IRC: 64-1990 GUIDELINES FOR CAPACITY OF ROADS IN RURAL AREAS First Revision) THE INDIAN ROADS CONGRESS 1990IRC: 64-1990 MEMBERS OF THE HIGHWAYS SPECIFICATIONS: AND STANDARDS COMMITTEE LRP, Sika [Adal. Director General (Roads). Ministry of Sur (Convenor) face Transport (Roads Wing) PX: Dutta Chief Engineer (Roads). Ministry of Surface (MemberSecretay) Transport (Roads Wing) 3. SSK. Bhagat Chief Engineer (Civil, New Delhi Municipal Committee 4 P.Rama Chandran Chief Engineer (R&B), Govt of Kerala S. Dr. Raghava Chari Head, Transportation Engineering. Regional Engineering College, Warangal Chief Engineer (Retd), Assam Public Works Department 6 AN. Chaudhuri 7. Dr MP. Dhir Director (Engg, Coordination). Council of Scien- tiffe & Industrial Research, New Delhi 8. NB Desai Ditector, Gujarat Engineering Research Institut. Vadodra 9. LtGen. MS. Gosain Director General Border Roads 10, LK. Duged CChiet Engineer (Mechanical, Ministry of Surface ‘Transport (Roads Wing) 1. DEAK Gupta Professor & Co-ordinator, University of Roorkee 12 DK Gupta (Chief Engineer (HQ) PWD Utar Pradesh, Lucknow 1. DP. Gupta Chief Engineer (Planning), Ministry of Surface ‘Transpor, (Roads Wing) 14. SS. Das Gupta Senior Bitumen Manager, Indian Oil Corporation Lid. Bombay 259, Mandakini Enclave, New Delhi Scientit-SD, Ministry of Environment & Forest, 15. Dr LR. Kadiyali 16. Dr LK. Kamboj New Delhi 1. MK. Khan Engineerin-Chief (B&R), Andhra Pradesh 18 VP. Kaméar Secretary to the Govt of Gujarat, Roads & Buildings Department 19, Ninan Koshi Addl. Director General (Bridges), Ministry of Sur face Transport, (Roads Wing) 20, PK Lauria Chairman-cumManaging Director, Rajasthan State Bridge Constn, Corpa. Ltd, Jaipur 21, SP. Majumdar Director, R&B Research Inst te, West Bengal 22, NY. Merani Principal Secretary, Govt of Maharashtra, PWD. Bombay IRC: 64-1990 GUIDELINES FOR CAPACITY OF ROADS IN RURAL AREAS (First Revision) Published by ‘THE INDIAN ROADS CONGRESS Jamnagar House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi-110011 1990 Price Rs. SesioAl (plus packing & postage)IRC: 64-1990 INC: 64-1990 First Published : March 1976 First Revision : November 1990 CONTENTS Introduction Scope Definitions and Concepts Speed-Flow Relationships Level of Service (LOS) Capacity and Design Service Volume Equivalency Factors Recommended Design Service Volumes for Single Lane Roads 9. Recommended Design Service Volumes for (Rights of Publication and of Translation are reserved) Intermediate Lane Roads u Soe oa ee 10. Recommended Design Service Volumes for Two Lane Roads a 11. Recommended Design Service Volume for Multi-Lane Roads B Printed at Sagar Printers &. Publishers, New Deth-110008 (2000 copies!GUIDELINES FOR CAPACITY OF ROADS IN RURAL AREAS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Capacity analysis is fundamental to the planning, design and operation of roads, and provides, among other things, the basis for determining the carriageway width to be provided at any point in a road network with respect to the volume and com- Position of traffic. Moreover, it is a valuable tool for evaluation of the investments needed for future road construction and improve- ‘ments, and for working out priorities between the competing projects, 1.2. “Tentative Guidelines on Capacity of Roads in Rural Areas” were published by the Indian Roads Congress in 1976 (IRC 64-1976). Since then some basic research on this topic has been car ried out in the country, notably through the Road User Cost Study, in which experiments were conducted to measure free speeds, and speed-flow relationships at a series of sites under typical Indian traffic condition. This has led to a better understanding of the speed and volume characteristics on roads of different pave- ‘ment widths and types under various conditions, 1.3, Based on findings from the above studies, as well as current practices in other countries, it has been possible to revise the Tentative Guidelines published earlier and place them on a ‘more firm footiig. At the same time, itis recognised that asa result of additional data coming through, especially under the Traffic Simulation Studies currently in progress, the capacity standards may need further modification in due course. 1.4. These guidelines were considered by the Traffic Engineering Committee (personnel given below) in their meeting held at New Delhi on the 27th March, 1990. RP. Sika ‘ Convenor MK. Bhalla Member Secretary 1V.K, Arora SK. Sheriff Ps. Bawa SK. Sikdar Dilip Bhattacharya Dr. MS. Srinivasan AG. Borkar HC. Sethi Dr. §, Raghava Chari Surjit Singh Prof. Dinesh Mohan P.G. Valsankar Dr. AK Gupta 8. Vishwanath RG. Gupta Director, HRS, Madras VP. Kamar Director, Transport Research Tene IMOST) (R.C. sharma) a are Deputy Commissioner (Traffic), Delhi speared ‘The President, 1RC SM. Parulkar (WP. Kamdar) ~ Exoffcio, Dri 8. Palaniswamy ae Prof. N. Ranganathan — Beofficio De. AC. Sara ‘The Secretary, IRC D. Sanyal (DP. Gupta) — Exofficio Corresponding Members 7. Ghosh ‘The Executive Director, ASRTU Now Delhi NV. Merani ‘The Chief Engineer (NH) Kerala P.1W.D. Soares IS.Kesvan Nair) ‘These were processed by the Highways Specifications and Standards Committee in their meeting held on 16th April 1990, sub- ject to certain modifications which were subsequently carried out by the Convenor and Member Secretary of the Committee. These guidelines were then approved by the Executive Committee and later by the Council for publication in their meeting held on 20th March and 28th April 1990, respectively. 2 nC: 64-1980 2, SCOPE, 2.1. The guidelines contained in this publication are applic- able to long stretches of rural highways as presently existing in the country. For this the rural highways are considered as all-purpose roads, with no control of access, and with heterogeneous mix of fast and slow-moving vehicles. 2.2. The capacity values recommended further on apply in general to those sections which have neither the restraints of harrow structures nor any deficiencies of visibility or other geometric features like curves. Moreover, the norms indicated are meant to be used only when a nominal amount of animaldrawn vehicles (say upto per cent) is present in the traffic stream during. the peak hour, which is generally the case on rural highways. 2.3. The guidelines are not applicable to the design of inter sections on rural highways. The capacity of these intersections will, have to be determined individually. The guidelines are also not applicable to urban roads and streets. 24. Further, the capacity of access-controlled roads, such as expressways, is outside the purview of these guidelines. 3, DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS 3.1. An understanding of concept of highway capacity is facilitated through a clear definition of certain term: 3.2. Speed is the rete of motion of individual vehicles or of a traffic stream. It is measured in metres per second, or more generally as kilometres per hour. Two types of speed measure- ments are commonly used in traffic flow analysis; viz. (i) Time mean speed and (ii) Space mean speed. For the purpose of these guidelines, the speed measute used is “Space mean speed’ 3.3. Time Mean Speed is the mean speed of vehicles observed at a point on the road over a period of time. It is the mean spot speed. 3.4. Space Mean Speed is the mean speed of vehicles in a trafic stream at any instant of time over a certain length (space) of road. In other words, this is average speed based on the average travel, time of vehicles to traverse a known segment of roadway. It is slightly less in value than the time mean speed. 3Inc: 64-1900 3.5. Volume (or flow) is the number of vehicles that pass through a given point on the road during a designated time interval. Since roads have a certain width and a number of a lanes are accommodated in that width, flow is always expressed in relation tothe given width (i.e. per lane or pertwo lanes etc.). The time unit selected is an hour or a day. ADT is the volume of Average Daily ‘Traffic when measurements are taken for a few days. ADT is the ‘Annual Average Daily Traffic when measurements are taken for 365 days of the year and averaged out. 3.6. Density (or concentration) is the number of vehicles occupying a unit length of road at an instant of time. The unit length is generally one kilometre. Density is expressed in relation to the width of the road (ie. per lane or per two lanes etc.) When. vehicles are in a jammed condition, the density is maximum. It is then termed as the jamming density. 3.7. Capacity is defined as the maximum hourly volume (Vehicles per hour) at which vehicles can reasonably be expected to traverse a point or uniform section of a lane or roadway duringa given time period under the prevailing roadway, traffic and control conditions. 3.8. Design Service Volume is defined as the maximum hourly volume at which vehicles can reasonably be expected to traverse a point or uniform section of a lane or roadway during a given time period under the prevailing roadway, traffic and control conditions while maintaining a designated level of service. 3.9, Peak-Hour Factor is defined as the traffic volume during peak hour expressed as a percentage of the AADT. The peak hour volume in this case is taken as the Thirtieth Hourly Volume (i.e. the volume of traffic which is exceeded only during 30 hours in a year). 4. SPEED-FLOW RELATIONSHIPS 4.1, The idealised relationship between speed, volume and density is expressed in the three basic diagrams given in Fig. 1 which are collectively known as the Fundamental Diagram of Traf- fic Flow. = CAPACITY = VOLUME, Q SPEED.V SPEED,V ° Ki Ki z CONCENTRATION K CONCENTRATION K VOLUME Q Q MAX, CAPACITY Fig. 1. Fundamental dlagram of traffic flow 5IRC: 641900 4.2. It will be seen that the speed-density relationship is a straight line, having maximum speed (free speed) when traffic is low and having zero speed when vehicles are jammed. 4.3. The speed-volume relationship is a parabola, having maximum volume at a value of speed equal to half the free speed. 44. The density-volume relationship is a parabola, having a maximum volume at a value of density equal to half the jamming density 45, The following relationship exists Q -Kv where Q = Volume K =Density, and V = Spee: * 4.6. Maximum volume that can be accommodated on the road (Qmax, or vehicles per unit time) is considered to be the road capacity. From the idealised relationship shown in Fig. 1, it can be seen that the maximum volume occurs at half the free speed and half the jamming density, moaning thereby that : max =x Se XK rs 7 5. LEVEL OF senvice Lo9 5.1, Level of Service is defined as a qualitative measure des- cribing operational conditions within a traffic stream, and their perception by drivers/passengers 5.2. Level of Service definition generally describes these con- ditions in terms of factors such as speed and travel time, freedom. to manoeuvre, traffic interruptions, comfort, convenience and safety. Six levels of service are recognised commonly, designated from Ato F, with Level of Service A representing the best operating condition (i.e. free flow) and level of service F the worst (i.e. forced. or break-down flow), 5.3, Fig. 2. shows the various levels of service in the form of indicative volume-flow conditions. Each of the levels can be generally described as follows 6 SPEED, V (Q MAX. CAPACITY Fig. 2 Speed volume curve showing levels of service Level of Service A Level of Service B Level of Service © Represents a condition of free flow. Individual users are vir tually unaffected by the presence of othors in the traffic stream. Freedom toselect desired speeds and to manoeuvre ‘within the traffic stream is high. The general level of comfort land convenience provided to the road users is excellent. Represents a zone of stable low, with the drivers still having. reasonable freedom to select their desired speed and ‘manoeuvre within the traffic stream. Level of comfort and ‘convenience provided is somewhat less than level of service ‘A, because the presence of other vehicles in the traffic ‘ream begins to affect individval behaviour. Thisalsotsa zone of sable lw, ut mark the beginning torangeof flowin which the operation of india ners becomes sigan elfected by interactions with thers in Sta am Th stton pe aed ence af others and manoetring wit te aie steum equessubana glance onthe pero tt. The geval level of comfort and convenience declines oiesbly at this evel 7IRC: 64.1990 Level of Service D the tit of stable flow, with conditions close to unstable low. Due ohigh dena the Aves are severly restricted In ther freedom to tect desired speed and manoeuvre within the tafe sear The feneral level af comfort and sonvenience ls poor, Small Increases in waffle ow will ually cause operational blems at this level. : pe ae Level of Service E : Represents operating conditions when trafic volumes are ator close tothe capacity level. The speeds are reduced to low, but relatively uniform value, Freedom to manoeuvre the traffic stream Is extremely difficult, and 1s accomplished by forcing vehicle to give way 10 ‘commode sch manewures Comfort hl convenience are extremely poor, and driver frustration is generally high. Operations at this level are usually unstable, because small ‘nereases in flow or minor disturbances within the traffic stream will cause breakdowns. lavel of Servi F: Represents zone forced o breakdown flw-Thiscondion occurs wien the amount of tail approaching pont trceeds the amount which can pass Queues form behind Such location. Operations within the queue ae chara terised by stopand.go waves whith ar extremely unstable Nehicn may progtn ss rasonale spe fr over tundred metes and may then be required tostopinacyele fashion. Due thigh volumes bresk-down ecturs and ong ‘Quewee and delay rut 6. CAPACITY AND DESIGN SERVICE VOLUME, 6.1, From the viewpoint of smooth traffic flow, it isnot advis- able to design the width of road pavement for a trafic volume equal tits capacity which is available at LOS E. At this level. the speeds are low (typically half the free speed) and freedom to manoeuvre within the traffic stream is’ extremely reticted, Besides, at this level, even asmalincreasein volume wouldlesd forced Now situation and breakdowns within the wai tres ren the low conditions a LOS Cand D involve significant vehicle interaction leading to lower level of comfort and convenience, In contrast, Level of Service B represents a stale low zone which affords reasonable freedom to drivers in terms of speed selection and manosuios within the tafe team, Under normale stances, use of LOS Bis considered adequate forthe design ofa highways At this love, volume of trate wil be around 05 mes the maximum capacity and this is taken asthe "design service volume” for the purpose of adopting design values 8 nC: 64-1990 6.2, It is recommended that on major arterial routes LOS B should be adopted for design purposes. On other roads under exceptional circumstances, LOS C could also be adopted for design. Under these conditions, traffic will experience congestion {and inconvenience during some of the peak hours which may be acceptable. This is a planning decision which should be taken in each case specifically after carefully weighing all the related factors. For LOS C, design service volumes can be taken as 40 per cent higher than those for LOS B given in subsequent paragraphs. 6.3. In the context of rural highways, itis usual to adopt daily traffic volumes for design instead of hourly volumes. Therefore, the hourly flows need to be converted to daily values on the basis of observed or anticipated hourly pattern of traffic during the 24 hour day, Currently, the peak hour factor on trunk routes in the country is around 8-10 per cent of the AADT and the capacity figures recommended in the guidelines have been based on this. 6.4, The design service volume that should be considered for design/improvement of a road facility should be the expected volume at the end of the design life. This can be computed by pro- jecting the present volume at an appropriate traffic growth rate. ‘The traffic growth rate should be established after careful study of past trends and potential for future growth of the traffic. 7. EQUIVALENCY FACTORS 7.2. The result of the presence of slow moving vehicles in traffic stream is that it affects the free flow of traffic. A way of accounting for the interaction of various kinds of vehicles is to express the capacity of roads in terms of a common unit, The unit generally ‘employed is the ‘passenger car unit’. Tentative equivalency factors for conversion of different types of vehicles into equivalent passenger car units based on their relative interference value, are given in Table 1. These factors are meant for open sections and should not be applied to road intersections. It needs to be recognised that the conversion factors are subject to variation dependent upon the composition of traffic, road geometrics and travel speeds, The equivalency factors given below are consideredIRC: 641990 representative of the situations normally occurring and can therefore be adopted for general design purposes. ‘TaBLe 1 Recoastono rou FACTORS FoR VAwoUs TYPES OF VesiCuss ON RURAL, RoxDs SNe Vehicle Type Equivalency Factor Fast Vehicles 4, Motor Cycle or scooter 050 2 Passenger Car, Pick-up Van or Auto-ickshaw 1.00 3. Agricultural Tractor, Light Commercial Vehel 130 4 Trek or Bus 3.00 5 Trucktrailer, Agricultural Tractortrailer 450 Slow Vehicles 8 Gete 050 7. Cyeleriekshaw 200 8% Hand care 3.00 9.” Horsesdrawn vehicle ‘$00 10. Bullock Cart® 8.00 * For smaller bullockcarts, a value of 6 will be appropriate 7.2, Inpractice, the equivalency factors will vary according to terrain. However, for purpose of these guidelines, the same equivalency factors as given above can be used for rolling/hilly sec- tions since the effect of terrain has been accounted for in a con- solidated manner in the Design Service Volumes recommended subsequently in Tables 2, 3 and 4 for different widths of road, 8. RECOMMENDED DESIGN SERVICE VOLUMES FOR SINGLE LANE ROADS 5.1. Single-lane bi-directional roads are of common occurrence in low volume corridors. For safe and smooth operation of traffic, a single lane road should have at least 3.75 metre wide paved car- riageway with good quality shoulders such as moorum shoulders of minimum 1.0 metre width on either side. 8.2. The recommended design service volumes of single — lane roads are given in Table 2 10 IRC: 64-1900 Tams 2. RECOMMENDED Desien SeRVICE VOLUMES FoR SINGLE LANE ROADS SNo. Terrain Curvature (Degrees Suggested Design Service Volume in PCU/day e Plain 2000 1900 2 polling Low 1800 (0-100) . _ High 1700 (above 101) 3 aly Low 1600 (0-200) igh 1400 [above 201) 83. The above values are applicable for black topped pavements. When the pavement is not black-topped, the design service volume will be lower by about 20-30 per cent. 8.4. In locations where only low quality shoulders are avail- able (such as earthen shoulders made of plastic soil), the design service volumes should be taken as 50 per cent of the values given in Table 2. 9. RECOMMENDED DESIGN SERVICE VOLUMES FOR INTERMEDIATE LANE ROADS 9.1, Intermediate lane roads are those which have a pave- ment width of around 5.5 m with good usable shoulders on either side. The recommended design service volumes for these roads are given in Table 3. 10, RECOMMENDED DESIGN SERVICE VOLUMES FOR TWO LANE ROADS 10.1. Recommended design service volumes for two lane roads are given in Table 4. 10.2. The values recommended above are based on the assumptions that the road has a7 m wide carriageway and good "INC: 64-1990 “Tuas 3, RecounenoeD Deion Senvck YOR BeERMEOHATE LANE ROADS SN. Terrain Curvature (Degrees Design Service IRC: 641990 earthen shoulders are available. The capacity figures relate to peak hour traffic in the range of 8-10 per cent and LOS B. 10.3. The capacity of two lane roads can be increased by pro- viding paved and surfaced shoulders of at least 1.5 metre width on either side. Provision of hard shoulders results in slow moving traf- fic being able to travel on the shoulder which reduces the inter ference to fast traffic on the main carriageway. Under these circumstances, 15 per cent increase in capacity can be expected vis-a-vis the values given in Table 4: 10.4. Where shoulder width or carriageway width on a two lane road are restricted, there will be a certain reduction in capacity. ‘Table 5 gives the recommended reduction factors on this account over the capacity values given in Table 4. “Taaue 5. Caracny RepucrioN Factors Suacesren rom SUBSTANDARD LANE AND SHOULDER WoT ON TWO-LANE ROAD per Kilometre! Volume in PCU/day Plain Low 6,000 (@-50) High 5.800 (above st) 2 polling — tow 5700 (0-100) High 5,600 (above 101) 3 Hilly Low 5200 (0200) High 4,500 (above 201) ‘Tames 4, Recountenoen Desicn Seavice VOLUMES ¥0R TWO LANE ROADS. SN, Terrain Curvature (Degrees Design Service per Kilometre) Volume in PCU/éay 1 Plain Low 15,000 (50) High, 12,500 labove st) 2 felling — tow 21,000 (0100) High 10,000 {above 101) 3 Hilly Low 77000 10-200) High 5000 (above 201) 12 Usable 350m 3.25 m 3.00 m shoulder width im) lane Jane lane pas 100 092 ost az 092 os, oz 06 ost 075 088, ° 070 ost 058 + Usable shoulder width refers to wellmaintained earth/moorum/gravel shoulder which can safely permit occasional passage of vehicles. 11, RECOMMENDED DESIGN SERVICE VOLUME FOR ‘MULTL-LANE ROADS. 11.1. Sufficient information about the capacity of multi-lane roads under mixed traffic conditions is not yet available. Capacity on dual carriageway roads can also be affected by factors like kerb shyness on the median side vehicle parking etc. Tentatively, a value of 35,000 PCUs can be adopted for four-lane divided car riageways located in plain terrain. It is assumed for this purpose that reasonable good earthen shoulders exist on the outer side, and a minimum 3.0 m wide central verge exists. 11.2, Provision of hard shoulders on dual carriageways can further increase the capacity as explained in para 10.3. In case well Brc -6e3000 designed paved shoulders of 1.5 metre width are provided, the capacity value of fourlane dual roads can be taken up to 40,000 PCUs. 11.8. The capacity values mentioned above relate to LOS B. (On dual carriageways it will normally not be desirable to adopt LOS C. 14 2». 3h 2, 3. 38 3, x. 4 4s TK Natarajan GS. Palnitar MM. Pat YR Phull GP. Ralegaonkar G. Raman, A. Sankaran, Dr. AC. Serna RK Saxena N.Sen MN. Singh Prof. CG. Swaminathan MM. Swaroop ‘The Chief Engineer IRC: 641990 Director (Retd), CRI Engineerin-Chief. MP. P.W.D. Engineerin-ChieF-cum-Secretary to the Govt. of Orissa Deputy Director & Head, CRRI, New Dei Director & Chief Engincer, Maharashtra Engineer- ing Research Institute, Nasik Director (Civil Engineering), Bureau of Indian Standards Block No. 1/72, $1, Shangirla, OCH, Colony. 22nd Cross, Besant Nagar, Madras General Manager (T&T) RITES, New Delhi Chief Engineer, (Roads), Ministry of Surface ‘Transport (Roads Wing) (Chief Engineer Retd),12-A, Chitranjan Park, New Delhi ‘General Manager (Technical), Indian Road Con- struction Corporation Lid., New Delhi 50, Thiruvankadam Street RA. Puram, Secretary tothe Govt of Rajasthan, PWD. Jaipur ‘Concrete Association of India. Bombay ‘The Chief Project Manager Rail India Technical & Economie Services Lid. (Roads) ‘The Director New Delhi Highways Research Station, Madras ‘The Engincer-in-Chief Haryana, PLW.D, B&R. Chandigarh The Secretary MB Jayawant Indian Roads Congress(V.P. Kamdat), Secretary to the Gove of Gujarat, = Eeoffcio The Director General _ (Road Development) & Add. Secretary tothe Govt, of India (KK. Sarin) = Exoffcio Indian RoadsCongress(DP. Gupta) —Exfficio Corresponding Members ‘Synthetic Asphalt 103, Pooja Mahut Rosd. Chem: ‘bur. Bombay (©. Muthachen AT. Patel Tolicode P.O, Punalur691333 Chairman & Managing Disector. Appollo Earth Movers Pvt Lid, Ahmedabad