The randomness of capacity is a well-known feature of freeway traffic flow. For the estimation of capacity distribution functions based on empirical traffic data, different methodologies were developed and applied. The consistency of these estimation methods for different types of capacity distributions is analyzed. A macroscopic simulation model is used to assess to what extent a given capacity distribution function can be reproduced with the estimation methods. It is found that consistent capacity estimations are obtained only by applying methods based on statistical models for censored data.
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