Determining Hours of Congestion for Urban Freeways

The concept of Hours of Freeway Congestion is a measure of effectiveness in the evaluation of freeway reconstruction scenarios. The procedure described herein estimates future traffic volume on a freeway segment for each hour of the day and then compares the volume with the segment's capacity. Volume exceeding capacity is carried over into the next hour's volume. Where appropriate, Highway Capacity Manual methods are used for capacity computation. The number of hours when volume exceeds capacity is summed. An application is described.