In December I wrote about Peak Hour Factors (PHFs) and included a spreadsheet with about 3,500 peak hour counts we've done at Traffic Data Inc. Kordel rightly commented about cross-referencing the data against the total entering volume at the intersection (as the Highway Capacity Manual does).
It's taken a little while, but we entered that data and here's the updated spreadsheet - Download Peak Hour Factor MN Analysis. I'm hoping ITE's SimCap committee will take on the role of being a hub for this type of data (without putting it behind ITE's firewall) – I've talked with Dave and Orla about this type of thing.
Here are the average Peak Hour Factors from our Minnesota dataset:
- Total entering volume greater than or equal to 1,000 vehicles per hour: 0.93
- Total entering volume less than 1,000 vehicles per hour: 0.88
This is slightly different than the 0.92 and 0.90, respectively, recommended in the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual. It would be great if other folks would slice and dice the data in the spreadsheet to look at the PHFs from different angles and put there thoughts in the comments section. Does anyone know where the HCM's 0.92 and 0.90 recommendations came from?
Thank you for sharing this information, it will help a lot of drivers all over Minnesota.
This can be different from the rest of the world we speak of.