NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
CE3121 TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
Tutorial #1: Traffic Flow Fundamentals
Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning
Review Problems
1. What is the relationship between speed, flow and density?
2. What is the difference between time mean speed and space mean speed?
3. Explain the concept of highway capacity and level of service using the fundamental q=ku
relationship.
4. What are the potential problems of using loop detectors in measuring traffic volume, speed
and density?
1
Computational Problems
Question 1 (Traffic stream parameters)
In a speed trap, the arrival times of six vehicles passing two points (A and B) on the roadway
spaced 100 m apart are given below. Determine:
(a) the headways between the vehicles at point A;
(b) the time-mean speed of the vehicles;
(c) the space-mean speed of the vehicles.
Vehicle Arrival Time at Point A Arrival Time at Point B (sec)
(sec)
1 3.0 11.5
2 5.2 13.1
3 8.2 15.2
4 12.1 18.1
5 15.5 20.7
6 18.2 22.4
Question 2 (Greenshields’ model)
The following speed-density data were obtained from a highway segment:
Speed (km/h) 60 52 41 34 22
Density 11 43 62 80 103
(veh/km)
Assuming Greenshields’ linear traffic model, estimate the free-flow speed and the capacity of
the traffic stream. What is the average headway when the density is 50 veh/km?
Question 3 (Greenberg model)
Applying the Greenberg’s model, determine the capacity of the traffic stream if it is known that
the density at a speed of 30 km/h is 30 veh/km and that the jam density is 130 veh/km.
Question 4 (Nonlinear traffic model)
On a specific westbound section of a highway, studies show that the speed-density relationship
is
k
3.5
=u u f 1 −
k j
2
It is known that the capacity is 3800 vph and the jam density is 140 veh/km. What is the space-
mean speed of the traffic at capacity, and what is the free-flow speed?
Question 5 (Traffic measurement using aerial photography)
Two aerial photographs taken 4 seconds apart gave the positions of 7 vehicles along a 1-km
highway as shown below:
Vehicle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Position in Photo 1 (m) 680 610 560 450 380 270 60
Position in Photo 2 (m) 760 670 615 510 440 350 160
Determine the average speed and flow of the traffic stream.
Question 6 (Traffic measurements using loop detectors)
The table below shows the data sampled from a loop detector on the middle lane along a 3-lane
main road at different times of the day. The length of the detector is 1.0 m, and the average
length of short and long vehicles may be assumed to be 4.2 m and 6.8 m, respectively.
(i) Determine the maximum flow recorded
(ii) Determine the maximum space-mean speed recorded
(iii) Estimate the morning and evening peak hour flow on the road
(iv) Identify the set of measurements that contains errors.
Time 0700 0830 0940 1120 1230 1410 1540 1710 1820
Total no. of detection 100 242 203 142 105 115 289 154 104
No. of long vehicles detected 15 33 35 9 9 16 78 19 10
Total “on time” (sec) 27.2 115.9 93.7 40.3 32.4 33.6 112.1 94.7 32.1
Measurement period (sec) 380 380 480 420 240 300 480 300 240