交通工程专业英语 教学课件 邬万江 chapter 4.pdf

Chapter 4 Traffic Studies Chapter 4 Traffic Studies A well-designed, well-executed traffic study is critical in the decision-making process for many transportation-related projects and it is a basic in traffic engineering. Traffic study is conducted for many reasons and applications, such as managing the physical system, calibrating basic relationships or parameters, assessing potential impacts, evaluating facility or system performance, and so on. 4.1 Objectives of Traffic Studies Traffic engineers collect data for many reasons and applications: •Managing the physical system. Physical inventories of physical system elements are always needed. These include traffic control devices, lighting fixtures, and roadways. These inventories help assess which items need to be replaced or repaired, and on what anticipated schedule. • Investigating trends over time. Traffic engineers need trend data to help forecast future transportation needs. Parametric studies on traffic volumes, speed, and densities help quantify current demand and assess operating quality of traffic facilities. Accident studies reveal locations with problems that must be addressed and mitigated. Establishing trends allows the traffic engineer to make needed improvements before an obvious deficiency in the system manifests itself. • Understanding the needs and choices of the public and industry. The traffic engineer must have a good measure of how and why people travel for planning and development purposes. Studies of how travelers make mode choices, time of trip decisions and other judgments is critical to understanding the nature of travel demand. Studies of parking and goods delivery characteristics help plan facilities to effectively handle these demands. • Calibrating basic relationships o