HIGHWAY CAPACITY: AN INTRODUCTION

By D. N. D. Jayaratne, Research Assistant, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa

Introduction field. However, capacity measures are often

empirically derived.
It is often required to quantitatively determine
the maximum amount of vehicles/passengers a Capacity depends on the following operating
transport facility can accommodate. Such conditions. The first is the traffic condition, and
information is useful in the design of the traffic the factors that influence the capacity includes
facility. Capacity analysis helps in answering vehicle composition, turning movements,
this question. Capacity analysis is a quantitative directional split (when considering two lane
assessment of the ability of a traffic facility to roads), etc. The second factor is the roadway
handle vehicles or people for which it was condition and it includes geometrical
designed. characteristics such as lane width, shoulder
width, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment.
A related question to this is, what is the
The third factor is the control conditions such
performance level of a given traffic facility at
as the traffic signals, roundabouts, etc. It is also
different operating conditions. Or in other
to be noted that the above capacity definition
words, how good is the operation of the traffic
holds good for a point or at a section of the road
facility. Level of Service (LOS) analysis which
having uniform control conditions. Lastly the
is essentially a qualitative analysis tries to
term reasonable expectancy indicates that the
answer this question. Capacities and Level of
capacity measure is probabilistic and not an
Services are therefore closely related analysis
analytically derived deterministic value. The
of a traffic facility.
capacity measure is probabilistic, for it
Definition accounts for the unexplainable variation in
traffic and diverse driving characteristics.
Capacity of a transport facility is defined as the
maximum number of vehicles, passengers, or Uses
the like, per unit time which can be
The ability to estimate capacity has many uses
accommodated under given conditions with a
in the design, maintenance and improvement of
reasonable expectation of occurrence. The
traffic facilities. The knowledge of the capacity
Highway Capacity Manual (2010) defines the
of an existing transportation facility enables the
capacity as the maximum hourly rate at which
transport planners and designers understand the
persons or vehicles can be reasonably expected
limits of said facility and thereby determine
to traverse a point or a uniform segment of a
how to maximise the output in the overall
lane or roadway during a given time period,
transportation network of a given area by
under prevailing roadway, traffic and control
avoiding or improving transportation facilities
conditions. Several observations can be made
that act as bottlenecks in the network. Similarly,
from the above definition. Although capacity is
in the design of transportation facilities such as
the maximum hourly rate, in many situations
highways the ability to accurately estimate the
the peak 15-minute flow rate is expressed as the
traffic capacity at critical sections of the new
capacity. This is done so as to better capture the
facility is vital to its smooth operation.
continuous variations in the nature of the traffic
stream. The definition also contains the term Guidelines
reasonably expected, to account for the
The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM)
variation in traffic and driving habits at various
developed in the United States of America is
locations. However, Capacity can be termed as
one of the premier guidelines referred to in
a probabilistic measure. Further, analytical
capacity estimations of transportation facilities.
derivations are possible for getting the
It provides information on different
maximum flow rate, seldom it is achieved in the
transportation facilities including two-lane,
multilane highways under un-interrupted and
interrupted flow conditions. But the HCM has
limited applicability to Sri Lankan highways
due to the significant differences in traffic
characteristics such as traffic composition,
driver behaviour etc. The HCM is derived
based on homogeneous traffic where the
vehicles in the traffic stream are more or less
similar whereas the traffic streams in local
conditions are heavily heterogeneous. This
leads to inaccurate estimations of traffic
parameters. Hence it is important to develop
local guidelines to estimate traffic parameters.
This requirement has been identified by other
Asian countries such as India, China, Indonesia
etc. where local guidelines have been
developed or are being developed.
Methodology for Derivation
Figure 1 presents the basic methodology in
determining the capacity of a uniform road
section. The heterogeneous flow can be
converted to a homogeneous flow with the use
of the Passenger Car Unit (PCU) factor. PCU is
a metric used to express the impact a given
vehicle type has on traffic variables, in
comparison to a passenger car. The PCU values
too should be those representative of the
operating conditions of local vehicles.
Capacity
Figure 2
Typical Capacity values
Table 1 denotes typical capacity values
presented in HCM 2010 and Geometric
Standards of Roads developed by the Road
Development Authority of Sri Lanka in 1998.
The base conditions provided by the HCM 2010
for two-lane roads with capacity of
3200PCU/hr are as follows,
Lane widths greater than or equal to 12ft
(3.6m),
Clear shoulders wider than or equal to 6ft
(1.8m),
No no-passing zones,
All passenger cars in traffic stream,
Level terrain,
No impediments to through traffic (e.g.,
traffic signals, turning vehicles)
Table 1

Vehicle speed (km/h) and flow (veh/hr) data Two-lane

Multi-lane
undivided
divided highway
highway
Convert existing flow to a homogeneous flow HCM 1900-
3200PCU/hr
(PCU/hr) (2010) 2200PCU/hr/lane
RDA
2800PCU/hr 2000PCU/hr/lane
(1998)
Derive vehicle density (veh/km) using
fundamental traffic flow equation (Q = U*K)
Local Studies
Determine traffic stream model from speed- Even though research regarding the
density curve development of PCU factors have been done in
Sri Lanka as of now no significant inroads have
been made in Highway Capacity studies in Sri
Develop Speed-Flow curve
Lanka. Given the increase in traffic in the
metropolitan areas of the country it can be seen
that the development of a methodology to
Determine Capacity estimate capacity and thereby develop an
Figure 1 efficient transport network will be a timely
venture.