Novel Methodology To Estimate Homogeneous Equivalent For Heterogeneous Traffic Flow On Multilane Urban Roads

Abstract

This study proposes a methodology to develop homogeneous equivalent for heterogenous traffic conditions using area-occupancy as measure. A well calibrated and validated simulation model is developed in VISSIM software to check the applicability of concept at different flow-levels and varying traffic composition (five different set of composition comprising different vehicle categories such as cars, motorized two-wheeler, bus and trucks). To corroborate homogenous equivalent approach, PCU based flow equivalent conversion is also done, where the PCU values are taken from another study on the same roadway section (Kumar et. al. (2016) and Kumar et. al. (2017)). The comparison made under different scenarios provides Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 8-18 %, validating the accuracy of proposed approach.