Abstract

Traveling on bituminous asphaltic concrete roads plagued with potholes and edge subsidence is common in Nigeria and a better understanding of traffic dynamics has both theoretical and practical implications. In this study, we present continuous kinematic wave models of traffic flows at roadway section with and without bituminous asphaltic concrete distress. In particular, traffic kinematics was not treated as shockwave, rather as traffic dynamics that can trigger rarefaction or shockwave. In the paper the hypothesis that bituminous asphaltic concrete with significant distress will trigger traffic kinematic that may accentuate rarefaction or shockwave was investigated. Maximum flowrate polynomial estimation method based on extrapolation of the flows from flow and density curve was used. The method assumes that density at maximum flowrate is not affected by bituminous asphaltic concrete distress, which implies that traffic dynamics are fully the result of travel speed changes. Average traffic shockwave of about -20km/h were caused by bituminous asphaltic concrete with severe distress. Discussion and further studies are presented in the conclusion section.

Keywords:

Capacity, kinematic wave, pavement distress, rarefaction, traffic shockwave,

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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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