01473358

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2395-05

http://scholar.google.com...hase&publication_year=2013

Oversaturated speed, flow, and density relationships are of key importance to studies of freeway operations. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) oversaturated model, which is defined by a linear transition from the flow and the density at capacity to a zero flow at jam density in the flow–density space, provides a reasonable representation of this relationship but does not provide an unbiased representation for all freeway facilities with different road conditions or driver behavior. This study proposes a method for fitting the HCM model to oversaturated flow and density. Fifteen-minute aggregated flow rate and speed data were collected in 2010 from Traffic.com fixed-location sensors at three sites on North Carolina urban freeways. Density was calculated as the flow rate divided by the speed. The fitted models for these sites were compared with the default HCM model. A set of thresholds was defined to identify eligible sensor observations that represented the steady-state congested traffic conditions. The results revealed that data observations during inclement weather, lane closures, or incidents biased the model-fitting results and therefore needed to be filtered out. The steady-state congestion data identified in the manner proposed in this study fit well with the HCM-based linear flow–density oversaturated model. This method avoids possible bias caused by capacity and jam density differences between the default HCM model and the site-specific models; therefore, the fitted models represented the actual traffic characteristics relationships better than the default HCM models did. Fitting a site-specific HCM-based model is recommended for sites with sufficient speed and flow data.

01517906

13-0823

English

pp 41–48

2013

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309287180

Print

Figures (6) ; References (16) ; Tables (2)

Flow speed relationships; Methodology; Traffic models; Traffic oversaturation

Highway Capacity Manual 2010

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I70: Traffic and Transport

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:16PM

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