An Estimation Method of Hourly Traffic Demand Fluctuation throughout a Year for the Performance-oriented Highway Planning and Design

Abstract

The authors have been advocating performance-oriented highway planning and design methodology in Japan. For this, it is necessary to estimate the hourly traffic demand fluctuation on a planned highway section throughout a year. This study proposes a method to estimate it within two phases; estimating the daily traffic demand phase and setting the hourly traffic demand coefficient phase, in consideration of potential hourly traffic demand. Estimates for each category, corresponding to road characteristics can be calculated using this method. This procedure enables the performancecheck of any planned highway sections throughout a year by inputting traffic demand into the respective design performance curve.