1.0 Introduction
Transportation engineering process is an important part of civil engineering, and it is related to technological applications and principles in the transportation sector. The major objective of this engineering process is to provide comfortable, safe and economical transportation process in the transportation sector. Highway engineering process is a major part of the transport engineering, and it is involved with the construction, design, and maintenance of the highway roads. Major principles of this engineering process are to evaluate the traffic volumes and speed to avoid collisions between the cars in the highway. In this study economics, planning and laws and road safety issues will be evaluated according to the given context.
2.0 Rationale
Over speeding is and big issues on the highways and only in the year 2017, more than 1710 people have died due to the casualties on the high road. Inductive or induction loop is a type of c electromagnetic detection and communication system which are used in the highways to track the speed of the car, the overall number of car and detection of the vehicles. It is installed at a specific point, and it can also record the speed statistics of the cars passing through it. The major aim of installing it is to increase the road safety and proper observation of the overspeeding and rash driving. Keeping the records on the number of cars helps to effectively design the road safety programs (Garber and Hoel, 2014). Transportation Law of UK and transportation policy of the country makes an impact on the road safety and road designing process in the highways.
3.0 Data Collection and Survey techniques
Inductive loop detectors
Impulse duration= 35 milliseconds
Length detection= 3.2 metre
Uniform length of the vehicle= 5 meter
Number of vehicles spotted= 135
- Time low speed:
35/5 millisecond/meter
=7 milliseconds /meter
=7 / 135 millisecond/ metre= 0.05
Space Mean speed:
135 / (1/7)
135 * 7 millisecond / metre = 945 millisecond per metre
- b) Variance speed
Variance speed= (945 millisecond / metre – 520 millisecond/ metre)
= 425 millisecond/ metre
- c) Traffic density and traffic flow
Traffic Density:
No of cars= 135
Wide length= 3.2 metre
So, Traffic density of the road = 42,188 vehicles on the total road
Traffic Flow:
No of vehicles passes= 135
Time= 1 minutes
So, traffic flow, = (135x 60)
= 8100
- d) Mean spacing
Mean spacing between the cars: (8100/ 108)
= 75 m between the cars
- e) Car proportion
Total number of cars= 135
(Total number of cars/ vehicle length)
(135/5)
= 27
4.0 Transportation Planning Law
UK transportation policies have taken into consideration after the Second World War, and it has completed in the year 1945. Provide and predict was introduced in the policies earlier to put a standard on the traffic, noise and pollution levels. In the last 40 years, transportation policies of the UK have been developed and changed several times to meet correctly with the requirements. In the time of fuel crisis in the year 1973, several road procedures and programmes were cut off in the policies. In the middle of 1970, several environmental factors were included in the transportation policies. M40 which is a public issue of awareness were introduced to the public in 1990 (Khisty and Lall, 2017). In the year 1989, National traffic road had forecasted to increase 142% traffic growths from 1989 to the year 2025. The government invested total of 23 billion Euros in transport policies and road programmes. In the year 1994, Note 13 Policy Planning Guidance’s and UK strategies for Sustainable developments were produced to prevent environmental issues.
In the year 1997, Traffic Reduction Act in the road was introduced to ordinary people, and a primary aim of the policy was to reduce the number of cars on the highway. European Union of Transport had published gloss white paper in 2001 September named European policy of transport 2010, and through it, an effective framework has been developed for the upcoming ten years. Up to the year 2050, it can be said that transport will face failures in a long and short-term basis. UK transport policies are developed to reduce the effects on the environment and other issues.
5.0 Transportation Economics
Based on the related articles economic, social and environmental impacts will be evaluated on the Central London charging schemes. This scheme was established in the year 2003 February, and it is the largest plans in all over the world to tackle urban congestion in Central London. In the year 2001, between 7 am to 10 am between the 1.1 million of the total people in central London 13.7% of them were using the own transport. Traffic congestion is a kind of process which overuses the available common resources (Bekiaris-Liberis et al. 2017). The mayor of London in 2000 introduced this congestion, and it is targeted to reduce the congestion of the traffic by 15% till 2010. This policy included a charge of 5 Euro as a road use charge to drive in Central London. This policy was taken to reduce the number of cars in Central London. There was a 90% discount for the residents of the place. This scheme had a lot of positives and negatives in it that did not happen.
Mayor of East London was the major stakeholder of this policy, and it is a strong impact on the policy. Opposite leaders have also blamed for the policy, but the decision was strong to the point. The major problem of the scheme was lack of confidence in the public on the scheme, and it has affected in the result of the plan. Social impact on the plan was not satisfactory according to the effects on the result (Zhao et al. 2015). According to the monitoring report done on the year 2008, till figures have shown that in the last ten years the total number of cars decreased to the 10.2% up to 2007 and in the year 2008, it has remained flat. Social and economics got some adverse effects as it had some bad impacts on the social issues and good on economics (Chang et al. 2015).
6.0 Highway capacity
- UAP3 road types have some variable standards, and it included frontage access, side road, pedestrian crossings and mixed traffics. The speed limit on this type of road is between 30 and 40 miles per hour.
Features:
- Speed limits 30 to 40 mph.
- Side road more than 2 in every km
- Loadings and parking unrestricted
- Some at grades pedestrian crossings
- Kerbside bus stops
- High local traffics
- High turnings
UAP stands for the all-purpose roads, and it is divided into four major parts which are UAP1, UAP2, UAP3, and UAP4. UAP roads can be two types, either it is single carriageway, or it is dual carriageways (El-Shawarby et al. 2017). Speed limits in the single carriageways are 40 mph, and the speed limit in the double carriageways is 60 miles per hour or less than that.
- b) Traffic capacities can denote the maximum number of cars in a single road or lane within a specific time. Major two types of road capacity are possible capacity and basic capacity.
UAP 3 road maximum speed 30 to 40 mph
So, UAP 3 road average speed of the vehicle= (40+30)/2= 35mph
S= averages of centre to centre spacing’s of an car
C= capacity of the single carriageway two way UAP 3 roads
Width of the carriageway= 6.75m
Relations using,
C= 1000.V/S
We know,
S= Sg + L
Sg= rear to hear gap of the cars= 0.278 Vt (for UAP 3), assuming t=0.70
S= (0.7v + L) = 10.25
So, putting in the equation,
C= 1000.V/S
C= (1000 x 14.5)/ 10.25
= (14500 / 10.25)
= 1415 vehicles
So, maximum capacity of the two way road is 1415 vehicles.
- C) Major constraints of the road capacities are:
- Travel timing and speed of the vehicle
- Traffic restriction and interruption
- Desired speeding
- Convenience and drivers comfort
- Operation Cost
These are the major constraints of the road capacity travelling time and speed of the vehicle not always goes according to the averages as most of the drivers drive very fast. Over speeding always effects in the average spacing of the vehicles and it is hard to calculate then. Operating cost is also an important factor in the road capacity as its implementation systems demand a huge service cost and maintenance cost (Liao et al. 2016). Lowest average spacing has to be minimum 100 meters, and it cannot be followed every time.
7.0 Urban street design and road safety
The number of roads caused the death of pedestrians are causing due to the unsafe elements in the road infrastructure. In the year 2009, almost 524 pedestrian died due to the road accident issues. Major factors that cause deaths are
- A width of the roads
- An increasing number of lanes in the highway
- Edge of the road with curbs
- Lack of lights in crossing
- Covers at the crossings
These are the five major factors of the road safety issues where road width is very low in certain areas, and that is a huge factor of happening accidents in that place. The increment in lanes in the highway also can increase the risks of accidents among the pedestrians as they try to cross between the over speeding vehicles (Penmetsa et al. 2015). It is a major factor in doing accidents. Lack of lights in the crossing also increases the risks of accidents in the pedestrians. Covers and advertisements in the crossings also can enhance the risks of the accidents due to the lack of visibility in both sides.
- B) According to the given survey report on the pedestrians it is seen that in the controlled pedestrian highway between the span of twelve hours from 7 am to 7 pm the survey is done. In the survey, it is seen that in the first one hour no pedestrians are 30 and the number of vehicles is 2700. In the next one hour pedestrian is 40 and the vehicle is 1750. These aggregate statistics show that in different timings the no of pedestrians and the number of vehicles increases and decreases (Montella et al. 2015). According to the survey results it is seen that from 3 pm to 6 pm the number of pedestrians increases as the number of the total vehicles decreases accordingly.
8.0 Transport Performance Systems
According to the Dijkstra’s Algorithm sets a method to find the shortest route in the process and it will also help to determine all paths. It can create a framework to determine the process which is short.
All available paths:
B-C-D= (28+38) = 66 seconds
B-A-D= (18+20+12+18+13) = 81 seconds
B-E-C-D= (36+40+38) = 114 seconds
B-E-F-D= (36+21+30+13) = 100 seconds
B-G-F-D= (18+18+28+30+13) = 107 seconds
These are the all available shortest paths according to the Dijkstra’s Algorithm.
| Available Paths | Total time (seconds) |
| B-C-D | 66 |
| B-A-D | 81 |
| B-E-C-D | 114 |
| B-E-F-D | 100 |
| B-G-F-D | 107 |
Table 1: Dijkstra’s Algorithm
(Source: Created by author)
According to the findings from the Dijkstra’s Algorithm it is seen that B-C-D is shortest and simple root with timings of 66 seconds in total. This is the possible shortest route in this process. [Referred to appendix 1]
9.0 Conclusion
This study is based on the transportation engineering processes and highway safety instruments. In the first part of the study the impulse duration is stated, and it is calculated accordingly. In this study, it is seen that UK transportation laws have changed accordingly in the last few years. Description of the study is based on highway safety and issue and how it effects on the pedestrians. It is seen that pedestrians face huge issues due to the safety of the roads. In this study, it is seen that many issues that are affecting on the highway safety and securities. Pedestrians are facing many risks in these multi-lane roads also.
