Measurement of Occupancy of Heterogeneous Traffic Using Simulation Technique

Concentration is a road traffic measure which explains the extent of usage of road space by vehicles. It is a broader term encompassing both density and occupancy. The first is a measure of concentration over space; the second measures concentration over time of the same vehicle stream. Occupancy takes into account the traffic composition and speed, in its measurement and hence, occupancy is more meaningful than density. The concept of occupancy can not be directly applied under heterogeneous traffic conditions, as the traffic has no lane discipline. In this paper, a new concept named, “area-occupancy’ is proposed to measure traffic concentration of any roadway and traffic conditions and the concept is validated using simulation technique.