Development of Guidelines Based on Life-Cycle Cost To Replace Level-of-Service Concept in Capacity Analysis

Abstract

Highway capacity manuals (HCMs) from developed countries cannot be successfully applied in Indonesia because of significant differences in driver behavior, traffic composition, and level of roadside activities. The Indonesian HCM project (IHCM) was therefore started in 1991 and has resulted in a manual and software for urban traffic facilities, inter-urban roads, and motorways. The IHCM also includes traffic engineering guidelines for selection of appropriate road and intersection type and design for new construction or improvements based on life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis. The LCC model includes all relevant road-user costs (those for vehicle operations, time, accidents, and emissions) and road-producer costs (those for land acquisition, road construction, and road maintenance and operation). The LCC results identify the design alternative that has the lowest total cost and thus is the most economical for any given traffic flow. The IHCM guidelines also include traffic-performance graphs for standard road types and intersections as a function of traffic flow as well as information about accident rates and the impact of geometric design changes on safety. The guidelines assist the user with preliminary selection of the design before starting the detailed analysis. They can also be used on their own as a shortcut for planning purposes and therefore serve as a replacement for the level-of-service concept applied in the U.S. HCM.