Determination of PCU values for mixed traffic conditions along the hilly road of East Sikkim

Abstract

The road space in India is shared by different travel modes with different physical dimensions. On top of this, lane disciple is also not followed in India. All these factors influence the evaluation of traffic characteristics, roadway capacity, defining model for traffic flow and other transportation design factors. Passenger car unit (PCU) is a frequently used unit for calculating and expression of heterogeneous traffic volume to a simpler equivalent traffic unit where a passenger car is taken as a standard vehicle and all other classes of vehicle are expressed in terms of the standard car. For the present study, 11 km stretch of NH-10 in East Sikkim was taken into consideration. Data collection was done by video graphic survey. PCUs of different classes of vehicle are estimated using the speed area method by using traffic volume data. The PCU is calculated by multiplying the speed and area ratios of standard cars by the PCU of the subject vehicle type. The methodology adopted in this study is very much suitable for making proper PCU model under different conditions of heterogeneous traffic and road conditions of the study area..