CE 4361

Transportation Engineering

Lecture #6: Highway Safety, Fundamental

Principles of Traffic Flow

February 9, 2016

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 HW #2
5. The speed limit of a highway is 70 mph. Due to the major repair work of this highway with a
grade of – 3 percent (downhill), the speed in the work zone needs to be reduced to 20 mph.
Determine the minimum distance from the start of the work zone that a road sign should be
located, informing drivers of the work zone and the reduced speed limit. Assume that a driver
can read a road sign within his or her area of vision at a distance of 20 ft for each inch of
letter height in the sign, and the deceleration rate is 11.2 ft/sec2. The letter height of the sign
is 8 inches, and the perception-reaction time is 2.5 sec.

5. The speed limit of a highway is 70 mph. Due to the major repair work of this highway with a
grade of – 3 percent (downhill), the speed in the work zone needs to be reduced to 20 mph.
Determine the minimum distance from the start of the work zone to a location where a road
sign should be placed, informing drivers of the work zone and the reduced speed limit.
Assume that a driver can read a road sign within his or her area of vision at a distance of 20 ft
for each inch of letter height in the sign, and the deceleration rate is 11.2 ft/sec2. The letter
height of the sign is 8 inches, and the perception-reaction time is 2.5 sec.
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 AADT Example
• A traffic engineer needs to determine the AADT on a rural primary road
that has the volume distribution characteristics shown in the previous
slides. The following volume data were collected on a Wednesday during
April. Determine the AADT of the road.

1:00 pm- 2:00 pm 600

2:00 pm- 3:00 pm 330

3:00 pm- 4:00 pm 456

4:00 pm- 5:00 pm 787

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 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm 600

2:00 pm- 3:00 pm 330

3:00 pm- 4:00 pm 456

4:00 pm- 5:00 pm 787

24 hour volume = (600*16.71 + 330*14.84 + 456*14.77 + 787*12.85)/4 = 7,942

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24 hour volume = (600*16.71 + 330*14.84 + 456*14.77 + 787*12.85)/4 = 7,942

Average = 10,732

Total 7-day volume = 7,942*6.582 = 52,274

Average 24-hour volume = 52,274/7 = 7,468

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Average 24-hour volume = 52,274/7 = 7,468

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Average 24-hour volume = 52,274/7 = 7,468

AADT = 7,468*1.481 = 11,060

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Peak Hour Factor (PHF) & Design Hourly Volume
(DHV)
• Peak hour volume: maximum number of vehicles that passes a
point on a highway during a period of 60 consecutive minutes.
• Typically 2 or 3 peaks
• Peak hour factor: measure of variability of demand during the
peak hour.

PHV
PHF 
4 x Volume during peak 15 - min. within peak hour
• Design hourly volume: maximum volume for which a facility is
designed to accommodate during a peak hour

PHV
DHV 
PHF
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Peak Hour Factor (PHF) &
Design Hourly Volume (DHV) Example
Using the following afternoon peak hour traffic flow data
for westbound traffic on 19th St. & Indiana Ave., determine
the design hourly volume.

4:45pm-5:00pm: 200 vehicles

5:00pm-5:15pm: 900 vehicles
5:15pm-5:30pm: 600 vehicles
5:30pm-5:45pm: 300 vehicles

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Volume Counting
Types of Counts
oCordon counts (Fig. 4.12)
oScreen line counts
oIntersection counts (Fig. 4.14)
oPedestrian volume counts
oPeriodic volume counts

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Presentation of Traffic Volumes

• Traffic Maps (Fig. 4.13)

• Traffic Volume Characteristics (Fig. 4.15)
• Sampling issues
o Technology used

o Number of sampling locations

o Economic considerations

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Travel Time & Delay Studies
• Travel Time
o The time it takes to travel from “A” to “B”
• Delay
o Time lost by a vehicle due to causes beyond the control of the
driver

• Why delay studies?

o Determine travel time.
o Determine route efficiency.
o Identify delay locations.
o Evaluate “before & after” performance.
o Feasibility studies.
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Parking Studies
• Types of parking facilities
o On-street parking facilities
o Off-street parking facilities
• Definitions of parking terms
o Space-hour: use of a single parking space for one hour
o Parking volume: total number of vehicles that park in a day
o Parking accumulation: number of parked vehicles at any
specified time
o Parking load: area under the accumulation curve between two
specified times
o Parking duration: the length of time a vehicle is parked
o Parking turnover: the rate of use of a parking space (p.v./p.s.)
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Parking Studies
• Methodology of parking studies
o Inventory of existing parking facilities
o Collection of data on parking accumulation, parking turnover,
and parking duration
o Identification of parking generators
o Collection of information on parking demand

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 Summary

• Three categories of traffic studies are: inventories, administrative

studies, and dynamic studies
• Methods for conducting spot speed and volume studies:
o Intrusive: pneumatic tubes, inductive loop
o Non-intrusive: manual, radar, video image processing, ultrasonic, acoustic
• ADT, AADT
• PHF, DHV
• Parking: on-street and off-street, follow local design standards.

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 Highway Safety

Learning Objectives
• Understand the issues involved in highway safety and the causes of
highway crashes.
• Become familiar with the relative safety effectiveness of highway design
features.

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Traffic Fatalities in the US
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for
people between the ages of 1 to 34 years.
Traffic Fatalities in the US
50,000

45,000

40,000

35,000

30,000
Fatalities

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Year

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Traffic Fatalities in the US in 2012
• Who
o Driver: 16,769
o Passenger: 6,061
o Motorcyclist: 4,957
o Pedestrian: 4,743
o Cyclist: 726
• Where
o Rural: 18,170
o Urban: 15,296

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 Factors involved in highway crashes
• Human factors
• Mechanical condition of vehicles
• Characteristics of the roadway
• Environmental factors

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Human factors
• Major contributing cause of crashes: driver error
• Roadway design considerations (HSM)
o Giving traffic information in a consistent manner
o Not giving many pieces of information at the same time, but
presenting them one after another in an orderly way
o Providing clues to help drivers rank the importance of the
different information

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Roadway condition
• If a road is designed to incorporate the limitations and
expectations of the driver, the probability of a driver
reacting and making the right decision for a given condition
is maximized – positive guidance approach
o Primacy
o Spreading
o Coding
o Redundancy

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Safety effectiveness of commonly used
highway design features
• Access control
o Full control
o No control

• Alignment
o Vertical alignment: more crashes on a grade
o Horizontal alignment: crash rates at curves higher (1.5 to 4 times) than at
straight sections

• Cross sections

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Safety effectiveness of commonly used
highway design features
• Cross sections
o Lane widths
o Medians
o Shoulders
o Passing and climbing lanes
o Roadside recovery (clear zone) distance
o Intersection sight distance

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