Factors Affecting Transportation

运输引擎的成功ering depends upon the co-ordination between the three primary elements, namely the vehicles, the roadways, and the road users. Their characteristics affect the performance of the transportation system and the transportation engineer should have fairly good understanding about them. This post elaborated salient human, vehicle, and road factors affecting transportation.

These factors greatly influence the geometric design as well as design of control facilities. Variant nature of the driver, vehicle, and roadway characteristics should be given importance for the smooth, safe, and efficient performance of traffic in the road.

影响运输的人为因素

道路使用者可以定义为使用街道和高速公路的驾驶员，乘客，行人等。它们共同构成了交通系统中最复杂的元素 - 人类元素 - 将运输工程与所有其他工程领域区分开来。据说这是最复杂的因素，因为人类的表现因个人而异。因此，运输工程师应处理各种道路用户特征。例如，交通信号定时允许普通行人安全地越过街道，这可能会对老年人造成严重危害。因此，设计的考虑应安全有效地容纳老年人，孩子，残障，速度迅速以及好驱动器。

1. Variability

The most complex problem while dealing human characteristics is its variability. The human characteristics like ability to react to a situation, vision and hearing, and other physical and psychological factors vary from person to person and depends on age, fatigue, nature of stimuli, presence of drugs/alcohol etc. The influence of all these factors and the corresponding variability cannot be accounted when a facility is designed. So a standardized value is often used as the design value. The85^thpercentile value of different characteristics is taken as a standard. It represents a characteristic that 85 per percent of the population can meet or exceed. For example; if we say that the85^thpercentile value of walking speed is about2 m/s,这意味着85%的人走路speed faster than 2 m/s. The variability is thus fixed by selecting proper 85th percentile values of the characteristics.

2. Critical characteristics

The road user characteristics can be of two main types, some of them are quantifiable like reaction time, visual acuity etc. while some others are less quantifiable like the psychological factors, physical strength, fatigue, and dexterity.

3. Reaction time

The road user is subjected to a series of stimuli both expected and unexpected. The time taken to perform an action according to the stimulus involves a series of stages like:

Perception:Perception is the process of perceiving the sensations received through the sense organs, nerves and brains. It is actually the recognitions that a stimulus on which a reaction is to happen exists.

Intellection:智力涉及对刺激的识别和理解。

Emotion:这个阶段涉及对刺激作出适当反应的判断，例如停止，通过，横向移动等。

Volition:意志是执行决定的结果，这是驾驶员的身体动作的结果。

例如;如果驾驶员接近信号为红色的交叉点，则驾驶员首先看到信号（感知），他认识到这是红色/停止信号，他决定停止并最终应用制动器（自愿）。该序列称为PIEV时间或感知反应时间。但是，除了上述时间外，车辆本身以初始速度行驶将需要更多时间才能停止。也就是说，以初次速度行驶的车辆vwill travel for a distance,d = vtwhere,t是上述时间。同样，施加制动器后，车辆将行驶一些距离。

4. Visual acuity and driving

perception-reaction时间很大程度上取决于the effectiveness of driver’s vision in perceiving the objects and traffic control measures. The PIEV time will be decreased if the vision is clear and accurate. Visual acuity relates to the field of clearest vision. The most acute vision is within a cone of 3 to 5 degrees, fairly clear vision within 10 to 12 degrees and the peripheral vision will be within 120 to 180 degrees. This is important when traffic signs and signals are placed, but other factors like dynamic visual acuity, depth perception etc. should also be considered for accurate design. Glare vision and color vision are also equally important. Glare vision is greatly affected by age. Glare recovery time is the time required to recover from the effect of glare after the light source is passed, and will be higher for elderly persons. Color vision is important as it can come into picture in case of sign and signal recognition.

5. Walking

Transportation planning and design will not be complete if the discussion is limited to drivers and vehicular passengers. The most prevalent of the road users are the pedestrians. Pedestrian traffic along footpaths, sidewalks, crosswalks, safety zones, islands, and over and under passes should be considered. On an average, the pedestrian walking speed can be taken between 1.5 m/sec to 2 m/sec. But the influence of physical, mental, and emotional factors need to be considered. Parking spaces and facilities like signals, bus stops, and over and under passes are to be located and designed according to the maximum distance to which a user will be willing to walk. It was seen that in small towns 90 per cent park within 185 m of their destinations while only 66 per cent park so close in large city.

6. Other Characteristics

检测声音需要听力，但是缺乏听力敏锐度可以通过使用助听器的使用来补偿。进行了许多实验以测试驱动警惕性，这是驱动器在长时间内辨别环境标志的能力。结果表明，没有经历任何类型的疲劳状况的驾驶员的表现明显优于遇到疲劳条件的驾驶员。但是，精神疲劳比技能疲劳更危险。驾驶员对年龄，性别，知识和驾驶技能等的态度的变化也很重要。

Two of the important constituents of transportation system are drivers and users/passengers. Understanding of certain human characteristics like perception – reaction time and visual acuity and their variability are to be considered by Traffic Engineer. Because of the variability in characteristics, the85^thpercentile values of the human characteristics are fixed as standards for design of traffic facilities.

Vehicle Factors Affecting Transportation

重要的是要了解车辆特性，因为我们可以为任何车辆设新利18体育官网登录计道路，而不是不确定的车辆。这条路应该使其应满足现有车辆和预期车辆的需求。下面讨论了影响运输的某些车辆因素。

1. Design vehicles

Highway systems accommodate a wide variety of sizes and types of vehicles, from smallest compact passenger cars to the largest double and triple tractor-trailer combinations. According to the different geometric features of highways like the lane width, lane widening on curves, minimum curb and corner radius, clearance heights etc some standard physical dimensions for the vehicles has been recommended. Road authorities are forced to impose limits on vehicular characteristics mainly:

• to provide practical limits for road designers to work to,
• 要看到道路空间和几何形状可用于普通车辆，
• to implement traffic control effectively and efficiently,
• take care of other road users also.

Taking the above points into consideration, in general, the vehicles can be grouped into motorized two wheeler’s, motorized three wheeler’s, passenger car, bus, single axle trucks, multi axle trucks, truck trailer combinations, and slow non motorized vehicles.

2. Vehicle dimensions

The vehicular dimensions which can affect the road and traffic design are mainly: width, height, length, rear overhang, and ground clearance. The width of vehicle affects the width of lanes, shoulders and parking facility. The capacity of the road will also decrease if the width exceeds the design values. The height of the vehicle affects the clearance height of structures like over-bridges, under-bridges and electric and other service lines and also placing of signs and signals. Another important factor is the length of the vehicle which affects the extra width of pavement, minimum turning radius, safe overtaking distance, capacity and the parking facility. The rear overhang control is mainly important when the vehicle takes a right/left turn from a stationary point. The ground clearance of vehicle comes into picture while designing ramps and property access and as bottoming out on a crest can stop a vehicle from moving under its own pulling power.

3. Weight, axle configuration etc.

在设计柔性和刚性时，车辆的重量是一个主要考虑因素。车辆的重量通过车轴传递到路面，因此设计参数是根据车轴数固定的。功率与重量比是衡量车辆可以移动的易度性的度量。它决定了道路上车辆的运行效率。该比率对重型车辆更为重要。功率与重量比是确定可以考虑重型车辆的情况下允许正梯度的长度的主要标准。

4. Turning radius and turning path

The minimum turning radius is dependent on the design and class of the vehicle. The effective width of the vehicle is increased on a turning. This is also important at an intersection, roundabout, terminals, and parking areas.

5. Visibility

The visibility of the driver is influenced by the vehicular dimensions. As far as forward visibility is concerned, the dimension of the vehicle and the slope and curvature of wind screens, windscreen wipers, door pillars, etc should be such that:

• Visibility is clear even in bad weather conditions like fog, ice, and rain;
• 在交叉车行动中，它不应掩盖行人，骑自行车的人或其他车辆。

Equally important is the side and rear visibility when maneuvering especially at intersections when the driver adjusts his speed in order to merge or cross a traffic stream. Rear vision efficiency can be achieved by properly positioning the internal or external mirrors.

6. Acceleration characteristics

The acceleration capacity of vehicle is dependent on its mass, the resistance to motion and available power. In general, the acceleration rates are highest at low speeds, decreases as speed increases. Heavier vehicles have lower rates of acceleration than passenger cars. The difference in acceleration rates becomes significant in mixed traffic streams. For example, heavy vehicles like trucks will delay all passengers at an intersection. Again, the gaps formed can be occupied by other smaller vehicles only if they are given the opportunity to pass. The presence of upgrades make the problem more severe. Trucks are forced to decelerate on grades because their power is not sufficient to maintain their desired speed. As trucks slow down on grades, long gaps will be formed in the traffic stream which cannot be efficiently filled by normal passing maneuvers.

7. Braking performance

就公路安全而言，车辆的制动性能和减速特性至关重要。就各种交通设施的设计而言，停止车辆所花费的时间和距离非常重要。制动距离所取决于的因素是道路的类型及其状况，轮胎的类型和状况以及制动系统的类型。从一个速度下降到另一种速度的距离由以下方式给出：

d = [(v²– u²)/ (f +g)]
wheredis the braking distance,vandu是车辆的初始速度和最终速度，fis the coefficient of forward rolling and skidding friction andgis the grade in decimals. The main characteristics of a traffic system influenced by braking and deceleration performance are:

Safe stopping sight distance:The minimum stopping sight distance includes both the reaction time and the distance covered in stopping. Thus, the driver should see the obstruction in time to react to the situation and stop the vehicle.

Clearance and change interval:The Clearance and change intervals are again related to safe stopping distance. All vehicles at a distance further away than one stopping sight distance from the signal when the Yellow is flashed is assumed to be able to stop safely. Such a vehicle which is at a distance equal or greater than the stopping sight distance will have to travel a distance equal to the stopping sight distance plus the width of the street, plus the length of the vehicle. Thus the yellow and all red times should be calculated to accommodate the safe clearance of those vehicles.

Sign placement:The placement of signs again depends upon the stopping sight distance and reaction time of drivers. The driver should see the sign board from a distance at least equal to or greater than the stopping sight distance.

From the examples discussed above, it is clear that the braking and reaction distance computations are very important as far as a transportation system is concerned. Stopping sight distance is a product of the characteristics of the driver, the vehicle and the roadway. And so this can vary with drivers and vehicles. Here the concept of design vehicles gains importance as they assist in general design of traffic facilities thereby enhancing the safety and performance of roadways.

Road Factors Affecting Transportation

1.道路表面

路面的类型是由体积nd composition of traffic, the availability of materials, and available funds. Some of the factors relating to road surface like road roughness, tire wear, tractive resistance, noise, light reflection, electrostatic properties etc. should be given special attention in the design, construction and maintenance of highways for their safe and economical operation. Unfortunately, it is impossible to build road surface which will provide the best possible performance for all these conditions. For heavy traffic volumes, a smooth riding surface with good all-weather anti skid properties is desirable. The surface should be chosen to retain these qualities so that maintenance cost and interference to traffic operations are kept to a minimum.

2. Lighting

Illumination is used to illuminate the physical features of the road way and to aid in the driving task. A luminaire is a complete lighting device that distributes light into patterns much as a garden hose nozzle distributes water. Proper distribution of the light flux from luminaires is one of the essential factors in efficient roadway lighting. It is important that roadway lighting be planned on the basis of many traffic information such as night vehicular traffic, pedestrian volumes and accident experience.

3. Roughness

This is one of the main factors that an engineer should give importance during the design, construction, and maintenance of a highway system. Drivers tend to seek smoother surface when given a choice. On four-lane highways where the texture of the surface of the inner-lane is rougher than that of the outside lane, passing vehicles tend to return to the outside lane after execution of the passing maneuver. Shoulders or even speed-change lanes may be deliberately roughened as a means of delineation.

4. Pavement colors

When the pavements are light colored (for example, cement concrete pavements) there is better visibility during day time whereas during night dark colored pavements like bituminous pavements provide more visibility. Contrasting pavements may be used to indicate preferential use of traffic lanes. A driver tends to follow the same pavement color having driven some distance on a light or dark surface, he expects to remain on a surface of that same color until he arrives a major junction point.

5.夜间可见度

Since most accidents occur at night because of reduced visibility, the traffic designer must strive to improve nighttime visibility in every way he can. An important factor is the amount of light which is reflected by the road surface to the drivers’ eyes. Glare caused by the reflection of oncoming vehicles is negligible on a dry pavement but is an important factor when the pavement is wet.

6. Geometric aspects

The roadway elements such as pavement slope, gradient, right of way etc affect transportation in various ways. Central portion of the pavement is slightly raised and is sloped to either sides so as to prevent the ponding of water on the road surface. This will deteriorate the riding quality since the pavement will be subjected to many failures like potholes etc. Minimum lane width should be provided to reduce the chances of accidents. Also the speed of the vehicles will be reduced and time consumed to reach the destination will also be more. Right of way width should be properly provided. If the right of way width becomes less, future expansion will become difficult and the development of that area will be adversely affected. One important other road element is the gradient. It reduces the tractive effort of large vehicles. Again the fuel consumption of the vehicles climbing a gradient is more. The other road elements that cannot be avoided are curves. Near curves, chances of accidents are more. Speed of the vehicles is also affected.