Traffic Engineering Handbook

Brian Wolshon, Anurag Pande

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781118762264
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Get a complete look into modern traffic engineering solutions

Traffic Engineering Handbook, Seventh Edition is a newly revised text that builds upon the reputation as the go-to source of essential traffic engineering solutions that this book has maintained for the past 70 years. The updated content reflects changes in key industry standards, and shines a spotlight on the needs of all users, the design of context-sensitive roadways, and the development of more sustainable transportation solutions. Additionally, this resource features a new organizational structure that promotes a more functionally-driven, multimodal approach to planning, designing, and implementing transportation solutions.

A branch of civil engineering, traffic engineering concerns the safe and efficient movement of people and goods along roadways. Traffic flow, road geometry, sidewalks, crosswalks, cycle facilities, shared lane markings, traffic signs, traffic lights, and more—all of these elements must be considered when designing public and private sector transportation solutions.

• Explore the fundamental concepts of traffic engineering as they relate to operation, design, and management
• Access updated content that reflects changes in key industry-leading resources, such as the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), AASSHTO Policy on Geometric Design, Highway Safety Manual (HSM), and Americans with Disabilities Act
• Understand the current state of the traffic engineering field
• Leverage revised information that homes in on the key topics most relevant to traffic engineering in today's world, such as context-sensitive roadways and sustainable transportation solutions

Traffic Engineering Handbook, Seventh Edition is an essential text for public and private sector transportation practitioners, transportation decision makers, public officials, and even upper-level undergraduate and graduate students who are studying transportation engineering.

Chapter 1
Introduction to the Traffic Engineering Handbook and Its Role in Evolving Practice

Anurag Pande Ph.D. and Brian Wolshon Ph.D., P.E., PTOE

I. Background

Traffic engineering is the subdiscipline of transportation engineering that addresses the planning, design, and operation of streets and highways, their networks, adjacent lands, and interaction with other modes of transportation (air, water, and rail) and their terminals. Over many decades, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has provided traffic engineering professionals with a comprehensive resource of fundamental traffic engineering concepts, as well as state-of-the-art practices, through the Traffic Engineering Handbook (TEH or Handbook). The Handbook's prior editions have been widely used by public agencies, consultants, and educational institutions as a basic day-to-day reference source on the proven techniques of the practice. The primary audience for this publication is practicing professionals responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the roadway transportation networks. The secondary audience includes academia in general and educators in particular. The Handbook can also be used as a reference by the general public and policymakers, but it is not written primarily for that audience.

The practice of traffic engineering continues to evolve even as fundamental concepts remain largely unchanged. At the time of publication of the first ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook in 1941, the focus of the traffic engineering profession was largely on providing and expanding road capacity—through the construction of new roads and the widening of existing ones. However, increasing congestion, even as the highway network continued to grow in subsequent decades, led to the realization that adding capacity, while useful for a period of time, was not the only solution to the congestion problem. As a result, the management of traffic demand also became part of the traffic engineering profession as a way to address congestion. The concept of demand management has now evolved into another fundamental tool used in the transportation paradigm by providing travel choices using multiple different modes (Schreffler et al., 2012).

Currently, traffic engineers are required to think differently than in the past to provide a range of design and control options that facilitate the safe and efficient movements of all users, in all modes, while providing context-sensitive solutions. In the case of urban streets, for example, traffic engineers need to consider alternative traffic designs that lead to slower travel speeds to create a safer environment for all users, encourage economic activity in downtown areas, and contribute to revitalized city centers that facilitate urban economic growth.

II. The Vision for This Edition

As one of the definitive technical resources in traffic engineering for nearly 70 years and 6 prior editions, the ITE Traffic Engineering Handbook has served as a concise yet comprehensive source for the fundamental principles, proven techniques, and practical applications in the field. Through periodic revisions and updates, the TEH has remained current with emerging knowledge and advancements in practice by including topics such as transportation communications, traffic calming, and access management, among many others. In the seventh edition ITE has once again evolved this publication by incorporating the latest traffic engineering principles and techniques, while integrating the changing needs and thinking within the practice. This edition also makes a significant departure from prior editions in terms of its structure, organization, and presentation of the content.

Among the most significant of these changes is the move away from traditional automobile-centric approaches to traffic engineering. In this edition, traffic engineering principles are presented as tools to meet broader societal needs to facilitate the safe and efficient movement of all road users. The authors have sought to incorporate in this publication the needs of the full range of users (pedestrians, bicyclists, automobile/public-transit users of all ages and abilities, and emergency- and commercial-vehicle operators) that rely on the surface transportation system, while keeping it true to its roots as the “go-to” resource on the fundamental principles and applications of traffic planning, operations, control, design, and analysis. This shift is in recognition of the fact that traditional, narrowly focused solutions have, at times, been inadequate to address the needs of all users.

This edition of the Handbook also integrates contemporary approaches to traffic engineering and planning to include context-sensitive solutions, resiliency, environmental sensitivity, system reliability, and sustainability. By emphasizing the application of performance-based design and analysis philosophies and promoting a comprehensive design approach, it tries to eliminate the long-standing sequestrations that exist in the specialized fields within traffic engineering. Performance-based design seeks to design, analyze, and build transportation systems that are economical and adaptable to the changing demands, user preferences, and conditions placed upon them. Under this approach, planners and engineers attempt to quantify performance before, during, and after construction so that decisions can be made based on a number of quantifiable cost-and-benefit performance measures instead of solely on the cost of construction. Similarly, benefits have, in the past, been measured narrowly in terms of level of service and reduced crash frequency/rate, when in reality there are many other measures that can be applied. It has been suggested that, in addition to their roles as quantitative analysts of traffic performance, traffic engineers of the future can use these approaches to serve as “financial advisors” for strategic investment of public funds for the improvement of mo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction to the Traffic Engineering Handbook and Its Role in Evolving Practice
• Chapter 2: Probability and Statistical Analyses Techniques for Traffic Engineering Performance Measurement
• Chapter 3: Road Users
• Chapter 4: Traffic Engineering Studies
• Chapter 5: Level of Service Concepts in Multimodal Environments
• Chapter 6: Forecasting Travel Demand
• Chapter 7: Traffic Flow Characteristics for Uninterrupted-Flow Facilities
• Chapter 8: Design and Operations of Road Segments and Interchanges in Rural Areas
• Chapter 9: Planning, Design, and Operations of Road Segments and Interchanges in Urban Areas
• Chapter 10: Design and Control for Interrupted Traffic Flow through Intersections
• Chapter 11: Design and Operation of Complete Streets and Intersections
• Chapter 12: Access Management
• Chapter 13: Parking
• Chapter 14: Traffic Calming
• Chapter 15: Work Zone Maintenance of Traffic and Construction Staging
• Chapter 16: Traffic Management for Planned, Unplanned, and Emergency Events
• Index
• End User License Agreement