Highway Capacity Manual

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Highway Capacity Manual
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 chapters
• Updates 1992, 1994, 1997

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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

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HCM 2010

• Volumes 1 3 printed
• Volume 4 Web-based only

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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