Determination of Motorcycle Passenger Car Equivalence for Uninterrupted Flow in an Urban Road of Medellin, Colombia

Motorcycle ridership has increased globally. Its high presence in traffic accidents has led to its study from the safety perspective. Its role in traffic congestion and road performance is, nevertheless, less known. Studies made in the latter aspect have shown divergent results, without leading to a general consensus. In Colombia, the annual rate of motorcycle ownership increase (15%) is the highest in South America, and to the year 2009 motorcycles already represented 45% of the national motorized fleet. The lack of knowledge of the effects of motorcycles on road performance and congestion leads to inaccuracies in road network planning and design in countries with high ridership of these vehicles. This work studies motorcycles impact in traffic congestion by determining its Passenger Car Equivalence (PCEm) in an urban road of three lanes, zero slope, uninterrupted flow and 3,2 m lane width. It was found that PCEm decreases as passenger cars density increases due to an increase in motorcycle filtering. During stable flow, the average PCEm was 0,29, whereas unstable flow showed an average PCEm of 0,05. Average PCEm observed for all regimes was 0,16. According to this, it is concluded that traditional PCEm used in Colombia (PCEm = 0,5) is not accurate and overestimates motorcycles impact on traffic. It is also concluded that the impact of motorcycles on congestion, for the observed traffic compositions, is negligible when filtering. Thus, from the traffic perspective, motorcycles can be beneficial to society for they, in certain conditions, allow people to dodge congestion and keep moving.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 19p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01520190
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 14-5137
  • Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Mar 26 2014 11:27AM