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Chapter 03-Traffic Flow Theory

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22 views29 pages

Chapter 03-Traffic Flow Theory

Uploaded by

nyakiveridiana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Traffic Flow

Theory
What is traffic flow theory?

Traffic flow theory involves


the development of
mathematical relationships
among the primary
elements of a traffic stream
Uses of Traffic Flow Theory
 To determine adequate lane
lengths
 To determine average delay at
intersections and freeway ramp
merging areas
 Operational and capacity
analysis of facilities
 Simulation
Time Space Diagram
Is a graph that describes the
relationship between
the location of vehicles in a
traffic stream and the
time as the vehicles
progress along the highway
What are the elements of
traffic flow?
Flow (or volume)
Density
Speed
Time mean speed
Space mean speed
Time headway
Space headway
Flow
The number of
vehicles passing a
point per unit of
time
Density
Density is the number of
vehicles traveling over a unit
length of highway at an instant
in time. The unit length is
usually 1 mile. Density is
sometimes referred to as
concentration
Density Example
Four vehicles are distributed over a
length of a freeway lane 500 ft long.
What is the density?
4
k x 5280  42 veh/mile / lane
500
Speed
Speed is the distance traveled
by a vehicle during a unit time.
The speed of a vehicle at any
time t is the slope of the time-
space diagram for that vehicle
at time t.
Time Mean Speed
Time mean speed is the arithmetic mean of
the speeds of vehicles passing a point on a
highway during an interval of time. Thus,
time mean speed is the average of spot
speeds.
Example
The spot speeds of four vehicles were observed as
30, 40, 50, and 60 mph. Compute the time mean
speed.
1 n 30  40  50  60
ut  ui   45 mph
n i 1 4
Space Mean Speed
Space mean speed is defined as
the average speed of all vehicles
occupying a given section of a
highway over some specified time
period.
n n = number of vehicles
us  n
ti = the time it takes the ith vehicle
(1 / u ) i
to travel across section of a
i 1
nL highway
us  n
ui = individual vehicle speed
t i
L = length of section of highway
i 1
Differences between time mean speed
and space mean speed
a. Time mean speed is a point
measure, while space mean speed
is a measure relating to a length of
highway or lane.
b. Mathematically, the space mean
speed is a harmonic mean, while
the time mean speed is a straight
forward average of individual
vehicle speeds.
Differences between time mean speed and
space mean speed
c. Time mean speed is generally higher
than space mean speed with the
difference decreasing as absolute
values of speeds increase.
d. Some researchers relate time mean
speed and space mean speed from field
data as follows:
 2
ut  u s 
us
ut  0.966us  3.541
Example:
The spot speeds of four vehicles were
observed to be 30, 40, 50, and 60
mph. Compute the space mean
speed.
n 4
us  n
 1 1 1 1  42.1 mph
  
 (1 / ui ) 30 40 50 60
i 1
Time headway
Time headway is the difference
between the time the front of a
vehicle arrives at a point on the
highway and the time the front
of the next vehicle arrives at the
same point.
Space Headway
Space headway is the
distance between the
front of a vehicle and
the front of the following
vehicle.
Fundamental Relationship

Flow = Density x Space mean speed

q  k .u s
Relationship Between Microscopic
and Macroscopic Traffic Flow
The mean time headway can be
calculated from:
3600
h
V
The mean space headway can be
calculated from:
5280
d
k
Fundamental Diagram of Traffic Flow
We can postulate that:
• When density (k) is approximately
zero, the speed (u) is maximum.
Maximum speed is know as free flow
speed, uf
• When density is zero, flow is also zero
• As the density increases, the flow also
increases
• When density reaches maximum, flow
must be zero. Maximum density is
referred to as jam density, kj
Fundamental Diagram of Traffic Flow
Greenshields Model
Given that q  u s .k , it follows that

2 uf
u s  u f .u s  q
kj
uf 2
q  u f .k  k
kj
Greenshields Model
Per Greenshields Model, maximum flow
uf kj
occurs when u  2 and k  2 and is given
by
k j .u f
qmax 
4
Greenberg Model
Greenberg uses a fluid-flow analogy to
describe traffic flow in which a traffic
stream is treated as one-dimensional
compressible fluid
kj
u s  c ln
k
Multiply by k
kj
u s .k  q  ck ln
k
Differentiate with respect to k
dq kj
 c ln  c
dk k
For maximum flow,
dq kj
 0 therefore ln  1
dk k
Substituting 1 for ln(kj/k), we get
uo  c
Thus, the value of c is the speed at maximum flow

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