Methodology for Vehicle Equivalent Unit by Motorcycles at Road-Segments

抄録

This paper investigates the methodology of motorcycle equivalent unit (MCU) at road-segments in motorcycle dependent city. A methodology based on passenger car equivalent (PCE) approach previously developed by Chandra et al. (2003) is presented in this research. This methodology illustrates a more accurate method of MCU in mixed traffic flow by considering the characteristics of moving vehicles such as velocity and an effective space. In which, the effective space of each kind of vehicle is computed under considering influences of velocity and physical size of the subject vehicle and the surrounding motorcycles. The proposed methodology was applied to field data collected at eight sections in four road-segments located in Hanoi city, Vietnam. The field data indicated that the effective space of each vehicle varies by the speed of moving vehicle, and MCU value increases slightly corresponding with the lane number of each urban road during the peak hour. Also, it was found that the MCU is a function of the mean speed, a mean effective space of each vehicle. The field data indicates that the MCU values of car, bus, minibus, and bicycle are 3.43, 10.48, 8.34 and 1.38, respectively at road-segments in urban road.