Heavy Vehicle Impact on Rural Two Lane Highway Segments Operating Under Various Levels of Service Conditions

Abstract

Oil boom in Western North Dakota State brings increasing number of oil trucks. The distinct characteristics of heavy vehicles such as oil trucks: low speed, large size, and slow accelerate and decelerate results in inaccuracy in traffic capacity forecasting and safety analysis. In this research, to calculate passenger car equivalent (PCE) factor of heavy vehicles, such as oil trucks, on two-lane rural highway, an improved analytical method based on headway and delay is introduced. It considers several elements that have effect on PCE factor: vehicle speed, safety passing time, headway distribution, level of service (LOS), and delay to downstream traffic. The new set of PCE factor values are classified into three groups corresponding to different LOS.