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THE QUALITY OF TRAFFIC FLOW

IT WAS NECESSARY TO DEVISE A MEASURE WHICH WOULD BE SENSITIVE TO SMALL VARIATIONS IN THE QUALITY OF TRAFFIC FLOW. ONE OF THE REQUIREMENTS WAS THAT SUCH A MEASURE BE A PURE OR DIMENSIONLESS NUMBER. THE TRAFFIC QUALITY INDEX IS BASED ON THE CONCEPT THAT AVERAGE SPEED IS A POSITIVE FACTOR IN EXPRESSING THE DEGREE OF TRAFFIC QUALITY, WHILE ANY VARIATION IN SPEED CAN GENERALLY BE CONSIDERED AS TURBULENCE. TWO APPLICATIONS OF THE QUALITY INDEX WERE INCLUDED. ONE SHOWS THE USE OF THE INDEX IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIVE COST FACTORS OF VEHICLE OPERATION AS A METHOD OF EXPRESSING THE EFFICIENCY OF AN URBAN STREET. ANOTHER APPLICATION OF THE QUALITY INDEX WAS A TEST OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GASOLINE CONSUMPTION AND TRAFFIC FLOW QUALITY. ONE OF THE NEEDS PREREQUISITE TO THE WIDER USE OF THE QUALITY INDEX IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF ACCEPTABLE STANDARDS APPLICABLE TO STREETS OF VARIOUS TYPES. WHILE SOMETHING OF THE RANGE OF QUALITY INDEX NUMBERS WAS LEARNED IN THE STUDY, IT WAS ALSO POINTED OUT THAT THEY PROBABLY FOLLOW A RATIO OR LOGARITHMIC SCALE, OR ONE IN WHICH EQUAL INCREMENTS ALONG THE SCALE HAVE UNEQUAL SIGNIFICANCE. IT WAS ALSO DEMONSTRATED IN THIS STUDY THAT QUALITY OF TRAFFIC FLOW HAS A BETTER CORRELATION WITH TRAFFIC DENSITY THAN WITH TRAFFIC VOLUME.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • A Symposium, PP 3-40, 18 FIG, 3 TAB
  • Corporate Authors:

    Pennsylvania State University, University Park

    Bureau of Highway Traffic
    University Park, PA  United States  16802
  • Authors:
    • Greenshields, B D
  • Publication Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00227095
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Aug 13 2004 6:47PM