Traffic Eng.

Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

In this lecture;
--------------------1- Macroscopic & Microscopic
Modelling Approaches.
2- Time Headway & Spacing.
3- Modelling of Vehicle Arrivals.
The information included in this lecture is largely taken from Garber and Hoel
(2009) and Mannering (2013).

1- Macroscopic & Microscopic Modelling Approaches

According to Mannering (2013), measures that describe the traffic stream as a
whole such as flow, average speed, and density are referred to as macroscopic
measures. In contrast, measures that describe characteristics specific to individual
pairs of vehicles within the traffic stream, such as time headway and spacing are
referred to as microscopic measures.
As stated in the lecture of Macroscopic Modeling for Traffic Flow in the first
semester, the following is the general equation relating flow, speed (space mean)
and density:
Flow (q) = Density (k) * Space Mean Speed (u)

. . . Eq. (1)

where
q = flow, typically in units of veh/h,
u = speed (space-mean speed), typically in units of mi/h, and
k = density, typically in units of veh/mi.

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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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Figure 1 shows a time-space diagram for six vehicles with distance plotted on the
vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. At time zero, vehicles 1, 2, 3, and 4 are
at respective distances d1, d2, d3, and d4 from a reference point whereas vehicles 5
and 6 cross the reference point later at times t5 and t6, respectively.

The microscopic approach, which is sometimes referred to as the car-following

theory considers space and time headways and speeds of individual vehicles as will
be outlined below.

2- Time Headway & Space Headway

Time Headway (h) is the difference between the time the front of a vehicle arrives
at a point on the highway and the time the front of the next vehicle arrives at that
same point. Time headway is usually expressed in seconds. For example, in the time
space diagram (Figure 1), the time headway between vehicles 3 and 4 at d1 is h3 4.

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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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Space headway (d) is the distance between the front of a vehicle and the front of
the following vehicle and is usually expressed in feet or meters. The space headway
between vehicles 3 and 4 at time t5 is d3 4 (see Figure 1).
The following figure shows a schematic explanation of the key microscopic traffic
elements.

The following equations relate time and space headways to the key macroscopic
traffic elements: flow, speed and density (Garber and Hoel, 2009).
Average space headway = 1 / density

. . . Eq. (2)

Average time headway = 1 / flow

. . . Eq. (3)

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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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EXAMPLE: Vehicle time headways and spacings were measured at a point along a
highway, from a single lane, over the course of an hour. The average values were
calculated as 2.5 s/veh for headway and 200 ft/veh (61 m/veh) for spacing. Calculate
the average speed of the traffic.
SOLUTION: To calculate the average speed of the traffic, the fundamental
relationship in Eq. (1) is used. To begin, the flow and density need to be calculated
from the headway and spacing data.
Flow (q) = 1 / Headway = 1 / (2.5) = 0.40 veh/s = 1440 veh/h
Density (k) = 1 / Spacing = 1 / 200 = 0.005 veh/ft = 26.4 veh/mi
Average Speed = q / k = 1440 (veh/hr) / 26.4 (veh/mi) = 54.5 mi/h
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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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3- Modelling Vehicle Arrivals

It is also important to obtain more microscopic view of traffic flow. That is, instead
of simply modeling the number of vehicles passing a specified point on a highway in
some time interval, there is considerable analytic value in modeling the time
between the arrivals of successive vehicles (the concept of vehicle time headway).
The most simplistic approach to vehicle arrival modeling is to assume that all
vehicles are equally or uniformly spaced. This results in what is termed a
deterministic, uniform arrival pattern. Under this assumption, if the traffic flow is
360 veh/h, the number of vehicles arriving in any 5-minute time interval is 30 and
the headway between all vehicles is 10 seconds (because h will equal 3600/q).
However, actual observations show that such uniformity of traffic flow is not always
realistic because some 5-minute intervals are likely to have more or less traffic flow
than other 5-minute intervals. Thus a representation of vehicle arrivals that goes
beyond the deterministic, uniform assumption is often warranted.

3-1 Poisson Model

Models that account for the nonuniformity of flow are derived by assuming that the
pattern of vehicle arrivals (at a specified point) corresponds to some random
process. The problem then becomes how to choose the probability distribution that
is a reasonable representation of observed traffic arrival patterns. An example of
such a distribution is the Poisson distribution, which is expressed as:

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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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===========================
Limitations of the Poisson Model
Empirical observations have shown that the assumption of Poisson-distributed
traffic arrivals is most realistic in lightly congested traffic conditions. In addition, it
assumes that the mean of period observations equals the variance. If the variance is
significantly greater or lesser than the mean other distributions should be used (e.g.,
the negative binomial distribution for congested traffic conditions).
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Microscopic Flow Characteristics

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3-2 Negative Exponential Distribution

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