LAUSR

Multi-lane highways are used to channel the traffic between collector roads and freeways, such as urban arterial roads. Their capacity is moderate to high, and they are designed to balance traffic mobility with accessibility. Traditionally, the assessment of multi-lane highways’ level of service (LOS) is based on the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The HCM method, however, does not take into account randomness in vehicle flow as well as state-dependent vehicle speed on multi-lane highways, which does not represent actual conditions. A discrete-event simulation (DES) framework using the phase-type distribution (PHD) is developed to assist the traffic and highway designers in measuring average number of vehicles and dwelling time of vehicles on the multi-lane highway section as well as compute the level of service (LOS) in case of uniform and random traffic flow. Performance assessment by PHD-DES framework under different design parameter settings shows that the arrival rate of the vehicle, squared coefficient of variation (SCV) in the arrival interval and number of lanes affect the LOS of multi-lane highways considerably. The length of the multi-lane section also affects the performance measure and LOS, which the HCM method ignores. The proposed PHD-DES framework will assist the road traffic and highway designers in making smart decisions.