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Fundamentals of Traffic Flow

This document discusses fundamental principles of traffic flow, including definitions of key terms like volume, flow, density, and speed. It describes two common mathematical models for relating these elements: Greenshield's linear model and Greenberg's logarithmic model. An example applies Greenshield's model to data from a rural highway to determine values like free flow speed, jam density, capacity, and density/speed at maximum flow.

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Gamal Abdelwahid
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39 views11 pages

Fundamentals of Traffic Flow

This document discusses fundamental principles of traffic flow, including definitions of key terms like volume, flow, density, and speed. It describes two common mathematical models for relating these elements: Greenshield's linear model and Greenberg's logarithmic model. An example applies Greenshield's model to data from a rural highway to determine values like free flow speed, jam density, capacity, and density/speed at maximum flow.

Uploaded by

Gamal Abdelwahid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Traffic Engineering

Prof. Dr. Ahmed El-Desouky


Fundamental Principles of Traffic Flow
GENERAL
• Traffic flow theory involves the development of mathematical relationships
among the primary elements of traffic stream (flow, density, and speed)
• These relationships are helpful in planning, design, and simulation
• Examples of applications include adequate lane lengths of left-turn vehicles,
average delay at intersection, pollution and gas consumption, …
TRAFFIC FLOW ELEMENTS

• Volume (V): the total number of vehicles that pass a point on a highway or a
lane during a given time interval (veh/h, veh/d, …)
• Flow (q): the equivalent hourly rate at which vehicles pass a point on a
highway/lane during a time period less than 1 hr (veh/h)

V = 100 + 200 + 150 + 300 = 750 veh/h


q = 300 * 4 = 1200 veh/h
• Density (k): the number of vehicles traveling over a unit length of highway at
an instant in time (veh/km)

• Speed (u): the distance traveled by vehicles during unit of time (km/h), and is
defined as:

− Time-mean speed: arithmetic mean of speeds of all vehicles passing a point


during specified time interval

ut =
 u i

n
− Space-mean speed: arithmetic mean of speeds of all vehicles occupying a
n
relatively long section of the road at a given instant us =
1
u
i

• Time headway (h): 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
• Space headway (d): the distance between front of a vehicle and the front of
the following vehicle

q=1/h
k=1/d
FLOW-DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS

• The general equation relating flow, density, and space mean speed is:
Flow = density * space-mean speed
q = k * us

Fundamental Diagram of Flow

• When k = 0, q = 0
• As k increases, q increases to
a max value qmax
• As k increases beyond k0
(critical density), q decreases
• At maximum k = kj (jam
density), q = 0 as cars would
line up
Mathematical Relationship Describing Traffic Flow

• Two categories of mathematical relationships describing traffic flow:


− Macroscopic: considers traffic streams and develops algorithms that relate the
flow to density and space mean speed
− Microscopic: considers spacing between and speeds of individual vehicles
• We will focus on the two most commonly used macroscopic models
Greenshield’s Model

• Assumption: a linear relationship between speed and density

u= a + b k
at k = 0 → u = uf → a = uf
at k = kj → u = 0 → b = - uf /kj
uf 
u = u f −  k (1)
 kj 
 
q=u*k (2) For qmax:
dq uf
uf  2 =0=uf −2 k
q = u f k −  k dk kj
 kj 
 
 k0 = kj /2
where:
Substituting in (1)  u0 = uf /2
uf = free-flow speed
Substituting in (2)  qmax = u0 k0 = uf kj /4
kj = jam density
Greenberg’s Model

• Based on fluid flow analogy


• Relation between u and k is logarithmic
• Greenberg model is undefined at low densities
u = c ln (kj /k)
q=u*k
q = c k ln (kj /k)
dq kj
For qmax: = 0 = c ln −c
dk k0

ln (kj /k0) = 1


u0 = c
u = u0 ln (kj /k)
q = u0 k ln (kj /k)
qmax = u0 k0
Example:
The data shown below were obtained from a rural highway. Fit these data to the
Greenshield’s model and determine:
- Mean free speed - Jam density
- Capacity - Speed at maximum flow
- Density at maximum flow

Speed (km/h) 22.8 38.8 48.8 64.5 81.4 88.5


Density
137 113 88 66 32 24
Solution: (v/km)
- Plot the data and fit linearly
- uf = 100 km/hr - kj = 180 veh/km
- u0 = uf /2 = 50 km/hr - k0 = kj /2 = 90 veh/km
- qmax = uf kj /4 = 4500 vph

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