Establishing and applying speed-flow relationships for traffic on rural two-lane two- way highways in the Western Cape
Date
2013-12
Authors
Twagirimana, Janvier
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Speed-flow-density relationships are the most useful tools in the highway design and planning process. They are useful in predicting the roadway capacity, in determining the adequate level-of-service of traffic flow and in determining travel time for a given roadway.
Two-lane two-way rural highways constitute the vast majority of the rural road network in South Africa. Nowadays in the Western Cape and other provinces of South Africa, the speed-flow-density relationships normally used for rural transportation studies are derived from the Highway Capacity Manual, which reflects the traffic conditions in the North American situation. Since the North American traffic conditions may be different from the South African conditions, a need to investigate speed-flow-density relationships on these highways in South Africa arises in order to justify any investment made on these roads.
In this context, a video technique was used to collect traffic flow data during morning peak hours on two rural two-lane two-way highways in the Western Cape Province in order to investigate these relationships. Through the use of Adobe premiere C.S 6 software, travel time of individual vehicles and distance headways were measured and used in computation of average speed and average density.
Several researchers have developed models to describe the relationships between traffic characteristics on uninterrupted flow facilities. In this study, some of these models were tested using collected data in order to investigate which model fits the data satisfactorily. Statistical methods were used to evaluate the ability of each model to predict the flow characteristics over the whole range of data. Average speed and density data were used through regression analysis to perform curve fitting and testing of these developed models. In the next stage, the model which provided a best representation of the data on each section was selected and through the application of the steady-state equation (2.1), flow-density and speed-flow relationships were established on these sections. The available data were also used to investigate the impact the observation time has on the speed-flow curve and the resulting capacity value.
Finally, the developed speed-flow curves were used to determine the capacities of the study sections. These capacity values were used to determine if the shoulder usage contributes in increasing the capacity of two-lane two-way highways by comparing them to the capacity provided by HCM.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings is baie handig in die beplanning en ontwerp van paaie. Dit kan ook gebruik word in die voorspelling van kapasiteit, diensvlak en reistyd. Twee-laan twee-rigting paaie maak die grootste deel van die Suid-Afrikaanse padnetwerk uit en vir die beplanning daarvan word van Amerikaanse spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings gebruik gemaak aangesien daar nog nie voorheen ‘n studie hiervan in SA gemaak is nie. Video-opnames is gebruik om verkeersvloeidata op twee paaie in die omgewing van Stellenbosch te versamel. Die reistyd en digtheid van individuele voertuie is tydens spitstye waargeneem. Die data is gebruik om te bepaal watter modelle die beste is om die spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings vir hierdie paaie te modelleer. Die beste modelle is dan gebruik om die kapasiteit van die paaie te bepaal en dit te vergelyk met die Amerikaanse waardes.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings is baie handig in die beplanning en ontwerp van paaie. Dit kan ook gebruik word in die voorspelling van kapasiteit, diensvlak en reistyd. Twee-laan twee-rigting paaie maak die grootste deel van die Suid-Afrikaanse padnetwerk uit en vir die beplanning daarvan word van Amerikaanse spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings gebruik gemaak aangesien daar nog nie voorheen ‘n studie hiervan in SA gemaak is nie. Video-opnames is gebruik om verkeersvloeidata op twee paaie in die omgewing van Stellenbosch te versamel. Die reistyd en digtheid van individuele voertuie is tydens spitstye waargeneem. Die data is gebruik om te bepaal watter modelle die beste is om die spoed-vloei-digtheid verhoudings vir hierdie paaie te modelleer. Die beste modelle is dan gebruik om die kapasiteit van die paaie te bepaal en dit te vergelyk met die Amerikaanse waardes.
Description
Thesis (MScEng)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.
Keywords
Speed-flow relationships, Rural roads -- South Africa -- Western Cape, Two-lane highways, Travel time relationships, Traffic flow -- South Africa -- Western Cape, Theses -- Civil engineering, Traffic engineering, Highway planning