Paper No.

667

Capacity Models and Adjustment Factors for

Interurban Bidirectional Roads

Dr. Ravi Sekhar Ch1 Dr. Velmurugan S2 Dr. Satish Chandra3 Balakrishna K4 Nataraju J5

Abstract
In this paper methodologies for the estimation of passenger car units, stream equivalency factor, base
capacity, operating speeds and its relationship with capacity and adjustment factors evolved for single lane,
intermediate lane and two lane roads operating under mixed traffic flow conditions have been discussed. The
adjustment factors have been derived by including some of the non-base conditions like variation in width
of the carriageway, road conditions (roughness) and shoulder conditions and effect of rise and fall. A total of
29 road sections, which includes two lane, intermediate lane and single lane road sections covering different
regions of the country are considered in this study.

1. PREAMBLE configuration. The single lane roads have 3.75 m wide

India is a vast country with lot of geographical variability
in traffic mix and driver behavior on its roads. Road
transportation is the major component of the transport
sector in India and it has one of the largest road networks
in the world covering around 5.3 million km at present.
Traffic growth on roads is increasing at the rate of 4 to
6% per annum while the vehicle population growth is
of the order of 12% per annum. Interurban highways
in India include single lane roads, intermediate lane
roads, two lane roads, multilane divided highways
and expressways. Single lane, intermediate lane
and two lane roads are undivided, facilitating two
way movement of traffic, whereas multilane divided
highways and expressways have divided carriageways
with two or more lanes in each direction. Traffic
operations on undivided roads are vastly different from
that on divided highways. A substantial proportion of
National Highways (NHs) and State Highways (SHs)
in the country are still either two lane or intermediate
lane carriageways. Similarly, majority of Major District
Roads (MDRs) are either two lane or intermediate lane
carriageways, while the Other District Roads (ODRs)
and Village Roads (VRs) are generally of single lane
configuration with selected cases of intermediate lane
carriageways whereas intermediate lane roads have
carriageways varying between 5.5 m and 6.0 m.
In general, the existing single lane is upgraded to
intermediate lane roads where funds are not sufficient to
widen it to two lane road immediately. Traffic operations
on two lane or intermediate lane roads are unique in
nature. Lane changing and overtaking manoeuvres are
possible only in the face of oncoming traffic in the
opposing lane. The overtaking demand increases while
passing opportunities decline rapidly as the traffic
volume increases. Therefore, flow in one direction
influences the flow in the other direction. This problem
is more acute in the case of mixed traffic where speed
differential amongst different vehicle types is significant.
It increases the desire for overtaking manoeuvres
considerably whereas number of opportunities to
overtake is limited. Traffic operations on single lane
roads are very much influenced by the condition and
width of the shoulders as vehicles are forced to use
them during passing or overtaking operations. This
paper presents methodologies for the estimation of
passenger car units, stream equivalency factor, base
capacity, operating speeds and its relationship with
capacity and adjustment factors evolved (CSIR - CRRI,

1
Principal Scientist
2
Senior Principal Scientist, E-mail: vms_04@yahoo.co.in
3
Director CSIR - Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, 110025
4
Former Masters Student, AcSIR
5
Principal Scientist

Journal of the indian Roads Congress, July - September, 2017 59