Dr. P. B.

Shahi/ Transportation Engineering II 1

TUTORIAL – 1

1. A vehicle traveling at a speed of 50 Kmph was stopped within 2.5 secs after the full application of
brakes. Calculate the skid resistance. [Ans: 0.567]

2. A braking test was done in a dumper traveling at the speed of 90 Kmph. If the dumper was moving
downwards on the road of 3º slope to horizontal and the braking efficiency is 85% only. After the application
the brakes, the skid marks were seen as 40.2 m in length. Determine the average skid resistance of the
pavement. [Ans: 0.984]

3. After application of the brakes fully, a car was stopped in 1.9 secs and skid marks are measured as 7.5 m
in length. Determine the average skid resistance. [Ans: 0.424]

4. A truck moving at a speed of 45 Kmph was stopped after application of the brakes fully. The length of
skid marks was 14 m. If the average skid resistance of the pavement is 80%, determine the braking efficiency
of the truck. [ Ans: 71.1%]

5. A vehicle hits a bridge abutment at a speed estimated by an investigator as 15 Kmph. Skid marks of 30 m
on the pavement (f = 0.35) followed by skid marks of 60 m on the gravel shoulder (f = 0.50) approaching to
the abutment are observed. If the speed limit is 60 Kmph, is the driver speeding? [Ans: Yes
(U1=102.58 Kmph > V = 60Kmph)]
(Note: If grade of road and braking efficiency are not given, it can be assumed to be leveled and 100%
respectively)
6. A lady driver of car applied brakes and barely avoided hitting the truck parked due to technical problem
on the road way. The vehicle left skid marks of 25 m. Assuming, f = 0.6 and the braking efficiency of 95%,
determine whether the drive was in violation of the 45 Kmph speed limit at that location if she was traveling,
(a) Uphill on 3º slope. (b) Downhill on 2.3º slope and (c) On the level roadway.
[Ans: Yes, violation of limit {(a) U = 62.75, (b) U = 58.14, (c) U = 60.19} > 45Kmph]

7. A deer is running across the level road and a driver did his best to avoid hitting this deer by attempting to
stop his car. However, during the braking, his car slide from the concrete pavement to graveled shoulder but
finally came to halt safely. If the traveling speed of this car is 60 Kmph and the coefficient of friction on the
concrete pavement and graveled shoulder are 0.4 and 0.5 respectively, then what would be the length of skid
mark on the graveled shoulder. The length of the skid mark resulted from braking the vehicle on concrete
pavement is 15.5 m and the road is level. [Ans: 15.927 m]

8. Speed observations from a radar speed meter have been taken, giving the speeds of the subsidiary
streams composing the flow along with the volume of traffic of each subsidiary stream. The readings are as
under:
Speed
2-5 6-9 10-13 14-17 18-21 22-25 26-29 30-33 34-37 38-41 42-45 46-49 50-53 54-57 58-61
(Kmph)
Volume of
subsidiary
1 4 0 7 20 44 80 82 79 49 36 26 9 10 3
stream
(Vehicle/hr)
Calculate: (i) Time mean speed (ii) Space mean speed
(iii) Variance about space mean speed
[Ans: 33.53 Kmph, 30.10 Kmph and 103.50]
9. Twenty five spot sped observations were taken in Kmph and were as under:
50, 40, 60, 54, 45, 31, 72, 58, 43, 52, 46, 56, 43, 65, 33, 69, 34, 51, 47, 41, 62, 43, 55, 40, 49
Calculate: (i) Time mean speed (ii) Space mean speed and (iii) Verify the
relation between two
[Ans: 49.56 Kmph and 47.26 Kmph]

10. Spot speed studies were carried out at a certain stretch of a highway and the consolidated data collected
are given below.
Speed range (Kmph) 0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 90-100
No. of vehicles observed 12 18 68 89 204 255 119 43 33 9
Determine: (i) Upper sped limit for regulation (ii) Lower speed limit for regulation (iii) Speed to check
design elements (iv) Modal speed

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Dr. P. B. Shahi/ Transportation Engineering II 2

[Ans: 60 Kmph, 30 Kmph, 84 Kmph and ___ Kmph]

11. A truck teavelling at 40 Kmph is approaching a stop sign. At tome t 0 and at a distance of 20 m, the truck
begins to slow down bu decelerating at 4 m/s 2 . Will the truck be able to stop in time?
[Ans: 15.43m < 20 m, Hence stop in time]

12. The following speed data were collected during a two-minute segment of a spot speed study (speed in Kmph).
92, 82, 78, 86, 100, 91, 63, 75, 86, 90, 88, 79, 95, 84
(a) Estimate: i) The time mean speed
ii) The space mean speed
(b) What will be the average density of the above traffic stream if the mean headway is 8.6 sec.

[Ans: 84.93 km/hr, 83.88 km/hr, 5 veh/km]

13. Estimate the theoretical capacity of a traffic lane with one way traffic flow at a stream speed of 40
Kmph. Assume the average space gap between vehicles to follow the relation S g = 0.278 V t. Where V is
stream speed in Kmph, t is the average reaction time = 0.7 sec.; assume average length of vehicles = 5.0 m.
[Ans:3130 vehicles/hr/lane]

14. What is the theoretical capacity of a traffic lane with one way traffic flow at a stream speed of 50 Kmph
if the average reaction time is 0.9 sec and average length of vehicles is 7.0 m.
[Ans: 2562 vehicles/hr/lane]

15. Calculate the theoretical maximum traffic capacity for a traffic lane at the speed of 80 Kmph. Assume
the coefficient of friction (f) as 0.4, total reaction time (t) as 0.75 sec and average length of the vehicle as 6.0
m. Assume the average space gap between vehicles to follow the relation, S g = 0.278 V t + (V2/ 25 4 f).
[Ans: 934 veh/hr/lane]

16. The free mean speed on a roadway is found to be 80 Kmph. Under the stopped condition the average
spacing between vehicle is 6.9 m. Determine the capacity of flow.
[Ans: 2900 vehicles/hr/lane]

17. In the road at Tripureshwor, it is found that the free mean speed is only 75 Kmph. Under the stopped
condition the average spacing between the vehicle is only 6.3 m. What is the maximum capacity of flow in
that road? [Ans: 2962 vehicles/hr/lane]

18. The data collected after speed and delay studies by floating car method on a stretch of
urban road of length 3.5 Km are given below. Determine the average values of volume,
journey speed and running speed of the traffic stream along either direction.
Trip Direction Journey Total Stopped No of Vehicles No of Vehicles No of Vehicles
No. of Time Delay Overtaking Overtaken From Opposite
Trip (Min – sec) (Min – sec) Direction
1 A–B 6 – 32 1– 40 4 7 268
2 B–A 7 – 14 1 – 50 5 3 186
3 A–B 6 – 50 1 – 30 5 3 280
4 B–A 7 – 40 2 – 00 2 1 200
5 A–B 6 – 10 1 – 10 3 5 250
6 B–A 8 – 00 2 – 22 2 2 170
7 A–B 6 – 28 1 – 40 2 5 290
8 B–A 7 – 30 1 – 40 3 2 160
[Ans: For A-B direction: 12.59 veh/min, 31.72 Kmph and 41.0 Kmph
and For B-A Direction: 19.36 veh/min, 31.72 Kmph and 35.71 Kmph]

19. The following tables give the particulars collected for a section of road 0.7 Km long
during the course of a moving observer study:
Journey: North bound
Run Journey Time Stopped Vehicles meet with in the opposite Vehicles meet in the same
No. (min) Time direction direction (PCU)

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Dr. P. B. Shahi/ Transportation Engineering II 3

(min) Car Bus Truck Overtaking Overtaken

1 1.01 0.04 11 0 5 1 0
2 0.92 0.10 13 0 0 2 1
3 0.77 0.08 19 2 11 1 1
4 0.03 0.14 14 2 4 1 0
5 0.84 0.08 2 0 11 0 1
6 1.06 0.13 19 1 7 2 1
Journey: South bound
Stopped Vehicles meet with in the opposite Vehicles meet in the same
Run Journey Time
Time direction direction (PCU)
No. (min)
(min) Car Bus Truck Overtaking Overtaken
1 1.00 0.05 10 0 2 1 1
2 0.87 0.07 2 0 3 1 0
3 1.20 0.11 23 1 6 2 1
4 1.18 0.12 7 0 1 2 0
5 1.06 0.09 8 0 1 1 1
6 1.02 0.10 11 0 8 2 0
Assuming an equivalency factor of 1, 3 and 2 for each car, bus and truck respectively, calculate the flow in
PCU per hour in both directions of traffic. Also calculate the journey speed and running speed in both
directions.
[Ans: For north bound direction: 555 PCUs/hr, 47.0 Kmph and 53.0 Kmph
and For south bound Direction: 870 PCUs/hr, 42.5 Kmph and 47.6 Kmph]

20. ABCD is a street running north to south comprising of Three adjacent sections. The table below gives
the length of each section:
Section AB B BC C CD
Length (Km) 500 Intersection 600 Intersection 450

Again the following table gives the details of observations (Average of test runs) by the moving observer
team:
Moving Observer Traveling South
Time taken to travel Vehicle met with in Vehicle in the same direction
Sections
(sec) opposing direction Overtaking Overtaken
AB 152 25 4 3
B 15 - - -
BC 172 31 2 2
C 10 - - -
CD 138 28 3 4
Moving Observer Traveling North
Time taken to travel Vehicle met with in Vehicle in the same direction
Sections
(sec) opposing direction Overtaking Overtaken
DC 132 50 2 1
C 12 - - -
CB 160 55 3 4
B 18 - - -
BA 145 45 1 1
Calculate the flows and running speeds in each section in both directions and the overall journey speeds in
each directions.
Ans:
For South Bound Direction For North Bound Direction
Journey Journey
Running Running
Flows Speed Flows Speed
Section Speed Section Speed
(veh/hr) From A to (veh/hr) From D to
(Kmph) (Kmph)
D A
AB 557 12.4 BA 303 12.4
11.50 11.90
BC 596 12.6 CB 326 12.6
Kmph Kmph
CD 654 11.3 DC 387 13.2

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Dr. P. B. Shahi/ Transportation Engineering II 4

21. A vehicle of weight 2.0 ton skids through a distance equal to 40 m before colliding with another parked
vehicle of weight 1.0 ton. After collision both the vehicle skid through a distance equal to 12 m before
stopping. Compute the initial speed of the moving vehicle. Assume coefficient of friction as 0.5.
[Ans: 92.29 Kmph]

22. A truck of weight 2.0 T skids through a distance equal to 50 m before colliding with another parked
Minibus of weight 1.0 T. After collision both the vehicle skid through a distance equal to 12 m before
stopping. Compute the initial speed of the moving vehicle. Assume coefficient of friction as 0.4.
[Ans: 88.50 Kmph]

23. Two vehicles A and B approaching at right angles, A from West and B from South, collide each other.
After the collision, vehicle A skids in North direction 50˚ North of west and vehicle B, 60˚ East of North. The
initial skid distances of vehicle A and B are 38 m and 20 m respectively before collision. The skid distances
after collision is 15 m and 36 m respectively. If the weights of vehicles B and A are 6.0 T and 4.0 T, calculate
the original speeds of the vehicles. The average skid resistance of the pavement is found to be 0.55.
[Ans: 96.1 Kmph and 79.2 Kmph]

24. It is observed that on an average a vehicle driver drives 5000 Km during the course of a year. The
probability of having an accident is 100 per 200 million vehicle-Kms. What is the probability of a driver
having at least two accidents during his driving career extending to 25 years?
[Ans: 0.1287]
25. The accident records for three consecutive years at an uncontrolled junction indicate the number of
accidents as 3, 6 & 9 in the year 1972, 1973 & 1974 A.D. respectively. Calculate the probability of 4
accidents occurring per year at the site. [Ans: 0.1339]

26. An impatient car driver stuck behind a slow truck traveling at 32 kmph decides to overtake the truck.
The accelerating characteristics of the car is given by:

Where, v is the speed (m/sec) and t is the time in seconds.

(A) What is the acceleration after 2, 3, 20 and 250 secs?
(B) What ia the maximum speed attainable by car?
(C)When will the acceleration of the car approach zero?
(D)How far will the car travel in 200 secs?

27. The impatient car driver approaches an intersection saw amber light from 30m before stop line. If the
driver accelerates his car such that
:
and his perception reaction time is 0.75 sec, determine if he can clear the intersection if the amber period is 5sec.
Assume that width of intersection is 10 m and his car is 3m long.
28. Derive the working expression for estimating speed at time t, acceleration at time t and distance covered
after time t by a vehicle given that the acceleration is related to speed by:

29. Flowing are the data collected in a spot speed studies carried out at certain stretch of a highway.
Determine I) 85th percentile and 15th percentile speeds for the regulation of mixed traffic. II) the 98 th
percentile design speed for checking the geometric design elements of highway.

S/N Speed range No. of vehicles observed

1 0-10 15
2 10-20 20
3 20-30 45
4 30-40 89

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5 40-50 200
6 50-60 275
7 60-70 120
8 70-80 45
9 80-90 30
10 90-100 10

30. Given that the speed in a certain section of street follows a normal distribution with =50kmph and
=10kmph, find the probability that speed in this section lies between 45 kmph and 62kmph.
[0.5764]

31. A certain traffic stream has a mean speed of 40 kmph and standard deviation of 2kmph. Assuming that
speed follows a normal distribution, what percentage of vehicles in the stream will have the speed exceeding
43 kmph? [6.68]

32. A roadway has an average hourly volume of 360 veh/h. Assuming that the arrival of vehicle is Poisson
distribution, estimate the probabilities having 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 or more vehicles over a 20 sec interval. Plot
the histogram of Poisson distribution for =360 veh/h.

33. An officer commutes daily from his suburban home to his downtown office. On an average the trip one
way takes 24 minutes, with a standard deviation of 4 minutes. Assume the distribution of trip-times to
downtown to be normally distributed.
a) What is the probability that that a trip will take at least ½ hours?
b) If the working hour starts at 9: 00 AM and he leaves his house at 8:45 AM in the morning,
what percentage of the time he late at work?
[0.668, 98.78]
34. A traffic stream has a free flow speed of 90 kmph and a jam density of 80 veh/km. Estimate the
maximum flow per lane. Determine the density of traffic stream in a two way four lane road if the one-way
flow in the road is 6400 veh/h in one direction.

35. Three vehicles are traveling a 1.5 km segment of a highway and the following observations are made:
Vehicle A: 1.2 min
Vehicle B: 1.5 min
Vehicle C: 1.7 min.
i) What is the average travel speed of the three vehicles?
ii) What is the time mean speed and space mean speed of three vehicles?

36. The average normal flow of traffic on the cross roads 1 and 2 during design period are
350 and 250 PCU/hr. The saturation headway on these roads are estimates as 2.5 sec and
3.75 sec respectively. The all red time required for pedestrian crossing is 10 sec. Design
two phase signal by Webster’s method with neat phase diagram. Take amber time of 2 sec
on each phase for clearance.

37. The 15 min traffic counts on the cross roads A and B during peak hour are observed as 178
and 142 vehicles per lane respectively. If the amber times required are 3 and 2 sec respectively
based on approach speeds, design the signal timings by trial cycle method and signal for
pedestrians assuming both road width equal to 12m. (Average time headway =2.5sec during green
phase)

38. An isolated traffic signal with pedestrian’s indication is to be installed on a right angled
intersection with road A 14m wide and road B 12m wide. The heaviest volume per hour for
each lane of road A and road B are 265 and 245 respectively. The approach speeds are 80
and 60kmph for road A and Road B respectively. Design the timings of traffic and

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pedestrian signals. Assume pedestrian walking speed or 1.2m /sec and amber periods of 4
and 3 sec for road A and road B respectively

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