Improved Volume–Delay Function for Two-Lane Rural Highways with Impact of Road Geometry and Traffic-Flow Heterogeneity
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 10
Abstract
Two-lane rural highways represent the absolute majority of road networks globally, but there is a noticeable lack of research on this type of road for traffic planning purposes. This paper presents the relationship between average flow speed on two-lane rural highways and traffic volume and composition, and roadway horizontal and vertical geometric characteristics, expressed in the form of a volume–delay function. A new volume–delay function was developed through a combination of field research and traffic microsimulation. Field research was conducted on the main road network in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In total, more than 1 million simulations of different traffic situations were performed in an automated process. The results showed that a combination of traffic composition and geometric features (bendiness and longitudinal grade) has a crucial impact on average flow speed. The new proposed model predicts average flow speed in various traffic situations with high reliability (), compared with for the widely used Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) volume–delay function.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This research was partly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Science of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FMON).
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147 • Issue 10 • October 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 21, 2021
Accepted: May 6, 2021
Published online: Jul 30, 2021
Published in print: Oct 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 30, 2021
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