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HIGHWAY CAPACITY
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CAPACITY
Capacity: Maximum hourly rate at which persons or
vehicles can reasonably be expected to traverse a point or
uniform section of a lane or roadway during a given time
period under prevailing roadway , traffic and control
conditions.
Capacity is expressed in ‘Passenger Car Units (PCU) per
hour.’
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CAPACITY
Types of Capacity
Basic Capacity: The max. no. of passengers that can pass
a point on a lane or highway during one hour under the
most ideal roadway and traffic conditions.
Possible Capacity: The max. no. of vehicles that can
pass a given point on a lane or roadway during one hour,
under prevailing roadway and traffic conditions.
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CAPACITY
Practical Capacity: The Max. no. of vehicles that can
pass a given point on a lane or roadway during one hour ,
without the traffic density being so great as to cause
unreasonable delay, hazard or restriction to the driver's
freedom to maneuver under prevailing roadway and traffic
conditions.
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CAPACITY
Basic capacity of a single lane
V
C  1000
• Where, S
• C = Capacity of a single lane ,vehicles per hour per
lane.
• V = Speed in kmph
• S = Average centre to centre spacing of vehicles.
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FACTORS AFFECTING PRACTICAL

CAPACITY
Factors – Roadway factors & Traffic factors
ROADWAY FACTORS
Lane width:
• As lane width decreases , Capacity decreases.
• Lane width of 3.65 m is considered as ideal

Lateral Clearance
• Lateral obstructions such as retaining walls ,signposts, light
poles, parked cars located closer than 1.83m from the edge of the
traffic lane reduce the capacity.
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FACTORS AFFECTING PRACTICAL

CAPACITY
Shoulders
 Narrow shoulders reduce effective width of traffic lanes as the
vehicles travel towards the centre of the pavement.
 When vehicles in emergency has to park on the shoulder of
insufficient width ,capacity reduces.
Surface condition
 Deteriorated and poorly maintained surface - reduces capacity.
Alignment
 Sharpness of curves and restrictions to sight distance
requirements- reduces capacity.
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FACTORS AFFECTING PRACTICAL

CAPACITY
Grades
 Steep and long grades affect capacity.
 Grades affects the speed of vehicles ,especially trucks.
Presence of Intersections
 Restrict free flow of traffic -reduces capacity.
 At signalized intersections, vehicles have to stop –capacity
decreases.
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FACTORS AFFECTING PRACTICAL

CAPACITY

TRAFFIC FACTORS
Commercial vehicles
 Large commercial vehicles like truck & buses occupy
greater spaces and influence other traffic.
 Heavy commercial vehicles travel at low speeds
especially on grades.
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PASSENGER CAR UNITS

(PCU)
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NEED FOR PCU

• Measure of relative space requirement of a vehicle compared to that of a
passenger car under specified set of roadway, traffic & other conditions.
• Heterogeneous Traffic Flow or Mixed Traffic Flow: Flow of traffic
with mixing of different vehicle classes on the roadways.
▫ Difficult To Estimate Traffic volume & capacity
• Different vehicle classes are to be converted to one common standard
vehicle unit.
• Passenger car is considered as standard vehicle to convert other vehicle
classes. This unit is called Passenger Car Unit.
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DEFINITION

• If the addition of one vehicle per hour in a traffic

stream reduces the average speed of the vehicles by the
same amount as the addition of ‘x’ cars per hr, then the
vehicle of that type is considered to be equivalent to x
PCUs.
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FACTORS AFFECTING PCU

• Vehicle characteristics- dimensions, power, acceleration
,braking characteristics.
• Transverse & longitudinal gaps between vehicles.
• Traffic stream characteristics- composition of different
vehicle classes, speed distribution etc
• Roadway characteristics- gradient, curve, access controls,
rural or urban road, presence of intersections etc
• Regulation & traffic control –speed limits, one way traffic
traffic control devices etc
• Environmental & climatic conditions.
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PCU EQUIVALENTS AS PER IRC

Vehicle type PCU Equivalency Factor
Passenger Car 1.00
Motor cycle or Scooter 0.50
Agricultural Tractor, Light 1.50
Commercial Vehicles
Truck or Bus 3.00
Tuck trailer ,Agricultural 4.50
Tractor-Trailer
Cycle 0.50
Cycle Rickshaw 2.00
Horse drawn vehicle 4.00