UNIT-1 TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

1. SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE

Traffic engineering covers a broad range of engineering applications with a focus on the safety of the
public, the efficient use of transportation resources, and the mobility of people and goods.

Traffic engineering involves a variety of engineering and management skills, including design,
operation, and system optimization. In order to address the above requirement, the traffic engineer
must first understand the traffic flow behaviour and characteristics by extensive collection of traffic
flow data and analysis. Based on this analysis, traffic flow is controlled so that the transport
infrastructure is used optimally as well as with good service quality.

In short, the role of traffic engineer is to protect the environment while providing mobility, to
preserve scarce resources while assuring economic activity, and to assure safety and security to
people and vehicles, through both acceptable practices and high-tech communications.

1.1 Other important disciplines

In addition to the four major disciplines of transportation, there are several other important
disciplines that are being evolved in the past few decades. Although it is difficult to categorize
them into separate well defined disciplines because of the significant overlap, it may be worth
the effort to highlight the importance given by the transportation community. They can be
enumerated as below:
1. Public transportation: Public transportation or mass transportation deals with study of the
transportation system that meets the travel need of several people by sharing a vehicle.
Generally this focuses on the urban travel by bus and rail transit. The major topics include
characteristics of various modes; planning, management and operations; and policies for
promoting public transportation.
2. Financial and economic analysis: Transportation facilities require large capital investments.
Therefore it is imperative that whoever invests money should get the returns. When
government invests in transportation, its objective is not often monetary returns; but social
benefits. The economic analysis of transportation project tries to quantify the economic
benefit which includes saving in travel time, fuel consumption, etc. This will help the
planner in evaluating various projects and to optimally allocate funds. On the contrary,
private sector investments require monetary projects from the projects. Financial
evaluation tries to quantify the return from a project.
3. Environmental impact assessment: The depletion of fossil fuels and the degradation of the
environment has been a severe concern of the planners in the past few decades.
Transportation; in spite of its benefits to the society is a major contributor to the above
concern. The environmental impact assessment attempts in quantifying the environmental
impacts and tries to evolve strategies for the mitigation and reduction of the impact due to
both construction and operation. The primary impacts are fuel consumption, air pollution,
and noise pollution.
4. Accident analysis and reduction: One of the silent killers of humanity is transportation.
Several statistics evaluates that more people are killed due to transportation than great
wars and natural disasters. This discipline of transportation looks at the causes of accidents,
from the perspective of human, road, and vehicle and formulate plans for the reduction.
 5. Intelligent transport system: With advent to computers, communication, and vehicle
technology, it is possible in these days to operate transportation system much effectively
with significant reduction in the adverse impacts of transportation. Intelligent
transportation system orders better mobility, efficiency, and safety with the help of the
state-of-the-art-technology. The study of traffic engineering may be divided into six major
sections:
1. Traffic characteristics
2. Traffic surveys and analysis
3. Traffic operation control and regulations
4. Planning and analysis
5. Geometric design
5E’S OF TRAFFIC ENGINNERING:
1. Engineering
2. Enforcement
3. Education
4. Economics
5. Environmental

2. VECHICLE CHARACTERISTICS

The various vehicular characteristics affecting road the road design may be classified into two types.
1. Static characteristics

2. Dynamic characteristics

2.1 Static characteristics

Static characteristics of vehicle include the vehicle dimensions, weight, axle configuration, turning
radius and turning path.

2.1.1Vehicle Dimensions

The vehicular dimensions which can affect the road and traffic design are mainly: width, height,
length, rear overhang, and ground clearance. The width of vehicle affects the width of lanes,
shoulders and parking facility.

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 and electric and
other service lines and also 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 vehicle comes into picture while designing ramps and property access and
as bottoming out on a crest can stop a vehicle from moving under its own pulling power.
1. Weight, axle configuration etc.
The weight of the vehicle is a major consideration during the design of pavements both flexible
and rigid.
The weight of the vehicle is transferred to the pavement through the axles and so the design
parameters are fixed on the basis of the number of axles.
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. The power to weight ratio is the major criteria
which determines the length to which a positive gradient can be permitted taking into
consideration the case of heavy vehicles.
2. Turning radius and turning path
The minimum turning radius is dependent on the design and class of the vehicle. The effective
width of the vehicle is increased on a turning. This also important at an intersection,
roundabout, terminals, and parking areas.
2.2 Dynamic Characteristics
Dynamic characteristics of vehicles affecting road design are speed, acceleration and braking
characteristics, Power Performance and some aspects of vehicle body design.
1. Speed
The vehicle speed affects, (i) sight distances (ii) super elevation, length of transition curve
and limiting radius on horizontal curves (iii) length of transition curves on vertical valley
curves and humps (iv) width of pavement shoulders on straight and on horizontal curves (v)
design gradient (vi) capacity of traffic lane (vii) design and control measures on
intersections.
2. Acceleration Characteristics
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. The
presence of upgrades makes the problem more severe. Trucks are forced to decelerate on
grades because their power is not sufficient to maintain their desired speed. As trucks slow
down on grades, long gaps will be formed in the traffic stream which cannot be efficiently
killed by normal passing manoeuvres.
3. Braking performance
As far as highway safety is concerned, the braking performance and deceleration
characteristics of vehicles are of prime importance. The time and distance taken to stop the
vehicle is very important as far as the design of various traffic facilities is concerned.
 The factors on which the braking distance depends are the type of the road and its
condition, the type and condition of tire and type of the braking system.
The main characteristics of a traffic system influenced by braking and 4deceleration
performance are: (i) sight distance (ii) clearance and change in interval (iii)sign placement
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.
Sign placement: The placement of signs again depends upon the stopping sight distance and
reaction time of drivers. The driver should see the sign board from a distance at least equal
to or greater than the stopping sight distance.
3. Power performance of vehicles
Knowledge of the power performance of a vehicle is necessary to determine the vehicle
running costs and the geometric design elements like grades.
The power developed by the engine(Pp) should be sufficient to overcome all resistance to
motion at the desired speed and to acceleration at any desired rate to the desired speed.
The forces have to be overcome for this purpose:
1. Rolling resistance(Pf)
2. Air resistance(Pa)
3. Grade resistance(Pi)
4. Inertia forces during acceleration and deceleration(Pj)
5. Transmission losses

Road user characteristics (or) Human factors affecting transportation

Road users can be defined as drivers, passengers, pedestrians etc. who use the streets and highways.
The physical, mental and emotional characteristics of human beings affect their ability to operate
motor vehicle safely or to service as a pedestrian.
The various factors which affect road user characteristics may broadly be classified into four heads:
1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Psychological and
4. Environmental

1. Physical characteristics
The physical characteristics of the road users may be either permanent or temporary. The physical
characteristics are the vision, hearing, strength and the general reaction to traffic situations.

Vision: The perception-reaction time depends greatly on the effectiveness of drivers vision in
perceiving the objects and traffic control measures. The PIEV time will be decreased if the vision is
clear and accurate. Visual acuity relates to the field of clearest vision. The most acute vision(visual
acuity or cone of vision) is within a cone of 3 to 5 degrees, fairly clear vision within 10 to 12 degrees
and the peripheral vision will be within 120 to 180 degrees. This is important when traffic signs and
signals are placed, but other factors like dynamic visual acuity, depth perception etc. should also be
considered for accurate design. Glare vision and color vision are also equally important. Glare vision
is greatly affected by age. Glare recovery time is the time required to recover from the effect of glare
after the light. source is passed, and will be higher for elderly persons. Color vision is important as it
can come into picture in case of sign and signal recognition.

Hearing: Hearing is required for detecting sounds, but lack of hearing acuity can be compensated by
usage of hearing aids. Lot of experiments were carried out to test the drive vigilance which is the
ability of a drive to discern environmental signs over a prolonged period. The results showed that
the drivers who did not undergo any type of fatiguing conditions performed significantly better than
those who were subjected to fatiguing conditions. But the mental fatigue is more dangerous than
skill fatigue. The variability of attitude of drivers with respect to age, sex, knowledge and skill in
driving etc. are also important.

The temporary physical characteristics of the road users affecting their efficiency are fatigue, alcohol
or drugs and illness. All these reduce alertness and increase the reaction and also affect the quality
of judgement in some situations.
2. Mental characteristics

Knowledge, skill, intelligence experience and literacy can affect the road user characteristics.
knowledge of vehicle characteristics, traffic behavior, driving practice, rules of road and psychology
of road users will be quite useful for safe traffic operation.

Understanding the traffic regulations and special instruction and timely action depends on
intelligence and literacy.

Reactions to certain traffic situations become more spontaneous with experience.

3. Psychological Characteristics

These affect reaction to traffic situations of road users to a great extent. The emotional factors such
as attentiveness, fear anger, superstition impatience, general attitude towards traffic and
regulations and maturity also come under this.

PIEV THEORY

According to this theory total reaction time of the driver is split into four parts,viz.,time taken by the
driver for:

Perception: it is the time required for the sensations received by the eyes or ears to be transmitted
to the brain through the nervous system and spinal chord. In other words it is the time required to
perceive an object or situation.

Intellection: It is the time required for understanding the situation. It is also time required for
comparing the different thoughts, regrouping and registering new sensations.

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 time taken for the final action.

4. Environmental Factors
The environmental factors like weather, visibility and other atmospheric conditions. The various
environmental conditions affecting the behaviour of road user are traffic stream characteristics,
facilities to the traffic, atmospheric conditions and the locality.
COMPONENTS OF TRAFFIC ENGINEERING
The components of traffic engineering classified into three types.
1. Road users including drivers, cyclists and pedestrians
2. Vehicle
3. Roads and Highways
4. Control devices
5. Land use characteristics
1. ROAD USER CHARACTERISTICS
Same as above mentioned road user characteristics
2. VEHICLE
Same as above mentioned vehicle characteristics
3. ROAD CHARACTERISTICS
The various road characteristics may be classified into six types.
1. Road surface
2. Lighting
3. Roughness
4. Pavement color
5. Night visibility
6. Geometric aspects
1. Road surface
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.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to build road surface which will provide the best possible
performance for all these conditions.
For heavy traffic volumes, a smooth riding surface with good all-weather antiskid properties
is desirable. The surface should be chosen to retain these qualities so that maintenance cost
and interference to traffic operations are kept to a minimum.
2. Lighting
Illumination is used to illuminate the physical features of the road way and to aid in the
driving task. Highway lighting is particularly more important at intersections, bridge site,
level crossing and in places where there is restriction of traffic to movements. On urban
roads where the density of population is also high, road lighting has other advantages like
feeling of security and protection.
3. 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 manoeuvre. Shoulders or even speed change lanes may
be deliberately roughened as a means of delineation.
4. Pavement colours

When the pavements are light colour (for example, cement concrete pavements) there is
better visibility during day time whereas during night dark colour 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 colour having
driven some distance on a light or dark surface; he expects to remain on a surface of that
same colour until he arrives a major junction point.

5. Night visibility

The main reason for increased accident rate during night time may be attributed to poor
night visibility. 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 wet.

6. 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.

Right of way width should be properly provided. If the right of way width becomes less,
future expansion will become difficult and the development of that area will be adversely
affected.

One important other road element is the gradient. It reduces the tractive effort of large
vehicles. Again the fuel consumption of the vehicles climbing a gradient is more. The other
road element that cannot be avoided are curves. Near curves, chances of accidents are
more.

4. CONTROL DEVICES
Traffic control device is the medium used for communicating between traffic engineer and
road users. Unlike other modes of transportation, there is no control on the drivers using the
road.
Here traffic control devices comes to the help of the traffic engineer. The major types of
traffic control devices used are traffic signs, road markings , traffic signals and parking
control.
The three different types of signs are,
1. Regulatory signs: These signs require the driver to obey the signs for the safety of
other road users.
2. Warning signs: the warning signs are in the shape of equilateral triangle with apex
upwards. These signs are for the safety of on self who is driving and advice the
drivers to obey these signs.
3. Informative signs: These signs provide information to the driver about the
facilities available ahead,and the route and distance to reach the specific
destinations.
Traffic markings: The essential purpose of road markings is to guide and control traffic on a
highway. The road markings are classified as longitudinal markings, transverse markings,
object markings, word messages, marking for parkings, marking at hazardous locations etc.
Traffic signals: Traffic signals are control devices which could alternately direct the traffic to
stop and proceed at intersections using red and green traffic light signals automatically. The
main requirement of traffic signal is draw the attention, provide meaning and time to
respond and to have minimum waste of time.
Parking control: Parking is one of the major problems that is created by the increasing road
traffic. It is an impact of transport development. The availability of less space in urban areas
has increased the demand for parking space especially in areas like Central business district.
This affects the mode choice also. This has a great economic impact.
LAND USECHARACTERISTICS
The amount of traffic depends on how the land is used. for example shopping centres,
residential buildings and complexes. Land uses characteristics depends on
1. Number of household
2. Population of the area
3. Road pattern
4. Mode of travel
5. Socio economic characteristics