Highway Capacity Analysis After Highway Capacity Manual 2000

Author(s):  
Wayne K. Kittelson ◽  
Roger P. Roess
2000 ◽  
Vol 1710 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuewen Le ◽  
Jian Lu ◽  
Edward A. Mierzejewski ◽  
Yanhu Zhou

The capacity analysis procedure for signalized intersections included in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) needs to consider the area type of a given intersection. The area-type adjustment factor used in the procedure is based on conclusions from a limited number of studies. In addition, the procedure for using an area-type adjustment factor is not well defined in the HCM. A study undertaken in central Florida to study the effects of four different area types on the capacity of signalized intersections is summarized. These four area types include recreational, business, residential, and shopping. Study results indicated that differences in saturation headways among different area types were significant. The saturation headways observed in recreational areas were significantly higher than those in other areas for both left-turn and through movements. The through-movement saturation headways obtained in residential, shopping, and business areas were not significantly different. This study resulted in a new area-type adjustment factor of 0.92 for recreational areas, whereas the factor is 1.00 for other areas. Results in this study also indicated that the differences in start-up lost time among different area types were not significantly different. In addition, according to the results of the analysis, 75 percent of the yellow interval in undersaturated conditions and 35 percent of the yellow interval in oversaturated conditions were found to be unused and considered clearance lost time.


1997 ◽  
Vol 1572 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghassan Abu-Lebdeh ◽  
Rahim F. Benekohal ◽  
Bashar Al-Omari

Models to estimate right-turn-on-red (RTOR) volumes at intersections with exclusive right-turn (RT) lanes are developed, and the effects of RTOR volumes on computed delay are assessed. The important variables in these models are the RT volume, followed by green-time-to-cycle (G/C) ratio, volume of conflicting traffic, and whether there is a protected phase for opposing left-turning vehicles. The estimated RTOR increased as the RTs increased. However, it decreased as G/C and the volume of conflicting traffic increased. Results show that not accounting for RTOR volumes can lead to a significant difference in delay estimates for RT lanes and, to a lesser extent, on the corresponding approaches. For RT lanes, in one-half of the cases the difference was greater than 5 percent, in more than one-quarter of the cases the difference was greater than 10 percent, and in at least one of eight cases the difference was greater than 20 percent. Differences for individual cases ranged between 0 and 130 percent, with an average of 12 percent. For approaches, the average delay difference was 4 percent, and for individual cases the difference ranged between −2 and 78 percent. As recommended by the Highway Capacity Manual, actual field counts of RTOR volume should be used whenever available. However, in the absence of such counts, the models developed here can be used and hence should be considered in capacity analysis procedures.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doddapaneni Abhigna ◽  
Dipak P. Brahmankar ◽  
Kodavanti Venkata Raghavendra Ravishankar

Intersections are the critical zones where conflicting, merging and diverging movements influence the intersection capacity. Uncontrolled intersections in particular pose dangerous situations to vehicular traffic. During peak vehicular flow, the unpredictable crossing behavior of minor stream vehicles induces delay and reduces the capacity of the intersection. Capacity at uncontrolled intersections is typically measured either by gap acceptance method, empirical regression approaches and conflict technique. Gap acceptance is an important characteristic for analyzing uncontrolled intersections. The behavior of different vehicle types and gap of subject vehicle type from minor street taking right turn to merge with major traffic stream is analyzed using gap acceptance method. The objective of the current study is to analyze the effect of major stream vehicle type combinations on the minor stream vehicle gap-acceptance behavior and to determine the capacity of the minor stream taking into account the influence of the right turning vehicles. The capacity of minor stream calculated using Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010, Luttenin’s model, and Tanner’s model are compared. It is observed that two wheelers are more aggressive than three wheelers for most of the major stream vehicular combinations observed in this study.


Author(s):  
Zihang Wei ◽  
Yunlong Zhang ◽  
Xiaoyu Guo ◽  
Xin Zhang

Through movement capacity is an essential factor used to reflect intersection performance, especially for signalized intersections, where a large proportion of vehicle demand is making through movements. Generally, left-turn spillback is considered a key contributor to affect through movement capacity, and blockage to the left-turn bay is known to decrease left-turn capacity. Previous studies have focused primarily on estimating the through movement capacity under a lagging protected only left-turn (lagging POLT) signal setting, as a left-turn spillback is more likely to happen under such a condition. However, previous studies contained assumptions (e.g., omit spillback), or were dedicated to one specific signal setting. Therefore, in this study, through movement capacity models based on probabilistic modeling of spillback and blockage scenarios are established under four different signal settings (i.e., leading protected only left-turn [leading POLT], lagging left-turn, protected plus permitted left-turn, and permitted plus protected left-turn). Through microscopic simulations, the proposed models are validated, and compared with existing capacity models and the one in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The results of the comparisons demonstrate that the proposed models achieved significant advantages over all the other models and obtained high accuracies in all signal settings. Each proposed model for a given signal setting maintains consistent accuracy across various left-turn bay lengths. The proposed models of this study have the potential to serve as useful tools, for practicing transportation engineers, when determining the appropriate length of a left-turn bay with the consideration of spillback and blockage, and the adequate cycle length with a given bay length.


Author(s):  
Suhaib Al Shayeb ◽  
Nemanja Dobrota ◽  
Aleksandar Stevanovic ◽  
Nikola Mitrovic

Traffic simulation and optimization tools are classified, according to their practical applicability, into two main categories: theoretical and practical. The performance of the optimized signal timing derived by any tool is influenced by how calculations are executed in the particular tool. Highway Capacity Software (HCS) and Vistro implement the procedures defined in the Highway Capacity Manual, thus they are essentially utilized by traffic operations and design engineers. Considering its capability of timing diagram drafting and travel time collection studies, Tru-Traffic is more commonly used by practitioners. All these programs have different built-in objective function(s) to develop optimized signal plans for intersections. In this study, the performance of the optimal signal timing plans developed by HCS, Tru-Traffic, and Vistro are evaluated and compared by using the microsimulation software Vissim. A real-world urban arterial with 20 intersections and heavy traffic in Fort Lauderdale, Florida served as the testbed. To eliminate any bias in the comparisons, all experiments were performed under identical geometric and traffic conditions, coded in each tool. The evaluation of the optimized plans was conducted based on average delay, number of stops, performance index, travel time, and percentage of arrivals on green. Results indicated that although timings developed in HCS reduced delay, they drastically increased number of stops. Tru-Traffic signal timings, when only offsets are optimized, performed better than timings developed by all of the other tools. Finally, Vistro increased arrivals on green, but it also increased delay. Optimized signal plans were transferred manually from optimization tools to Vissim. Therefore, future research should find methods for automatically transferring optimized plans to Vissim.


Author(s):  
Aidin Massahi ◽  
Mohammed Hadi ◽  
Maria Adriana Cutillo ◽  
Yan Xiao

The effect of incidents on capacity is the most critical parameter in estimating the influence of incidents on network performance. The Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (HCM 2010) provides estimates of the drop in capacity resulting from incidents as a function of the number of blocked lanes and the total number of lanes in the freeway section. However, there is limited information on the effects of incidents on the capacity of urban streets. This study investigated the effects on capacity of the interaction between the drop in capacity below demand at a midblock urban street segment location and upstream and downstream of signalized intersection operations. A model was developed to estimate the drop in capacity at the incident location as a function of the number of blocked lanes, the distance from the downstream intersection, and the green time–to–cycle length (g:C) ratio of the downstream signal. A second model was developed to estimate the reduction in the upstream intersection capacity resulting from the drop in capacity at the midblock incident location as estimated by the first model. The second model estimated the drop in capacity of the upstream links feeding the incident locations as a function of incident duration time, the volume-to-capacity (V/C) ratio at the incident location, and distance from an upstream signalized intersection. The models were developed on the basis of data generated with the use of a microscopic simulation model calibrated by comparison with parameters suggested in HCM 2010 for incident and no-incident conditions and by comparison with field measurements.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Othman Che Puan ◽  
Muttaka Na’iya Ibrahim ◽  
Usman Tasiu Abdurrahman

There exists a need to evaluate the performance indicator that reflects the current level of service (LOS) of the subject facility to justify any decision making on expenditures to be made for improving the performance level of a road facility. Free-flow speed (FFS) is one of the key parameters associated with LOS assessment for two-lane highways. Application of a more realistic approach for assessing road’s performance indicators would result in better estimates which could in turn suggest the most appropriate decision to be made (for situations where upgrading is needed); especially, in terms of finance, materials and human resources. FFS is the driver’s desired speed at low traffic volume condition and in the absence of traffic control devices. Its estimation is significant in the analysis of two-lane highways through which average travel speed (ATS); an LOS indicator for the subject road class is determined. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010 offers an indirect method for field estimation of FSS based on the highway operating conditions in terms of base-free-flow-speed (BFFS). It is however, recommended by the same manual that direct field FSS measurement approach is most preferred. The Malaysian Highway Capacity Manual (MHCM) established a model for estimating FFS based on BFFS, the geometric features of the highway and proportion of motorcycles in the traffic stream. Estimating FFS based on BFFS is regarded as an indirect approach which is only resorted to, if direct field measurement proved difficult or not feasible. This paper presents the application of moving car observer (MCO) method for direct field measurement of FFS. Data for the study were collected on six segments of two-lane highways with varying geometric features. FFS estimates from MCO method were compared with those based on MHCM model. Findings from the study revealed that FFS values from MCO method seem to be consistently lower than those based on MHCM model. To ascertain the extent of the difference between the FFS values from the two approaches, student t-statistics was used. The t-statistics revealed a P–value of less than 0.05 (P < 0.05) which implies that there is a statistically significant difference between the two sets of data. Since MCO method was conducted under low traffic flow (most desired condition for field observation), it can be suggested that MCO estimates of FFS represent the actual scenario. A relationship was therefore developed between the estimates from the two methods. Thus, if the MHCM model is to be applied, the measured value needs to be adjusted based on the relationship developed between the two approaches.


2000 ◽  
Vol 1710 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred L. Hall ◽  
Loren Bloomberg ◽  
Nagui M. Rouphail ◽  
Brian Eads ◽  
Adolf D. May

Some researchers have noted that the current procedures in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) may not be appropriate for analyzing complex or oversaturated freeway facilities. The results of a comparison of an HCM-based procedure with field data from six such freeway sites are reported. Because simulation has often been suggested as an alternative to the HCM for oversaturated freeway facilities, three simulation models (CORSIM, FREQ, and INTEGRATION) were also used to analyze these same six sites. The results suggest that the HCM-based procedures do as well as the three simulation models in reproducing the average speeds across the freeway facilities.


2002 ◽  
Vol 1802 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Tapio Luttinen

The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2000 provides methods to estimate performance measures and the level of service for different types of traffic facilities. Because neither the input data nor the model parameters are totally accurate, there is an element of uncertainty in the results. An analytical method was used to estimate the uncertainty in the service measures of two-lane highways. The input data and the model parameters were considered as random variables. The propagation of error through the arithmetic operations in the HCM 2000 methodology was estimated. Finally, the uncertainty in the average travel speed and percent time spent following was analyzed, and four approaches were considered to deal with uncertainty in the level of service.


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