Analyzing Arterial Streets in Near-Capacity or Overflow Conditions

Abstract

Filtering and metering of traffic at highway bottlenecks influence delay and travel speeds along congested arterial streets. The current Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) method of analyzing urban arterial streets uses the filtering and metering adjustment factor I but does not give recommendations on how to adjust traffic volumes. An improved method of analyzing signalized arterial streets affected by bottlenecks is proposed. A set of equations has been derived to calculate the coefficient I and to adjust the traffic volumes. Conditions in which measured or predicted volumes should be adjusted and conditions in which they do not have to be adjusted are specified. The proposed method incorporates the effect of turning volumes, a feature not present in the current HCM method. A sensitivity analysis of travel speeds along an example signalized arterial street illustrates the filtering and metering effects and compares the results produced by the existing and proposed methods. The differences in the results are considerable. In addition, the significant effect of turning volumes has been confirmed. The proposed method tends to produce travel speeds higher than the values obtained with the current method, which concurs with comments from the users of the HCM that the current method underestimates travel speeds. The filtering equation has been derived with the assumptions of fixed capacity and no vehicle dispersion. Under the conditions violating these assumptions, the filtering equation may underestimate I. Further, the proposed method does not incorporate the effect of long queues blocking upstream lane groups. The negative effect on travel speed estimates along the entire arterial should be limited or negligible.