Modeling of the Relationship Between Speed Limit and Characteristic Speed of Expressway Traffic Flow

Jie Yang, Jinliang Xu, Chao Gao, Guohua Bai, Linfang Xie and Menghui Li
Additional contact information
Jie Yang: School of Highway, Chang´an University, Xi´an 710064, China
Jinliang Xu: School of Highway, Chang´an University, Xi´an 710064, China
Chao Gao: School of Highway, Chang´an University, Xi´an 710064, China
Guohua Bai: School of Highway, Chang´an University, Xi´an 710064, China
Linfang Xie: School of Highway, Chang´an University, Xi´an 710064, China
Menghui Li: China Harbour Engineering Company Limited, NO.9 Chunxiu Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100027, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: Understanding the relationship between speed limit and characteristic speed of expressway traffic flow is of great significance for formulating a reasonable speed limit scheme and improving highway safety and transportation efficiency. In this study, the speed data of the same traffic flow passing through speed limits of 80, 100, and 120 km/h were continuously collected through a field test. The 85th, 15th, and 50th percentile speeds were considered the characteristic speed parameters of the traffic flow. A regression analysis was performed to establish a relationship between the characteristic speed parameters of the traffic flow and the speed limit. Under a free-flow state, the characteristic speed exhibited a strong linear relationship with the speed limit, where the variation ranges of the 85th and 50th percentile speeds were approximately consistent with that of the speed limit. However, a slight inconsistency was found for the 15th percentile speed, which was approximately half the speed limit increase; under a non-free-flow state, the correlation between the speed limit and the vehicle speed was no longer significant.

Keywords: Expressway; speed limit; traffic flow; characteristic speed; linear model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4621/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4621/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4621-:d:260886

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().