Vehicle Headway and Average Travel Speed

ABSTRACT

Since it is compulsory that people and goods move from one part of the country to the other or within particular defined regional area, the facilities used for this purpose need to be well planned, designed and constructed.

Inadequate and unplanned traffic control constitute a lot of problems resulting in delay, congestion, immobility to uneasy access to transport etc.

This project is to determine the headway and average travel speed of vehicles (Case study of post office- Kwara State Polytechnic permanent site car park road).

In order to determine the time taken, distance, speed of a vehicle of the existing road network.

Having considered the necessary observations from the post- office to Kwara state polytechnic permanent site car park we are able to observe that the distance is 10. 5km and the time taken varies where the lowest value of time taken from day one is sixteen (16) minutes while the highest is twenty two minutes (22) while on the second day we were able to determine the time taken from 8: 19am – 9: 30am and the total lowest value of the time taken is twenty (20) minutes while the highest is twenty two (22) minutes and the total average headway for the day one is 3.5 minutes while the total average headway for the day two practical is 4.5 minutes and the determination of the average speed of the day one practical is 11.2km per hour while the average speed for the second day practical is 11. 20km per hour and the total value for day 1 and 2 is 11. 15km per hour and also we are able to determine the day like Monday, Tuesday, Friday are the days that have much masses while Wednesday, Thursday are not much and also from the result, the Average Daily Time (ADT) of traffic volume shows that morning peak hour flow is 8: 00am to 9: 00am everyday, due to Kwara state polytechnic permanent site students and also the staff and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) that was moved to Oke- Oyi which was sited along the same direction, due to movement of student and workers that are going to their normal daily activities and also the afternoon peak hour is 4: 00pm to 5: 00pm when they are returning from their daily activities but the traffic flow is high in the morning than that of the afternoon peak hour flow.

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION

The determination of headway and average travel speed on a road network cannot be over emphasized as concerns the transportation.

Headway and average travel speed are among the imperative parameters to be mentioned in the consideration of traffic flow.

The efficient evaluation of headway and average travel speed is important for their contribution to the effectiveness of road network functionality therefore adequate management practices are needed.
Headway is a measurement of the minimum possible distance or time between vehicles in a transit system.

It is commonly measured as the distance from the tip of one vehicle to the tip of next one behind it, expressed as the time it will take for the tracing vehicle to cover that distance.
Headway is a key input in calculating most overall route capacity of any transit system e.g the route of Ilorin post office to the permanent site of Kwara state polytechnic Ilorin.
Headway spacing is selected by various safety criteria, but the basic concept remains the same – leave enough time for the vehicle to safety stop behind the vehicle in front of it.
The safety stop criteria has a non obvious solution, however, if a vehicle follow immediately behind the one in front, the vehicle in front simply cannot stop quickly enough to damage the vehicle behind.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There are parameters that contributes traffic flows which headway and vehicle average travel speed are among – the determination and proper management of headway and average travel speed is hereby important as the improper management of road traffic flow cause lots of hindrance in transportation and also affects the populace in their day- in- day-out activities.
When the number of traffic is dense, there tends to be a traffic jam which can definitely maximize the time spent by the motorist or other road users to get to their various destination.

As the number of vehicle tends to rise at a particular point on a road channel, it brings about the flow density being extremely large and this may affect the normal spacing (headway) in between the vehicles that are present on that road channel.

The speed of vehicle is also affected by high volume of vehicles present at a point on a given road E.g. post office to Kwara State- Polytechnic permanent site as the driver can only make use of the space available for them.
1.2 AIM OF THE PROJECT
The aim of this project is to determine the headway and average travel speed of vehicle on the Post office-Kwara State Polytechnic permanent site car park road.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The objective of the project include the following.
1. To check on the maintenance of normal headway of vehicle trading from post office to the permanent site of kwara state polytechnic Car Park.
2. To consider the usual time taken for a vehicle traversing the road due to indiscriminate parking along the road side.
3. To check on the average travel speed of different vehicles on the road (Post-Office to Kwara State Polytechnic Car Park).
4. To consider the journey speed of vehicle trading from post office to Kwara State Polytechnic Car Park Including all delays.