Highway Planning

Planning is a prerequisite for any engineering activity or project; this is particularly true for the
development of a highway network or system in a country.

The process of transportation planning entails developing a transportation plan for an urban
region. It is an ongoing process that seeks to address the transport needs of the inhabitants of
the area, and with the aid of a process of consultation with all relevant groups, strives to identify
and implement an appropriate plan to meet these needs.

The process takes place at a number of levels. At an administrative/political level, a transportation

policy is formulated and politicians must decide on the general location of the transport
corridors/networks to be prioritised for development, on the level of funding to be allocated to the
different schemes and on the mode or modes of transport to be used within them.

Below this level, professional planners and engineers undertake a process to define in some detail
the corridors/networks that comprise each of the given systems selected for development at the
higher political level. This is the level at which what is commonly termed a ‘transportation study’
takes place. It defines the links and networks and involves forecasting future population and
economic growth, predicting the level of potential movement within the area and describing both
the physical nature and modal mix of the system required to cope with the region’s transport
needs, be they road, rail, cycling or pedestrian-based. The methodologies for estimating the
distribution of traffic over a transport network.

At the lowest planning level, each project within a given system is defined in detail in terms of its
physical extent and layout. In the case of road schemes,these functions are the remit of the design
engineer, usually employed by the roads authority within which the project is located. This area
of highway engineering.

The remainder of this chapter concentrates on systems planning process, in particular the travel
data required to initiate the process, the future planning strategy assumed for the region which
will dictate the nature and extent of the network derived, a general outline of the content of the
transportation study itself and a description of the decision procedure which guides the transport
planners through the systems process.

The objectives of highway planning are:

(i) Planning a highway network for safe, efficient and fast movement of people and goods.
(ii) Keeping the overall cost of construction and maintenance of the roads in the network to
a minimum.
(iii) Planning for future development and anticipated traffic needs for a specific design
period.
(iv) Phasing road development programmes from considerations of utility and importance
as also of financial resources.
(v) Evolving a financing system compatible with the cost and benefits.

To fulfill these objectives, the following principles have to be borne in mind:

(i) The proposed road links should be a part of the planned road network for the
state/nation.
(ii) The importance of the road shall be based on the traffic demand, and hence its type
should fall under the standard classification.
(iii) The maintenance needs of the roads should receive prompt attention by setting aside
funds for this purpose.
(iv) Statutory provisions for traffic regulation should be in place

Highway planning process

The highway planning includes the following phases :

1. Classification of roads have to be carried and accordingly to the different seasons and weather
conditions.
2. Classification also includes the consideration of : Traffic volume, road transported, location and
function etc.
3. Assessment of road length requirement for an area (it may be district, state or the whole
country).
4. Preparation of master plan showing the phasing of plan in five year plans or annual plans.
5. The master plan will be prepared by considering the economic studies, financial studies, traffic
and road use studies and engineering studies.
6. It also includes the determination of optimum road length.
Highway planning strategies

When the highway planning process takes place within a large urban area and other transport
options such as rail and cycling may be under consideration alongside car based ones, the
procedure can become quite complex and the workload involved in data collection can become
immense. In such circumstances, before a comprehensive study can be undertaken, one of a
number of broad strategy options must be chosen:

Land use transportation approach

Within this method, the management of land use planning is seen as the solution to controlling
the demand for transport. The growing trend where many commuters live in suburbs of a major
conurbation or in small satellite towns while working within or near the city centre has resulted in
many using their private car for their journey to work. This has led to congestion on the roads and
the need for both increased road space and the introduction of major public transport
improvements. Land use strategies such as the location of employment opportunities close to
large residential areas and actively limiting urban sprawl which tends to increase the dependency
of commuters on the private car, are all viable land use control mechanisms.

The demand management approach

The demand management approach entails planning for the future by managing demand more
effectively on the existing road network rather than constructing new road links. Demand
management measures include the tolling of heavily trafficked sections of highway, possibly at
peak times only, and car pooling, where high occupancy rates within the cars of commuters is
achieved voluntarily either by the commuters themselves, in order to save money, or by
employers in order to meet some target stipulated by the planning authority.Use of car pooling
can be promoted by allowing private cars with multiple occupants to use bus-lanes during peak
hour travel or by allowing them reduced parking charges at their destination.

The car-centered approach

The car-centered approach has been favored by a number of large cities within the US, most
notably Los Angeles. It seeks to cater for future increases in traffic demand through the
construction of bigger and better roads, be they inter-urban or intra-urban links. Such an approach
usually involves prioritizing the development of road linkages both within and between the major
urban centers.
Measures such as in-car information for drivers regarding points of congestion along their
intended route and the installation of state-of-the-art traffic control technology at all junctions, help
maximize usage along the available road space.

The public transport-centered approach

In the public transport-centered approach the strategy will emphasize the importance of bus and
rail-based improvements as the preferred way of coping with increased transport demand.
Supporters of this approach point to the environmental and social advantages of such a strategy,
reducing noise and air pollution and increasing efficiency in the use of fossil fuels while also
making transport available to those who cannot afford to run a car. However, the success of such
a strategy depends on the ability of transport planners to induce increasing numbers of private
car users to change their mode of travel during peak hours to public transport. This will minimise
highway congestion as the number of peak hour journeys increase over the years. Such a result
will only be achieved if the public transport service provided is clean, comfortable, regular and
affordable.

Transportation studies

Whatever the nature of the proposed highway system under consideration, be it a new motorway
to link two cities or a network of highway improvements within an urban centre, and whatever
planning strategy the decision-makers are adopting (assuming that the strategy involves, to some
extent, the construction of new/upgraded roadways), a study must be carried out to determine the
necessity or appropriateness of the proposal. This process will tend to be divided into two
subsections:

Transportation survey

Initially, the responsible transport planners decide on the physical boundary within which the study
will take place. Most transport surveys have at their basis the land-use activities within the study
area and involve making an inventory of the existing pattern of trip making, together with
consideration of the socioeconomic factors that affect travel patterns. Travel patterns are
determined by compiling a profile of the origin and destination (OD) of all journeys made within
the study area, together with the mode of travel and the purpose of each journey. For those
journeys originating within the study area, household surveys are used to obtain the OD
information. These can be done with or without an interviewer assisting. In the case of the former,
termed a personal interview survey, an interviewer records answers provided by the respondent.
With the latter, termed a self-completion survey, the respondent completes a questionnaire
without the assistance of an interviewer, with the usual format involving the questionnaire being
delivered/mailed out to the respondent who then mails it back/has it collected when all questions
have been answered.

For those trips originating outside the study area, traversing its external ‘cordon’ and ending within
the study area, the OD information is obtained by interviewing trip makers as they pass through
the ‘cordon’ at the boundary of the study area. These are termed intercept surveys where people
are intercepted in the course of their journey and asked where their trip started and where it will
finish.

A transportation survey should also gather information on the adequacy of existing infrastructure,
the land use activities within the study area and details on the socio-economic classification of its
inhabitants. Traffic volumes along the existing road network together with journey speeds, the
percentage of heavy goods vehicles using it and estimates of vehicle occupancy rates are usually
required. For each designated zone within the study area, office and factory floor areas and
employment figures will indicate existing levels of industrial/commercial activity, while census
information and recommendations on housing densities will indicate population size. Some form
of personal household-based survey will be required within each zone to determine household
incomes and their effect on the frequency of trips made and the mode of travel used.

Production and use of mathematical models

At this point, having gathered all the necessary information, models are developed to translate
the information on existing travel patterns and land-use profiles into a profile of future transport
requirements for the study area. The four stages in constructing a transportation model are trip
generation, trip distribution, modal split and traffic assignment. The first stage estimates the
number of trips generated by each zone based on the nature and level of land-use activity within
it. The second distributes these trips among all possible destinations, thus establishing a pattern
of trip making between each of the zones. The mode of travel used by each trip maker to complete
their journey is then determined and finally the actual route within the network taken by the trip
maker in each case.

Each of these four stages is described in detail in the next chapter. Together they form the process
of transportation demand analysis which plays a central role within highway engineering. It
attempts to describe and explain both existing and future travel behaviour in an attempt to predict
demand for both car-based and other forms of transportation modes.
Classification of Roads:

The classification of roads depends on the criterion considered.

They may be all-weather roads if they can be used during all seasons of a year; fair-weather
roads, if traffic is interrupted during monsoon at course ways where water overflows for a few
hours. Based on the type of carriage-way or the road pavement, it may be a paved road with
at least a water-bound macadam layer; or it may be an unpaved road. Earth roads and gravel
roads fall in this category.
Superior paved roads have bituminous surface or concrete surface for the carriage-way. A
bituminous road is also known as a black-top road.
Traffic volume, load transported per day, and the location and function are important criteria
for classification of roads. These criteria have been taken into account in the classification
recommended by the Nagpur Plan—NH, SH, MDR, ODR and VR, as also in the one modified
by the Lucknow Plan—with categories of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary roads.
Urban roads are classified based on their function and location:
(i) Expressways— for movement of heavy volume of traffic.
(ii) Arterial streets—for connecting the central area to expressways.
(iii) Sub-arterial streets—similar to arterial roads but with less spacing.
(iv) Collector streets—for collection and distribution of traffic through local streets in
residential areas.
(v) Local streets—to access private property like residences, shops and industries. Traffic
originates here or ends here.
In this context, certain definitions are relevant:
(i) Road – A convenient way over which vehicles may lawfully pass for going from one place
to another.
(ii) Service road – Used for servicing and as a means of access to adjacent property;
constructed parallel to the main road adjacent to roadside buildings.
(iii) Street – A road within a town or a residential locality with buildings on one or both sides.
(iv) Country road – Road connecting one place to another on the country-side.
(v) Urban road – A road within a town or a city.
(vi) Bypass road – A road constructed skirting a village or a small town, taking off through a
highway and joining it after bypassing the inhabited area; this helps through traffic to move
fast without having to enter the village or town.
(vii) Highway – Any public road or a street may be called a highway.
(viii) Arterial road – Road passing within a city and linking the state or national highway, with
limited access.
(ix) Freeway – An arterial highway with controlled access crossing other roads at different
levels.
(x) Boulevard – Very wide road with avenue on its either side; generally used for ceremonial
processions or considered as prestigious roads in a city.