The study of highway cross-section design criteria from traffic volume perspective using traffic micro-simulation

Abstract

Highway cross–section has an important role in the route selection in Thailand. This is because cross–section ofthe highway reflects to cost of road construction. Traffic volume on a selected route should be therefore consideredin the designing of highway cross–section. This research focuses on the design criteria of the highway cross-section considering traffic volume on that route as well as effects of access point frequency along thehighway. Access point frequency was considered as one of the factors in the research due to the large numberof access points which can significantly influence on highway capacity. In this research, Traffic Micro-Simulationwas used to determine highway capacity and Level of Service (LOS) for different types of highway cross–section.Data collection in the simulation includes highway geometry, speed and other factors related to drivers’ behavior.The expected outcome from this research is the design criteria of highway cross-section based on traffic volumeon each highway type. Access point frequency which is another important factor in determining highway capacitywas also investigated. Comparison of highway capacity between from the model and HCM calculation wasperformed and the results showed that there are slightly different but the same trend in highway capacity betweenones from model and ones from HCM calculation.

Keywords: Traffic micro simulation, Highway cross–section, Highway capacity and access point frequency