Traffic Flow is part of 7th semester courses. It is compulsory for the students at the Transportation Planning and Engineering cycle. The course includes basic definitions of traffic flow, traffic capacity and level of service of a single road as well as statistical analysis distributions and sampling regarding traffic counts. It also includes traffic counts by the students and analysis of saturation effect. The course foresees four hours of theory and exercises every week. During the exercises practical examples of applications are developed and in general the overall understanding of the course is assisted. It should be noted that there is no clear distinction between theory and exercises, since the theory relies on exercises and exercises deal with questions about the theory. Students consist of one class.
# | Title | Description | Hours |
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1 | Basic traffic flow definitions | Definitions and characteristics of traffic flow parameters Variability of traffic density Traffic composition and traffic density diagrams Fundamental traffic flow equations and fundamental diagrams Macroscopic traffic flow concepts | 3Χ4=12 |
2 | Adjustment of statistical distributions | Statistical distributions of arrivals Statistical distributions of time headways Advanced statistical analysis distributions Goodness of fit parameters of statistical distributions | 3Χ4=12 |
3 | Estimation of traffic capacity and level of service | Traffic capacity and level of service Estimation of traffic capacity and level of service of interurban roads of four or more lanes Estimation of traffic capacity and level of service on selected road sections of freeways Estimation of traffic capacity and level of service on interurban roads of two lanes in total | 4Χ4=16 |
4 | Traffic counts | Methods and principles of traffic counts Moving observer method Basic sampling principles | 3Χ4=12 |
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
Teaching methods | Lectures Solutions of exercises Data collection (traffic flow counts) and submission of 3 individual projects |
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Teaching media | Presentations through Power Point slides Microsoft Excel calculations |
Computer and software use | Students solve simple exercises during the lesson, with the support of the Professor |
Assignments (projects, reports) | Students create groups of 3-4 students and carry traffic counts at predefined points at an urban road of Athens. Based on these counts, the first two projects concern statistical distributions and estimation of traffic parameters. The third project concerns the estimation of traffic capacity and level of service on interurban roads of four or more lanes. Each student submits the three projects individually and is undertaking an oral exam on all of them. |