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T R A N S P O RT AT I O N
ENGINEERING

TRAFFIC ENGINEERING STUDIES

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Introduction
availability of highway
transportation

several problems high standard of living

highway-related crashes
parking difficulties
congestion
delay

collect information
extent of the problems
indentifies their locations
TRAFFIC ENGINEERING STUDIES
Inventories
organizing and conducting
traffic surveys Administrative Studies
traffic studies
Dynamic Studies

Introduction
INVENTORIES
- provide a list of graphic display of existing information
• street widths For example, available parking spaces and traffic
• parking spaces regulations change frrequently and therefore require
• transit routes periodic updating; others, such as street widths, do
• traffic regulations not.

ADMINISTRATIVE STUDIES
- use existing engineering records, available in government agencies and
departments
• results of surveys
- field mesurements
- aerial photography

DYNAMIC TRAFFIC STUDIES

- collection of data under operational conditions
• speed
• traffic volume
• travel and delay
• parking
• crashes

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Spot Speed Studies

* Spot Speed Studies are conducted to estimate the distribution of speeds of
vehicles in a stream of traffic at a particular location on a highway
* It is carried out by recording the speeds of a sample of vehicles at a specified
location

* Spot speed data have a number of safety applications, including the following :
1. Determining existing traffic operations and evaluation of traffic control devices
• Evaluating and determining proper speed limits
• Determining the 85th speed percentiles
• Evaluating and determining proper advisory speeds
• Determining the proper placements of traffic control signs and markings
• Setting appropriate traffic signal timing
2. Establishing roadway design elements
• Evaluating and determining proper intersection sight distance
• Evaluating and determining proper passing sight distance
• Evaluating and determining proper stopping sight distance

Spot Speed Studies

3. Assessing roadway safety questions
• Evaluating and verifying speeding problems
• Assessing speed as a contributor to vehicle crashes
• Investigating input from the public or other officials
4. Monitoring traffic speed trends by systematic ongoing speed studies
5. Measuring effectiveness of traffic control devices or traffic programs,
including signs and markings, traffic operational changes, and speed
enforcement programs

Locations for Spot Speed Studies

The following locations generally are used for the different applications listed:
1. Locations that represents different traffic conditions on a highway or
highways are used for basic data collection
2. Mid-blocks of urban highways and straight, level sections of rural highways
are sites for speed strend analysis.
3. Any location may be used for the solution of a specific traffic engineering
problem.

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Locations for Spot Speed Studies

* Unbiased data should be obtain which require that:
- Drivers should be unaware of the study being conducted.
- Equipments (radars) are concealed fro drivers.
- Observers conducting the study should be inconspicuous.
- Statistically adequate number of vehicle speeds be recorded.

Time of Day and Duration of Spot Speed Studies

* The time of day for conducting a speed study depends on the purpose of the study.
- To establish posted speed limits It is recommended that the study be
- To observe speed trends conducted when traffic is free-flowing,
- To collect basic data usually during off-peak hours.

- In response to citizen complaints It is useful if the time period selected for

the study reflects the nature of the
complaints.
* The duration of the study should be such that the minimum number of
vehicle speeds required for statistical analysis is recorded. Typically, the
duration is at least 1 hour and the sample size is at least 30 vehicles.

Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

* The calculated mean (or average) speed is used to represents the true mean
value of all vehicle speeds at that location. The accuracy of this assumption
depends on the number of vehicles in the sample. The larger the sample size,
the greater the probability that the estimated mean is not significantly different
from the true mean. It is therefore necessary to select a sample size that will
give an estimated mean within acceptable error limits. Staitistical procedures
are used to determine this minimum sample size.
* Significant Values That Describe Speed Characteristics :
1. Average Speed
- The arithmetic mean of all observed vehicle speeds

u
u i
ū = arithmetic mean
fi = number of observations in each speed group
N ui = midvalue for the ith speed group
N = number of observed values

u 
 fu i i

f i

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Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

* Significant Values That Describe Speed Characteristics :
2. Median Speed
- Speed at the middle value in a series of spot speeds that are arranged in
ascending order.
- 50 percent of the speed values will be greater than the median; 50 percent will
be less than the median
3. Modal Speed
- Speed value that occurs most frequently in a sample of spot speeds

4. ith - percentile Spot Speed

- The spot speed value below which i percent of the vehicles travel.
For example, 85th percentile spot speed is the speed below which 85
percent of the vehicles travel and above which 15 percent oof the vehicles
travel

5. Pace
- the range of speed usually taken at 10 km/h intervals that has the greatest
number of observations

Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

* Significant Values That Describe Speed Characteristics :
6. Standard Deviation of Speeds
- measure of the spread of the individual speeds
S = standard deviation
 u u  f u u
2 2
j i i ū = arithmetic mean
S S uj = jth observation
N 1 N 1 N = number of observations
ui = midvalue of speed class i
fi = frequency of speed class i

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Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

Probability Theory
- used to determine the sample sizes for traffic engineering studies

* Although a detailed discussion of Probability Theory is beyond the scope of

this book, the simplest and most commonly used procedures are presented.

* The minimum sample size depends on the precision level desired

Precision Level
- degree of confidence that the sampling error of a produced estimate will fall
within a desired range.
For a precision level of 90 - 10, there is a 90 percent probability (confidence
level) that the error of an estimate will not be greater than 10 percent of its true
value.

Confidence Level
- commonly given in terms of the level of significance (α)
- The commonly used confidence level of speed counts is 95 percent.
α = ( 100 - confidence level )

Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

Basic Assumption :
* The Normal Distribution describes
the Speed Distribution over a given
section of highway.
* The properties of the normal
distribution are then used to
determine the minimum sample
size for an acceptable error d of the
estimated speed. The following
basic properties are used.

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Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

The last five properties are used to

draw specific conclusions about
speed data.

For example, if it can be assumed

that the true mean of the speeds in a
section of highway is 80 km/h and the
true standard deviation is 7 km/h, it
can be concluded that 95 percent of
all vehicle speeds will be between (80
- 1.96 x 7.0) = 66.3 km/h and (80 +
1.96 x 7.0) = 93.7 km/h. Similarly, if a
vehicle is selected at random, there is
a 95 percent chance that its speed is
between 66.3 and 93.7 km/h.

Sample Size for Spot Speed Studies

* The properties of the normal distribution have been used to develop an
equation relating the sample size to the number of standard variations
corresponding to a particular confidence level, the limits of tolerable error, and
the standard deviation.

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 Z 
N  
 d 

N = minmum sample size

Z = number of standard
deviations corresponding
to the required confidence
= level 1.96 for 95 percent
confidence level (Table 4.1)
σ = standard deviation
(km/h)
d = limit of acceptable error
in the average speed
estimate (km/h)

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Example No. 1
As part of a class project, a group of students collected a total of 120 spot speed
samples at a location and determined from this data that the standard variation
of the speeds was ± 10 km/h. If the project required that the confidence level
be 95% and the limit of acceptable error was ± 2.5 km/h, determine whether
these students satisfied the project requirement.
2
 Z 
N   
 d 
Given :
The project required that the confidence level be 95 %
Z = 1.96 (Table 4.1)
Standard variation of the speed was ± 10 km/h
σ = ± 10
The limit of acceptable error was ± 2.5 km/h
d = ± 2.5

 1 . 96 x10 
2 Therefore, the minimum number of spot speeds
N   collected to satisfy the project requirement is 62.
 2 .5  Since the students collected 120 samples, they
N = 61.45 ≈ 62 satisfied the project requirements

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Methods for Conducting Spot Speed Studies

* Two Methods available :
1. Manual Method
- seldom used ; “Stopwatch Method”

2. Automatic Method
- Several automatic devices that can be used to obtain the instantaneous speeds
of vehicles at a location on a highway.
- These automatic devices can be grouped into three main categories :
a. those that use road detectors
b. those that are radar-based
c. those that use the principles of electronics

Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

data collected speed characteristics
sample of vehicles whole population of
section of the highway vehicles

statistical method
analysis of data

calculated directly graphical

from the data representation

Formats in presentation of Spot Speed Data

Frequency Distribution Table Frequency Distribution Curve

Frequency Histogram Cumulative Frequency Distribution Curve

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Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

Frequency Distribution Table
- presentation format most commonly used
- shows the total number of vehicles observed in each speed group.

Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

Frequency Histogram
- chart showing the midvalue for each class as the abscissa and the observed
frequency for the corresponding class as the ordinate

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Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

Frequency Distribution Curve
- shows a plot of the the midvalue for each class against the percentage of
observation
- From this curve the modal speed and pace of traffic flow can be determine.
Generally the shape of the curve follows the normal distribution curve, this
because the most of the vehicles move on road near by mean speed and very
few deviate from mean speed.

Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

Cumulative Frequency Distribution Curve
- shows a plot of the frequency cimulative percentage against the upper limit of
each corresponding speed class

*In both the distribution curve, the

plots are connected by a smooth
curve that minimizes the total
distance of points falling above the
line and those falling below the
line. A smooth curve is defined as
one without.

Since the cumulative % frequency

is defined as the percentage of
vehicles traveling at or below a
given speed, the cumulative
frequency distribution curve plots
the upper limit of the speed group
(NOT the middle speed).

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Presentation and Analysis of Spot Speed Data

Example No. 2 (Determining Speed Characteristics from a Set of Speed Data)
Table shows the data collected on a rural highway during a speed study.
Develop the frequency histogram and the frequency distribution of the data
and determine:
a. arithmetic mean speed
b. standard deviation
c. median speed
d. pace
e. mode or modal speed
f. 85th percentile

Frequency Distribution Table

selection of number of classes
max speed = 65.0 km/h
min speed = 34.8 km/h
speed range = max speed - min speed
= 65.0 - 34.8
speed range = 30.2 km/h
* number of classes chosen is usually between 8 and 20, depending on the
data collected
range per class for 8 classes
= 30.2 / 8
= 3.8 km/h ← maximum range

range per class for 20 classes

= 30.2 / 20
= 1.51 km/h ← minimum range

* It is convinient to choose a range of 2 km/h per class which will give 16

classes

number of classes = 16

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Frequency Distribution Table for Set of Speed Data

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Histogram of Observed Vehicle's Speed

The values in column 2 and 3 of the Frequency Distribution Table are used
to draw the frequency histogram, where the abscissa represents the speeds
and the ordinate the observed frequency in each class

Frequency Distribution

In this case, a curve showing percentage of observations against speed is

drawn by plotting values from column 5 against the corresponding values
in column 2. The total are under this curve is one or 100 percent

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Cumulative Distribution

In this case, the cumulative percentages in column 6 are plotted against the
upper limit of each corresponding speed class. This curve, therefore, gives
the percentage of vehicles that are traveling at or below a given speed.

Characteristics of the Speed Data

a. arithmetic mean speed b. standard deviation

u 
 fu
i i
S
 f u
i i u
2

f i N 1
Σfi = 86 Σfi (ui - ú)2 = 3632
Σfiui = 4260 N - 1 = Σfi - 1 = 85

ú = 4260 / 86
ú = 49.5 km/h S = ± 6.5 km/h

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Characteristics of the Speed Data

c. median speed
The median speed is obtained
from the cumulativ frequency
distribution curve as 49 km/h,
the 50th percentile speed.

49 km/h

Characteristics of the Speed Data

d. pace
The pace is obtained from the
frequency distribution curve
as 45 to 55 km/h
45 to 55 km/h

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Characteristics of the Speed Data

e. modal speed
The mode or modal speed is
obtained from the frequency
histogram as 49 km/h.
It also may obtained from the
frequency distribution curve shown,
where the speed corresponding to
the highest point on the curve is
taken as an estimate of the modal
speed

49 km/h

Characteristics of the Speed Data

f. 85th percentile speed
It is obtained from the cumulative frequency distribution curve as 54 km/h

54 km/h

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Comparison of Mean Speeds

* It is also sometimes necessary to determine whether there is a significant
difference between the mean speeds of two spot speed studies.

* This is done by comparing the absolute difference between the sample mean
speeds against the product of the standard deviation of the difference in means
and the factor Z for a given confidence level.

* If the absolute difference between the sample means is greater, it can then be
concluded that there is a significant difference in sample means at that specific
confidence level.
standard deviation of the difference in means
n1 = sample size for study 1
n2 = sample size for study 2
Sd = square root of the variance of the difference
in means
S12 = variance about the mean for study 1
S22 = variance about the mean for study 2

Comparison of Mean Speeds

If ū1 = mean speed of study 1, ū2 = mean speed of study 2, and |ū1 - ū2|> ZSd ,
it can be concluded that “The mean speeds are significantly different at the
confidence level corresponding to Z.”. This analysis assumes that ū1 and ū2 are
estimated means from the same distribution.

* Since it is usual to use the 95 percent confidence level in traffic engineering

studies, the conclusion will, therefore, be based on whether |ū1 - ū2| is greater
than 1.96Sd.
Example No. 3 (Significant Differences in Average Apot Speeds)
Speed data were collected at a section of highway during and after utility
maintenance work. The speed characteristics are given as, ū1 , S1 and ū2 , S2as
shown below. Determine whether there was any significant difference between
the average speed at the 95% confidence level.
ū1 = 35.5 km/h ū2 = 38.7 km/h
S1 = 7.5 km/h S2 = 7.4 km/h
n1 = 250 n2 = 250

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Comparison of Mean Speeds

Sd = 0.65

Find the difference in means :

38.7 - 35.5 = 3.2 km/h

3.2 > (1.96)(0.65)
3.2 > 1.3 km/h

It can be concluded that the difference in mean speeds is significant at

the 95% confidence level

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