FRICTION CONCEPT OF TRAFFIC FLOW

AN INVESTIGATION IS PRESENTED OF THE FUNDAMENTAL VEHICLE OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS UNDER NORMAL ROADWAY CONDITIONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF (1) RELATING ROADWAY FEATURES EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF FRICTION TO OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS AND ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE, AND (2) FORMULATING MATHEMATICAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VARIOUS OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS AND WITH ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE. PERHAPS THE UNIQUE ASPECT OF THIS PAPER IS THAT THE DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT INCORPORATES THE IDEA OF EXPRESSING ROADWAY FEATURES IN TERMS OF FRICTION -- INTERNAL, MEDIAL, MARGINAL, AND INTERSECTIONAL. FORTY-ONE TEST SECTIONS OF MAJOR URBAN ARTERIALS IN DETROIT AND LANSING, MICH., WERE INCLUDED IN THIS STUDY, AND ALL TEST SECTIONS WERE RELATIVELY STRAIGHT, LEVEL, MULTI-LANED, AND HEAVILY TRAVELED. A TOTAL OF 1,929 TEST RUNS WAS MADE UTILIZING A SPECIALLY EQUIPPED RESEARCH VEHICLE. THE OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS STUDIED INCLUDED OVER-ALL AVERAGE AND RUNNING SPEEDS, AVERAGE TRAVEL TIME PER MILE, INSTANTANEOUS MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM SPEED, SPEED RANGE AND DISTRIBUTION, FUEL ECONOMY, NUMBER OF BRAKE APPLICATIONS, AND BRAKE TIME. IN ADDITION TO THE OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS DATA, THE TOTAL LENGTH OF ALL TEST SECTIONS WAS PHOTOGRAPHED FOR ROUTE INVENTORY PURPOSES, TRAFFIC VOLUME DATA WERE COLLECTED, HIGHWAY CAPACITY WAS COMPUTED, AND ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE WAS OBTAINED FOR 1956 AND 1957. THE ANALYSIS OF THE SURVEY DATA PERMITTED THE EXPRESSION OF ROADWAY FEATURES IN TERMS OF FRICTION, COMPUTATION OF ACTUAL OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS, AND CONSEQUENTLY THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF FRICTION AND OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS AND BETWEEN VARIOUS OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbproceedings/38/38-026.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 38, pp 493-510, 9 FIG, 1 TAB, 6 PHOT, 4 REF. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • May, A D
• Publication Date: 1959

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 5-9, 1959
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Proceedings
  • Volume: 38
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Average spot speed; Braking; Crash rates; Friction; Fuel consumption; Highway capacity; Highways; Mathematical analysis; Operations; Photography; Speed; Streets; Test sections; Traffic flow; Traffic volume; Travel time; Vehicles
• Uncontrolled Terms: Speed differential
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Energy; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227122
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 13 2004 6:56PM