Sub-problem 1b: Analysis of the Eastbound Freeway Section

Since we don’t have any formal data for the percentage of trucks/buses or recreational vehicles in the traffic stream (during the peak hour), we’ll use anecdotal observations and say that the percentage of trucks/buses is about 5% (which means P_T is 0.05). We will assume there is no significant volume of recreational vehicles in the traffic stream.

Referring to Equation 23-2 in the HCM, we have V = 3,340 veh/hr, PHF = 0.90, N = 2, P_T = 0.05, P_R = 0, E_T = 1.5, E_R = 1.2, and f_p = 1.0. This gives us an average 15-minute passenger-car equivalent flow rate, v_p of 1,902 passenger cars per hour per lane.

There’s one more thing to do before we assess the level of service (LOS) for the facility, and that’s to compute the average passenger car speed as shown on HCM page 23-5, using a set of equations based on Exhibit 4-12.

The equations break the speed-flow relationship shown in Exhibit 4-12 into a set of regions delineated as follows: