Highway Capacity Manual Highway Capacity Manual HCM Most

Highway Capacity Manual

Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) • Most widely referenced and best selling document of the Transportation Research Board • HCM 2000: 16, 000+ copies sold worldwide • Model for similar capacity manuals in other countries

Purpose of the HCM Provide a set of methods and procedures for evaluating multimodal performance of highway and street facilities in terms of operational measures and QOS or LOS indicators. Objectives: 1. Define performance measures and survey methods for traffic characteristics 2. Provide methods for estimating and predicting performance measures 3. Explain effect on multimodal transportation

Intended Use • Levels of Analysis – Operations – Design – Planning/Preliminary Engineering • Travel Modes – – Auto Pedestrian Bicycle Transit (multimodal urban street) • Spatial Coverage – Points – Segments – Facilities • Temporal Coverage – Undersaturated – Oversaturated

Targeted Users 1. Engineers – Traffic Operations And Highway Design 2. Transportation Planners HCM also useful to: • Management personnel • Educators • Noise and air quality specialists • Elected officials (“HCM for Dummies”) • Regional land use planners • Special interest groups

History • 1950 – First document to quantify capacity – Published by Bureau of Public Roads • 1965 – Level of Service concept introduced – Chapter on bus transit – Published by Highway Research Board

History (cont. ) • 1985 – “Modern” HCM – Transportation Research Board (TRB) – Further refined LOS concept – Major research since 1965 – Signalized intersections LOS based on stopped delay – Urban Arterials method and chapter – Expanded transit chapter – Pedestrian, bicycle

HCM 2000 • Substantial increase in volume and breadth • Systematic and consistent basis for assessing capacity and LOS • Point, facility, corridor/area-wide analyses • 1, 200 pages

HCM 2010 • Volumes 1 – 3 printed • Volume 4 – Webbased only

HCM 2010 (cont. ) • Points, Segments, Facilities, Systems • Multimodal (Urban Street) • Quality of Service (from the traveler perspective) • Freeway Systems • Planning Applications • Active & Transportation Demand Management • Travel Time Reliability