CEE 4651

Transportation Engineering
and
Traffic Design
Moinul Hossain

Week 2
Driving Performance, Human Factors
and Road Characteristics
1
 Components of Traffic System

 Road User and Vehicle Characteristics

• Roadway and their Geometric Characteristics

• Traffic Control Devices

• Traffic Stream Characteristics

•Intelligent Transportation Systems

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 Dealing with Diversity (1)
 Traffic controls could be easily designed if all drivers

reacted to them in exactly the same way

• Factors: Walking speed of pedestrians, driver's attitude,

reaction time, vision characteristics, etc.

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Dealing with Diversity (2)

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Dealing with Diversity (3)

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Dealing with Diversity (4)

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Dealing with Diversity (5)

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Dealing with Diversity (6)

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Dealing with Diversity (7)

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 Dealing with Diversity (8)

How to deal with Diversity?

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 Dealing with Diversity (5)
 Most human characteristics follow the normal
distribution

 Most standards are graded to “85th percentile”

(or “15th percentile”)

 Pedestrian walking speed: 3 – 5 ft/s

 Drivers' reaction time

 What about the remaining 15%???

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 Dealing with Diversity (6)
 Characteristics of vehicles vary widely as well

 Motorcycle and Trucks share the same road!

 Some control over the range of road-user and vehicle

characteristics is maintained through licensing criteria
and federal and state standards on vehicle design and
operating characteristics.

 How to address diversity???

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 Dealing with Diversity (7)

 Addressing Diversity through Uniformity

 Roadways of a similar type and function should

have a familiar “look” to drivers

 Traffic control devices should be as uniform as

possible
 Provide information to drivers in uniform way

 While this does not assure uniform reactions from

drivers, it at least narrows the range of behavior, as

drivers become accustomed to and familiar with the
system
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 Road Users (1)
• Much of the task of traffic engineers is to find ways to provide
drivers with information in a clear, effective manner that induces
safe and proper responses.

• Two driving characteristics of utmost importance are visual acuity

factors and the reaction process.

• Hearing is important (why?) but don’t design anything based on

hearing clue (why?).

• Physical strength

• How about personality and psychology??? (enforcement and

licensing procedure)
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Road Users (2)

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 Road Users (3)
Static Visual Acuity – the ability to see small stationary details clearly.
Field of Vision

• Acute or Clear Vision Cone – to read legend (30 to 100)

• Fairly Clear Vision Cone – color and shape (100 to 120)

• Peripheral Vision – only movement of objects (900 to the right and

left of the centerline of the pupil, and up to 600 above and 700 below
the line of sight)

Notes:

• Defined for a standard person

• Speed!!! (Peripheral Vision: Speed 20 mph  1000 ; 60 mph  400)

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Road Users (4)

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 Road Users (5)
• Traffic sign – acute or clear vision cone; placed at a
significant distance from the driver; size (both physical
and font).

• Speed – Peripheral vision

• Drivers deprived of peripheral vision and

speedometer have little idea of how fast they are
traveling.

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 Road Users (6)
• Important Visual Defects

 Operation

 Disease: cataracts, glucoma, peripheral vision defect,

muscle imbalance, depth perception defect, diabetes,
AND

 Color blindness (Red and Green). Blue pigment to green

and yellow to red; location of colors on signal head have
been standardized!

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 Road Users (7)
• Perception – Reaction Time (PRT)

 Detection

 Identification

 Decision

 Response

• Sometimes known as PIEV (Perception, Identification, Emotion,

Volition)

• PRT is equivalent to “PIEV time”.

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 Road Users (8)
Perception – Reaction Time (PRT) Design Values

• Highways (AASHTO)  2.5s (90th percentile, i.e., 90% of all drivers will
have a PRT as fast or faster than 2.5s!)

• Signal timing (ITE)  1.0s (85th percentile)

• Special cases requiring more time

 Complex interchanges and intersections (unusual movements)

 Cross-sectional change (toll plaza, lane drop, visual obstruction)

 Collision avoidance maneuver (rural roads 3.0s; urban roads 9.1s)

 Collision avoidance requires speed, path, and/or direction changes

(rural roads 10.2s – 11.2s; suburban roads 12.1 – 12.9; urban roads
14.0s – 14.5s) 21
 Road Users (8)
Expectancy

• Continuity – Experience of the immediate past are generally

expected to continue.

• Event – Things that have not happened previously will not happen.

• Temporal – When events are cyclic, such as traffic signal, the longer
a given state is observed, drivers will assume that it is more likely
that a change will occur.

 Traffic engineers MUST strive to avoid designing “unexpected”

events into roadway systems and traffic control.

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Road Users (9)

Other Factors affecting PRT

•Age

•Fatigue

•Complexity of Reaction

•DUI/DWI (Driving Under /

With Influence) – alcohol,
drug…

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 Road Users (10)
Reaction Distance

• The distance the vehicle travels while the driver goes through the
process.

• During this time, the vehicle continues along its original course at
its initial speed.

• Only after the foot is applied to the break pedal does the vehicle
begin to slow down in response to the stimulus.

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 Road Users (11)
Problem 1:

• A driver rounds a curve at a speed of 60 mph and sees a truck

overturned on the roadway ahead. How far will the driver’s vehicle
travel before the driver’s foot reaches the break? ( Use PRT 2.5s)

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 Road Users (12)
Pedestrian Characteristics: Walking Speed

Shibuya Pedestrian Crossing, Tokyo, Japan

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 Road Users (13)
Pedestrian Characteristics: Gap Acceptance
• Definition 1
 When a pedestrian crosses at an uncontrolled location, the
pedestrian must select an appropriate “gap” in the traffic stream
through which to cross.
 The “gap” in the traffic is measured as the time lag between two
vehicles in any lane encroaching on pedestrian’s walking path.
 He then “accepts” or “rejects” the gap.
• Definition 2
 The distance between the pedestrian and the approaching vehicle at
the time the pedestrian begins his or her crossing.
 Normally approx. 125 ft (85th percentile value)
• Factors: Speed of approaching vehicles, width of the street, freq. dist. of
gaps in the traffic stream, waiting time, etc.

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 Road Users (14)
Pedestrian Characteristics: Comprehension of Controls

WHAT DOES THIS CONTROL MEAN?

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Road Users (15)

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 Road Users (16)
Drug and Alcohol – BAC (Blood Alcohol Content)

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 Road Users (17)
BAC checking practice: Is it good enough?
• 1996: 47.3% fatal pedestrian crashes involved either a drunk driver or a
drunk pedestrian.

• Of them, 12% drivers and 32.3% pedestrians had BAC > 0.1%

• More than 7% drivers and 6% pedestrians had detectable but legal level
of BAC.

• Stricter rules:

• 0.08% from 0.10%.

• Zero tolerance for new drivers (first year or two).

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 Road Users (18)
“Road Rage”: Who is an Aggressive Driver?
• The desire to get to one’s destination as quickly as possible, leading to
expression of anger at other drivers/pedestrians who impede this desire.

• The need to compete with other fast cars.

• The need to respond competitively to other aggressive drivers

• Contempt for other drivers who do not drive, look and act as they do on
the road.

• The belief that it is their right to “hit back” at other drivers whose driving
behavior threatens them.

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