Determining Free-Flow Speed on Different Classes of Rural Two-Lane Highways

Nemanja Stepanović; Vladan Tubić; Stefan Zdravković

doi:10.7307/ptt.v35i3.195

Authors

Nemanja Stepanović University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering
Vladan Tubić University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering
Stefan Zdravković University of Belgrade, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7307/ptt.v35i3.195

Keywords:

free-flow speed, two-lane rural highways, time headway, speed limit

Abstract

Current analytical free-flow speed models consider all rural two-lane highways as the same road type despite their different functional significance in the network. The aim of this paper is to develop a prediction model for free-flow speed as a function of speed limit and road geometric characteristics for different classes of rural two-lane highways. The research was conducted on 50 representative sections of the two rural classes of two-lane highways equipped with automatic traffic counters in Serbia. In order to develop the appropriate models, it was necessary to determine the threshold values of vehicle time headway in the free-flow for both classes of rural two-lane highways, based on the total number of 191,720 vehicles. The obtained results show that there are differences in the threshold values of free-flow time headway for different road classes. Namely, it was determined that the values of free-flow time headway for Class I amounted to 6.3 s, and for Class II to 8.4 s. The free-flow speed prediction model for different road classes showed that speed limit had the highest impact on free-flow speed for Class I and II highways, followed by horizontal curve radius and shoulder width.

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