Effect of Passenger Car Unit on Highway Capacity under Different Traffic Spectrum

Abstract

Passenger car unit (PCU) is well known in traffic engineering, where passenger cars are often used as a measure or basis for converting different categories of vehicles. This research will show the importance of PCU on the same and different vehicles changing the effect of varying traffic spectrums (low-speed vehicles and non-motorized vehicles). This research discussed ten sections of various highways in Pakistan (one section of motorway, two sections of national highways, and the remaining seven sections of two-way roads). In this research, we calculated the speed of different vehicle types, the area of different vehicle types, the width of the highway, and traffic composition on ten sections of highways. After that, we estimated the value of the passenger car unit using the speed-based method. Now we shall be drawn a comparison between the value of passenger car unit of different vehicles on the different sections of highways. The importance of passenger car unit on the same and different vehicles changes the effect of different traffic spectrums. When we compare section number 1 and the remaining all other nine sections of highways, we can easily see the impact of low-speed vehicles (non-motorized) on the value of passenger car unit. Because only section number 1 is the motorway section, and there are no low-speed vehicles (Motorbikes) present on the motorway in Pakistan. Low-speed vehicles exist in the remaining other sections. All these effects are discussed in this paper.