·5499 0·0766 0·0059
Car 0·3567 0·5894 0·4632 0·0671 0·0045
Bus 0·5279 0·9671 0·7502 0·1232 0·0152

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 Transport Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma

Table 3. PCU values obtained for study sections limited variations in the range of PCU values for two-wheelers.
PCU value On the other hand, three-wheelers and buses have a tendency
to accelerate/decelerate more frequently as they try to
Motorised Motorised manoeuvre along road sections among the two-wheelers. This
Section two-wheeler three-wheeler Car Bus then affects the variance values and also the PCU ranges.
IS-I 0·661 1·303 1·000 3·377 These results support the fact that acceleration noise is a valid
IS-II 0·679 1·302 1·000 3·256 surrogate measure to assess the interactions among vehicles on
IS-III 0·670 1·262 1·000 3·098 urban roads.
IS-IV 0·673 1·166 1·000 3·286
IS-V 0·602 1·363 1·000 3·503
5. Application of the study results to
urban roads
From the results presented thus far, it can be concluded that
is much reduced. Hence, the change in acceleration and there- acceleration noise can be treated as a measure of effectiveness
fore the variance of acceleration noise decreases and the PCU on urban roads and the variation in acceleration noise can be
value also thus reduces accordingly. Table 3 also shows that on used to represent the interaction of vehicles and thereby can be
section IS-V, the PCUs of all vehicles apart from two-wheelers used to determine PCU values of various categories of
were greater than on the other sections. This is attributed to vehicles. The literature indicates that acceleration noise is
the fact that two-wheelers present a greater hindrance to the dependent on roadway characteristics, drivers and traffic con-
other category of vehicles, which results in an increase in the ditions (Drew et al., 1967). In the present study, the selected
variation of speed and thereby the variability in acceleration study stretches were geometrically comparable and the same
noise of these categories of vehicles. driver was used to drive all the vehicles. The variations in
acceleration noise can thus be attributed to variations in traffic
The PCU values obtained in this study based on variance of volume and composition. For practising engineers to utilise the
acceleration noise were compared with values obtained in findings of this study, an attempt was made to model accelera-
various other studies for similar traffic volumes and compo- tion noise incorporating the various influencing parameters.
sition. Table 4 shows that there was no one-to-one correspon-
dence between the PCU values obtained in the present study To determine the variation of acceleration noise with traffic
and those suggested elsewhere. The PCU values determined volume, the acceleration noise data collected using GPS from
here for two-wheelers are higher than the values suggested by sections devoid of side frictions were utilised. Figure 1 shows
other researchers. In the case of three-wheelers and buses, the the acceleration noise for a car plotted against total vehicular
range of values determined in this study falls within the limits volume for section IS-I. Figures 2(a)–2(d) show the variations
put forth by other researchers. It was also observed that the in acceleration noise with respect to the total volume for all
PCU values of two-wheelers show minor variability only while the vehicles on all the sections. In all cases, the acceleration
those obtained for three-wheelers and buses show higher varia- noise increased linearly with traffic volume.
bility even though the traffic compositions of all the sections
were almost comparable, as shown in Table 1. This is due to 5.1 Model development for acceleration noise
the fact that two-wheelers normally tend to maintain their Drew et al. (1967) showed that the acceleration noise of a
speeds on urban stretches with fewer variations, thus leading to vehicle depends on the traffic composition as well as the road
fewer acceleration/deceleration changes. This in turn leads to a characteristics over which it is travelling. Since the ideal
lower spread in acceleration noise and this is reflected in the sections in this study were chosen so that vehicular speed was

Table 4. Range of PCU values determined by various researchers

PCU value

Reference Two-wheeler Three-wheeler Bus

IRC (1990) 0·750 2·000 2·200

Basu et al. (2006) 0·130–0·160 — 1·600–1·900
Arasan and Arkatkar (2011) 0·340–0·740 0·500–0·900 1·700–2·700
Praveen and Arasan (2013) 0·310–0·610 0·790–1·410 1·410–2·100
Dhamaniya and Chandra (2014) 0·210–0·230 0·980–1·030 5·810–6·700
Sharma et al. (2014) 0·200–0·300 1·300–1·500 5·000–5·600
Mehar et al. (2014) 0·190–0·260 0·890–1·060 3·780–4·300
Patel and Joshi (2015) 0·210–0·370 0·540–0·990 3·380–8·350
Present studya 0·602–0·679 1·166–1·363 3·098–3·503

a
These values are obtained from Table 3

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 Transport Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma

0·30 purpose, which yielded a set of 350 points for each vehicle
category. Regression analysis was performed on the data
Acceleration noise: m/s2

collected from ideal sections with acceleration noise as the

0·20 dependent variable and traffic composition as the independent
variable. Sections IS-I to IS-IX (Table 5) were used to develop
the mathematical models, while section IS-X was used to
0·10 validate the models.

Classified volume counts were obtained simultaneously for the

0
20 30 40 50 60 study sections. Multiple linear regression analysis was per-
Volume: veh/min formed to relate acceleration noise with the composition of
vehicular traffic on ideal sections. Traffic composition details
Figure 1. Variation in acceleration noise of car with total volume of the study sections are shown in Table 5.
(veh/min) for section IS-I
The models developed for acceleration noise for cars, two-
wheelers, three-wheelers and buses on four-lane divided
unaffected by the roadway or by driver characteristics, only the
sections are as follows.
interference due to traffic existed. An attempt was thus made
to relate traffic composition to acceleration noise. The data
ANcar ¼ 03742 þ 00126N2w þ 00055N3w
collected included acceleration noise based on GPS data and ð768Þ ð389Þ
traffic composition collected from video data recorded simul- 2:
þ 00022Nc þ 0002Nb R2 ¼ 0863
taneously. Trial runs were carried out in a similar way as ð296Þ ð348Þ
explained in Section 4.1. Ten sites were chosen for this

0·30 0·50

0·40
Acceleration noise: m/s2

0·20
0·30

0·20
0·10

0·10

0 0
0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60
(a) (b)

0·40 0·40
Acceleration noise: m/s2

0·30 0·30

0·20 0·20

0·10 0·10

0 0
0 20 40 60 0 20 40
Volume: veh/min Volume: veh/min
(c) (d)

Figure 2. Variation in acceleration noise with respect to traffic volume for (a) cars, (b) two-wheelers, (c) three-wheelers and (d) buses

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 Transport Development of passenger car unit based
on acceleration noise for urban arterials
Sasikumar and Rajamma

Table 5. Sections chosen for determining acceleration noise Table 6. PCU values determined using acceleration noise models
values using GPS
PCU value
Composition: %
Motorised Motorised
Motorised Motorised Section two-wheeler three-wheeler Car Bus
Section two-wheelers three-wheelers Cars Buses
IS-I 0·668 1·309 1 3·419
IS-I 47 15 33 5 IS-II 0·689 1·467 1 3·391
IS-II 49 17 30 4 IS-III 0·680 1·456 1 3·557
IS-III 49 15 32 4 IS-IV 0·659 1·372 1 3·657
IS-IV 48 16 29 7 IS-V 0·665 1·575 1 3·111
IS-V 51 15 28 6
IS-VI 50 15 29 6
IS-VII 49 18 25 8
IS-VIII 52 17 24 7 were collected from videos captured from sections IS-I to IS-V
IS-IX 47 17 29 7 (Table 1) and these data were substituted into the models. The
IS-X 45 17 28 10
acceleration noise values obtained for each category of vehicle
for each section were then obtained. The variance of accelera-
tion noise thus obtained was determined and the PCU was cal-
AN2w ¼ 03571 þ 00038N2w þ 00040N3w culated as per Equation 1. The results are shown in Table 6.
ð363Þ ð298Þ
3: The PCU values obtained by the models were comparable
þ 0042Nc þ 0022Nb R2 ¼ 0934 with those obtained from field data (Table 3) and it can thus
ð317Þ ð412Þ
be concluded that the models are valid for the determination
of PCU values.

AN3w ¼ 03689 þ 00063N2w þ 00054N3w
ð379Þ ð348Þ
4:
þ 00149Nc þ 000697Nb R2 ¼ 0894
ð597Þ ð442Þ
ANbus ¼ 04502 þ 00083N2w þ 00074N3w
ð629Þ ð418Þ
5:
þ 00020Nc þ 00013Nb R2 ¼ 0908
ð592Þ ð492Þ
where ANcar, AN2w, AN3w and ANbus is the acceleration noise
of cars, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and buses, respectively
and N2w, N3w, Nc and Nb is the numbers of two-wheelers,
three-wheelers, cars and buses per minute, respectively.
The values given in parentheses indicate the t-statistics values of
the regression coefficients in the Equations 2–5, which were
found to be significant at the 95% level of confidence as all
values were greater than the critical value of 1·96. Chi-squared
tests were conducted to validate the models using data obtained
from section IS-X, which was not considered for model build-
ing. The models were found to be statistically significant at the
95% level of confidence as the chi-squared values obtained for
each model were lower than the critical values.
5.2 Determination of PCU using acceleration
noise models
To test the applicability of the models developed to determine
PCU values (Equations 2–5), classified volumes per minute
6. Conclusions
The aim of this study was to develop a methodology to deter-
mine PCU values for vehicles in a heterogeneous condition
based on the concept of acceleration noise. The spread or
variation observed in the distribution of acceleration noise
values was used to determine the PCU of a category of vehicle
as deviation from normality is a measure of the influence
of heterogeneity. The PCU was then determined as the ratio
of variance of acceleration noise of the vehicle under
consideration to that of a passenger car. For field application,
acceleration noise models were developed for urban roads
in terms of traffic composition. The models were found to be
statistically significant and therefore they can be directly
applied in the field to determine acceleration noise and thereby
PCU values.
The variance in acceleration noise was found to be the highest
for buses, followed by three-wheelers, cars and then two-wheel-
ers. This can be attributed to the wide variation in accelera-
tion–deceleration characteristics experienced by buses as they
attempt to move among other vehicle types. On the other
hand, two-wheelers have a tendency to maintain their speed
levels and can squeeze through any available gap in the traffic
stream; hence their variance in acceleration noise is lower than
that of buses.
The PCU values determined for sections that were completely
devoid of any side frictions (e.g. bus stops, pedestrians, on-
street parking) ranged from 0·602 to 0·679 for two-wheelers,
with an average of 0·657, and from 1·166 to 1·363 for three-
wheelers, with an average of 1·280. The PCU values of buses
varied from 3·098 to 3·503, with an average value of 3·303.

7
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 Transport
Models for determining acceleration noise were developed con-
sidering the traffic composition at the study sites. The models
were found to be statistically significant. Using these models,
acceleration noise can be determined from traffic composition.
Then, PCU values can be determined based on the variance of
the acceleration noise values obtained through the respective
models. This is thus a convenient method for practising engin-
eers for estimating PCU values for urban roads.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the All India Council for Technical
Education, New Delhi, India, for funding this study. The
authors also thank Dr T. G. Deepak, Associate Professor,
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Space Science
and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India for
helping in interpreting the results.
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