TRANSPORTATION AS A SYSTEM:

FACTORS AFFECTING
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
HUMAN FACTOR
Road users are drivers, passengers, pedestrians, etc. who use
the streets and highways. Together, they form the most
complex element of the traffic system.

It is said to be the most complex factor as human

performance varies from individual to individual.

Thus, the transportation engineer should deal with a variety

of road user characteristics.
 VARIABILITY
The most complex problem while dealing with human
characteristics is its variability.
Human characteristics like the ability To react to a
situation, vision and hearing, and other physical and
psychological factors vary from person to person and
depend on age, fatigue, nature of stimuli, presence of
drugs/alcohol, etc. The influence of all these factors and the
corresponding variability cannot be accounted for when a
facility is designed.
The 85th percentile value of different characteristics is
taken as a standard. It represents a characteristic that 85
per percent of the population can meet or exceed.
REACTION TIME
The road user is subjected to a series of expected and
unexpected stimuli. The time taken to act according to the
stimulus involves a series of stages:

Perception: is the process of perceiving the sensations

received through the sense organs, nerves, and brains. It is the
recognition that a stimulus on which a reaction is to happen
exists.
Intellection: involves the identification and understanding of
stimuli.
Emotion: This stage involves the judgment of the appropriate
response to be made on the stimuli like to stop, pass, move
laterally, etc.
Volition: Volition is the execution of the decision which is the
result of the physical actions of the driver.
Transportation planning and design will not be complete if the discussion is
limited to drivers and vehicular passengers. The most prevalent road users
are the “pedestrian”.

Pedestrian traffic along footpaths, sidewalks, crosswalks, safety zones,

islands, and over and underpasses should be considered. On average, the
pedestrian walking speed can be taken between 1.5 m/sec to 2 m/sec.

WALKING
VEHICLE FACTOR
IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE VEHICLE CHARACTERISTICS
BECAUSE WE CAN DESIGN ROAD FOR ANY VEHICLE BUT NOT FOR AN
INDEFINITE ONE. THE ROAD SHOULD BE SUCH THAT IT SHOULD CATER TO
THE NEEDS OF EXISTING AND ANTICIPATED VEHICLES
DESIGN VEHICLES
Highways are designed to fit different vehicle sizes, from small cars to big
trucks. To keep things safe and efficient, authorities set limits on vehicle
sizes based on road features like lane width, turning curves, and clearance
heights. These limits ensure vehicles can safely use the road without
causing accidents or damage.

to provide practical limits for road designers to work to,

to see that the road space and geometry is available to

normal vehicles,
to implement traffic control effectively and efficiently,
take care of other road users also.
 VEHICLE
DIMENSIONS
The vehicular dimensions that can affect the road and traffic design are mainly: width, height,
length, rear overhang, and ground clearance. The width of the vehicle affects the width of lanes,
shoulders, and parking facilities. The capacity of the road will also decrease if the width exceeds
the design values. The height of the vehicle affects the clearance height of structures like over-
bridges, under-bridges, electric and other service lines, and also the placing of signs and signals.
Another important factor is the length of the vehicle which affects the extra width of pavement,
minimum turning radius, safe overtaking distance, capacity, and the parking facility. The rear
overhang control is mainly important when the vehicle takes a right/left turn from a stationary
point. The ground clearance of a vehicle comes into the picture while designing ramps and
property access and bottoming out on a crest can stop a vehicle from moving under its pulling
power.
WEIGHT OF THE VEHICLE
The weight of the vehicle is a major consideration during the
design of pavements both flexible and rigid.

The power to weight ratio is a measure of the ease with

which a vehicle can move. It determines the operating
efficiency of vehicles on the road. The ratio is more
important for heavy vehicles.
 VISIBLITY
The visibility of the driver is influenced by the vehicular
dimensions. As far as forward visibility is concerned, the
dimension of the vehicle and the slope and curvature of wind
screens, windscreen wipers, door pillars, etc should be such
that:

• visibility is clear even in bad weather conditions like fog,

ice, and rain;

• it should not mask the pedestrians, cyclists or other

vehicles;

• during intersection maneuvers

ACCELERATION/SPEED
The acceleration capacity of vehicle is dependent on its mass,
the resistance to motion and available power. In general, the
acceleration rates are highest at low speeds, decreases as
speed increases.

Heavier vehicles have lower rates of acceleration than

passenger cars. The difference in acceleration rates becomes
significant in mixed traffic streams.

For example, heavy vehicles like trucks will delay all

passengers at an intersection. Again, the gaps formed can be
occupied by other smaller vehicles only if they are given the
opportunity to pass.
As far as highway safety is concerned, the braking performance and
deceleration characteristics of vehicles are of prime importance.

Safe stopping sight distance: The minimum stopping sight distance

includes both the reaction time and the distance covered in stopping. Thus,
the driver should see the obstruction in time to react to the situation and
stop the vehicle.

Clearance and change interval: The Clearance and change intervals are
again related to safe stopping distance. All vehicles at a distance further
away than one stopping sight distance from the signal when the Yellow is
flashed is assumed to be able to stop safely.

BRAKING PERFORMANCE
ROAD FACTOR
The type of pavement is determined by the volume and
composition of traffic, the availability of materials, and
available funds. Some of the factors relating to road surface like
road roughness, tire wear, tractive resistance, noise, light
reflection, electrostatic properties etc. should be given special
attention in the design, construction and maintenance of
highways for their safe and economical operation.
LIGHTING
Illumination is used to illuminate the physical features of the
road way and to aid in the driving task. A luminaire is a
complete lighting device that distributes light into patterns
much as a garden hose nozzle distributes water. Proper
distribution of the light flux from luminaires is one of the
essential factors in efficient roadway lighting. It is important
that roadway lighting be planned on the basis of many traffic
information such as night vehicular traffic, pedestrian volumes
and accident experience.

ROUGHNESS
This is one of the main factors that an engineer should give
importance during the design, construction, and maintenance
of a highway system. Drivers tend to seek smoother surface
when given a choice. On four-lane highways where the texture
of the surface of the inner-lane is rougher than that of the
outside lane, passing vehicles tend to return to the outside
lane after execution of the passing maneuver. Shoulders or
even speedchange lanes may be deliberately roughened as a
means of delineation.
PAVEMENT COLORS
When the pavements are light colored(for example, cement
concrete pavements) there is better visibility during day time
whereas during night dark colored pavements like bituminous
pavements provide more visibility. Contrasting pavements may be
used to indicate preferential use of traffic lanes. A driver tends to
follow the same pavement color having driven some distance on a
light or dark surface, he expects to remain on a surface of that
same color until he arrives a major junction point.

NIGHT VISIBILITY
Since most accidents occur at night because of reduced visibility,
the traffic designer must strive to improve nighttime visibility in
every way he can. An important factor is the amount of light
which is reflected by the road surface to the drivers’ eyes. Glare
caused by the reflection of oncoming vehicles is negligible on a
dry pavement but is an important factor when the pavement is we

GEOMETRIC ASPECTS
The roadway elements such as pavement slope, gradient, right of way etc affect
transportation in various ways. Central portion of the pavement is slightly raised and is
sloped to either sides so as to prevent the ponding of water on the road surface. This
will deteriorate the riding quality since the pavement will be subjected to many failures
like potholes etc. Minimum lane width should be provided to reduce the chances of
accidents. Also the speed of the vehicles will be reduced and time consumed to reach
the destination will also be more.
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