Empirical analysis of short period traffic counts and their efficiency: the case of Indian traffic |
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Authors: | Pranamesh Chakraborty Partha Chakroborty |
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Institution: | Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, India |
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Abstract: | Short period traffic counts (SPTCs) are conducted routinely to estimate the annual average daily traffic (AADT) at a particular site. This paper uses Indian traffic volume data to methodically and extensively study the effect of four aspects related to the design of SPTCs. These four aspects are: (i) for how long, (ii) on which days should SPTCs be carried out, (iii) how many times, and (iv) on which months should SPTCs be carried out? The analyses indicate that the best durations for conducting SPTCs are 3 days (starting with a Thursday) and 7 days, for total traffic and truck traffic, respectively. Further, these counts should be repeated twice a year keeping a separation of two months between the counts to obtain good estimates of AADT at minimal cost. An additional outcome of this study has been the determination of seasonal factor values for roads in developing economies, like India. |
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Keywords: | Short period traffic count annual average daily traffic traffic volume data seasonal factors developing economies case study |
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