Estimation of Dynamic Equivalency Factor Under Heterogeneous Traffic Condition on Urban Arterial Road—A Case Study of Porbandar City

Abstract

This paper presents the concept of “Dynamic Equivalency Factor” (DEF) for the urban arterial roads under heterogeneous traffic condition, and it reflects that the PCU (Passenger Car Unit) is not a static factor as assumed. The parameters considered for the estimation of DEF are (1) average speed of the vehicle, (2) traffic composition, (3) time headway, and (4) roadway width. The traffic data was collected from three urban roads of Porbandar City, and it was collected at the mid-block section as of the following roads: (1) M.G Road, (2) S.V.P Road and (3) Chhaya Road. The mid-block section was kept of 30 M and traffic data was collected. The following road selected varies in road widths as two lanes divided and two lanes undivided and having different traffic composition. The sections were such selected that it was free from parked vehicles, bus stop, effects of the intersection, curvatures, etc. The DEF was obtained by the following methods (1) multiple regression method, (2) headway method, (3) Chandra’s method and (4) homogenization coefficient method. The traffic data was collected using videography technique for morning 8 a.m.–8 p.m. from which the morning peak hours 8:30–11:30 and evening peak hours 5–8 was concluded for the roads by the study of traffic volume. The peak hour traffic was used to calculate the DEF values and efforts were made to suggest the best realizable DEF value.