Transportation

Traffic Survey

Precise surveys, studies, and scientific analysis of traffic is necessary for traffic engineering and find wide applications in anticipating future requirements of roads, the advancement of existing facilities, design aspects, pavement design, and traffic guidelines and control.
Traffic surveys, better-called traffic census, covers all kinds of traffic, size, and weight, traffic flow, traffic volume per hour, and per day, including seasonal variations/annual variations, distribution in different parts of a road network, and distribution in different directions at intersections.

Traffic volume counts can be obtained by the following methods:

Manual Method

Automatic Counters

• Pneumatic Counters
• Electrical Counters
• Photo-Electric Cell Counters

Moving Observer Method

Presentation of Traffic Volume Study Data

The information acquired from traffic volume are introduced in various structures for coming to suitable end results relying upon the reason for examines:

(a) Hourly, daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual variations of traffic in the form of charts or graphs.

(b) Annual average daily traffic (AADT) of the total traffic as well as classified traffic is determined.

• Concept of PCU.
• If measured for a short period, not for an entire year, is known as Average Daily Traffic (ADT).

(c) Design hourly volume of traffic

(d) Traffic flow-lines are drawn through the route with the thickness of lines being proportional to the traffic volumes.

(e) Traffic flow distribution at road intersections