Traffic Speed Model for Urban Roads
Traffic Speed Model for Urban Roads
Peer Reviewed
ISSN: 2350-8914 (Online), 2350-8906 (Print)
Year: 2023 Month: April Volume: 13
Abstract
The present study focuses on the effect of roadside frictions on the selected undivided urban midblock section. The objective of
this study is to identify the significant variables that influence traffic speed in the mid-block section and using those significant
variables creating a model for predicting the traffic speed. The analysis was based on the video graphic data collection on midblock
sections of Kalimati, Gaushala, Kuleshwor and Maitidevi. The passenger car unit, traffic flow, traffic speed and the frequency of side
friction variables was determined. Correlation matrix was generated for the correlation of different independent variables. Multiple
Linear Regression (MLR) was used to predict the traffic speed at the mid-block section from the traffic flow and roadside friction
variables. The regression model has adjusted R square value of 65.6%. The predicted speed showed good correlation with the
observed speed with MAPE of 11.36%. Hence, the model proposed in this study will be useful for finding the traffic stream speed
on undivided urban mid-block section under the condition of side frictions.
Keywords
Side Frictions, Passenger Car Unit(PCU), Correlation Matrix, Multiple Linear Regression(MLR)
1. Introduction stopping on the roadway, and vehicles entering and exiting the
roadway.
1.1 Background Roadside frictions are the result of the unmanaged road
Speed is the primary indicator of traffic performance of a infrastructure, increase in urban population, increase in vehicle
roadway system for the transport planning, management and ownership, limitation of urban road space, etc.. These road
operation. It denotes the quality of comfort received by the frictions, which are common in developing nations along with
traffic flow. It is one of the elements of the fundamental heterogeneous traffic condition, have a negative impact on the
relationships in traffic flow theory, along with density and capacity of urban roadways and seriously jeopardize the safety
volume. It depends on a number of factors, including how of those who use the roads.
drivers behave, the nature of the traffic, the physical The growth of traffic in the road network of the cities of Nepal is
characteristics, and the surroundings in urban corridors. Traffic the major concern for the traffic engineer. Urban roads in Nepal
characteristics are the traffic flow and density under has highly mixed traffic conditions. In addition to heterogeneous
heterogeneous conditions, whereas physical characteristics are condition, the flow of the vehicles are conflicted by various
concerned with road width, geometry, access, road conditions, interruption on the road. Therefore, the focus of this study is
intersection controls and environmental factors are visibility on how roadside frictions affect the speed of the selected urban
conditions, weather conditions, etc.. Speed has been identified midblock segment in mixed traffic.
as one of the indicator that designers can use to examine the
consistency of road and expectancy of drivers on roadways.
Speed models help designers figure out the operating speed of 1.2 Research Objective
anroadway. The general objective of this research is:
Roadside friction are the activities on the side of the carriageway • To develop the traffic stream speed model considering road side
or on the carriageway which would disrupt the normal flow of frictions.
traffic. There is a significant impact of side frictions on traffic
characteristics on urban roads. The Nepal Urban Road The specific objective of the research is:
Standard-2076 (NURS -2076) has suggested the capacity of the • To determine road side friction factors that affect the traffic
road under various traffic conditions. According to NURS-2076, stream speed.
the capacity of the 4-lane 2-way road ranges 4000 PCU/h to
2000 PCU/h based on different traffic conditions like frontage
access, standing vehicles, parked vehicle and cross traffic. The 2. Literature Review
Indonesian Highway Capacity Manual (IHCM) has considered
side friction as a roadside environment and activities for the 2.1 Introduction
determination of the capacity of the road. It defined side friction There are many studies which have focused on the impact of
as the impact on traffic performance from roadside activities on roadside friction on speed [1][2][3][4]. In some studies, the
the road segment as pedestrians walking, along it or crossing, passenger car unit (PCU) has been calculated for the
heterogeneous traffic [3][5][6],whereas in other studies, each Where, Vcomb is speed (km/hr) for combined sections, nman is
vehicle type has been considered individually [1][2][4] rather number of parking manoeuvres per minute, td is dwell time (in
than into a common unit (PCU). Most of the studies were seconds), n ped is frequency of pedestrians per minute, nc , n2w ,
focused on the divided four lane two way road [5] [2][1] but the and n3w are the frequency of cars, two wheeler and three wheeler
undivided two lane roads has been only considered in the few respectively[1].
studies[6][7]. Although, undivided roads were considered but
The average speed of vehicles at sections with bus stops,
research was focused on the modelling of capacity and LOS in
pedestrian and on-street parking was found to be reduced by
presence of roadside frictions rather than speed modelling.
21%, 27% and 15% respectively. In the sections with a
For the quantification of roadside frictions, the friction factors combination of all the friction factors, it was found that the
present in the road section has been combined into one common reduction was higher (34%). Among all friction factors, the
unit by the weight of respective friction variable [7][5][3]. The presence of pedestrians had the maximum reduction in speed
impact of roadside frictions were analysed in terms of one than other frictions due to bus stops and on-street parking[2].
common unit of friction that is either Roadside Friction Index The developed model for the stream speed was
(RSFI), Side Friction (SF) or Friction (FRIC)[7][5][3].
Roadside Friction Index (RSFI) was used for the quantification Vcomb = 40.38 − 0.21nman − 0.67td − 0.48n ped
of roadside friction as − 0.26nc − 0.15n2w − 0.29n3w − 0.22nhv
RSFI = ∑ wi Ni
Where Vcomb is speed (km/hr) for combined sections, nman is
Where Ni is frequency of ith type friction elements in a 100 m number of parking manoeuvres per minute, td is dwell time (in
road length and wi is weight factor for the ith type side friction seconds), n ped is frequency of pedestrians per minute, nc , n2w ,
variable [7]. Other study quantified road side friction as Side and n3w are the frequency of cars, two wheeler and three wheeler,
Friction ‘SF’ (events/hr) was calculated as nhv is frequency of heavy vehicles[2].
SF = RW1 ∗ NPSPU + RW2 ∗ NEE + RW3 ∗ NW M In one of the study, it was found that the side friction reduced the
Where, NPSPU is the number of pedestrians and parked vehicles average stream speed in all the study section. Stream speed was
equivalent pedestrian units, NEE is the number of entry- exit reduced by 49-57% in sections with bus stops and bus bays and
vehicles, NW M is the number of wrong movement vehicles and on-street parking reduced traffic stream speed by 45- 67% [8].
RW is the relative weights of friction factor [5]. In another study A model was recommended in other study for calculating the
all side frictions were calculated into single common unit ‘FRIC’ speed for urban roads (undivided four lane two way) with high
as number/200m/h. side friction as
FRIC = 1 ∗ PED + 0.45 ∗ BIC + 0.08 ∗ NMV + 0.37 ∗ PSV
Y = −0.132x2 − 0.126x3 − 0.280x4 − 0.126x5
where, PED is pedestrian cross flow, BIC is bicycle volume, − 0.153x8 + 39.458
NMV is non -motorized traffic volume and PSV is the parked
vehicles [3]. Where, Y is the speed (Km/h), x2 is number of stopping city
buses (veh/200 m/hour), x3 is pedestrian movement
In short, there are only few studies which has focused on the (pedestrian/200 m/hour), x4 is number of parking/stopping
undivided four lane two way road for the modelling of the speed passenger car (veh/200 m/hour), x5 is number of entry vehicles
in presence of roadside friction. Therefore, the present study into the street (veh/200m/hour), x8 is number of heavy vehicles
focuses on modelling of speed in mid-block section of undivided per hour (veh/hour) [9].
road in the presence of roadside frictions under mixed traffic
condition. From the literature review, it was found that the roadside
frictions were selected based on the observation of the study site
for its impact on the speed. Many studies were based on finding
2.2 Findings from the studies
the relationship of speed of traffic stream by considering
The impact of individual friction factors on the traffic speed was roadside frictions individually. In general, the side frictions are
studied on some literature. It was found that the most significant present in combination on the urban roads rather than
parameter was the dwell time of buses in comparison with individually. The speed of the traffic is impacted by roadside
frictions like number of parking manoeuvres and pedestrian frictions in combination. Although few studies has considered
flow[1]. The model was developed to predict the speed on road the multiple side friction elements for modelling the traffic
stretch from the predicted speed of individual friction speed but are limited to the divided road section. Therefore, the
parameters as present study attempts to model speed of traffic on the urban
road considering all possible side friction elements on the
Vcomb = 0.55 ∗Vbs + 0.27 ∗Vpark + 0.18 ∗VPed
undivided four lane two way road.
Where, Vcomb is the speed (km/hr) for combined sections and
Vbs , Vpark , and Vped are the speed (km/hr) for the road with side
friction as bus stops, of pedestrian dense roads, on street parking. 3. Methodology
The speed for the traffic stream was modelled to be
3.1 Research Methodolody
Vcomb = 43.53 − 0.39nman − 0.59td − 0.08n ped
The objective of the study is to develop a model to predict traffic
− 0.18nc − 0.05n2w − 0.27n3w stream speed in presence of roadside frictions. For this, the
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Vehicle Type PCU Flow Ped Cross Entry Exit Cross HV Bicycle
Flow 1
Motorcycle 0.19 Ped Cross -.269* 1
Car 1.00 Entry .571** -.327** 1
4 wheeler 1.53 Exit .488** -.443** .377** 1
Cross .563** -0.114 .453** 0.207 1
LCV 1.94 HV .618** -.468** .395** .437** .318* 1
Tempo 1.09 Bicycle -0.191 0.090 -0.242 -0.086 -0.029 -0.207 1
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Bus 3.94 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Truck 3.79
The samples of speed were measured for each category of vehicle The frictions on the road sections were extracted from the video
within confidence of interval of 95% and with the margin of error recordings. The number of the frictions were counted on the trap
of 5%. Out of 12422 vehicles in total, 4935 vehicle samples length for each 5 minute interval of each site and converted to
were taken categorically for speed measurement. their respective unit. The trap length distance was different for
each road section so in order to standardize the trap length for
all road section, the unit was taken per 100 m for the frequency
4.3 Traffic Speed of friction variables. The friction variables observed in the field
were a) The pedestrians crossing the road section within the
The space mean speed for each category of vehicle was calculated
considered trap length and their frequency was converted to
at 5 min interval. All the vehicles moving in given stretch of road
Number /100 m / hour. b) The vehicles entering to traffic stream
in a specified time period is known as space mean speed and is
from on-street parking, roadside premises and access were
calculated using the average travel time and roadway segment
categorized as ’Entry of vehicle’ and their frequency was
length. The space mean speed is calculated as given in equation
converted to Number /100 m / hour. c) The vehicles exiting from
below:
n∗L traffic stream to on-street parking, roadside premises and access
SpaceMeanSpeed(u) = N were categorized as ’Exit of vehicle’ and their frequency was
∑i=1 ti
converted to Number /100 m / hour. d) The vehicles making
Where, u = space mean speed, km/hr, L = Trap length in km, ti = U-turns or any other crossing on road section were categorized
Travel time of individual ith over trap length in hours. as ’Crossing of vehicle’ and their frequency was converted to
Number /100 m / hour. e) The bus and truck, categorized as
For the traffic stream speed, weighted stream speed was ’heavy vehicles’ (HV), and was obtained from the classified
calculated from the classified traffic volume count and space traffic volume count within 5 minute interval and converted to
mean speed of each category of vehicle as percentage (%). f) The proportion of the bicycles, categorized as
’Bicycle’, obtained from the classified traffic volume count
∑Ni ni vi within 5 minute interval and converted to percentage (%).
Vm =
∑Ni ni
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