A model to evaluate heavy vehicle effect in motorway traffic flow

Highway operating conditions are also determined by interactions between passenger cars and heavy vehicles in the flow. Therefore, a suitable model which describes and predicts the heavy vehicle effect can be useful to achieve more realistic criteria to evaluate the Level of Service (LOS) for infrastructures in the uninterrupted flow. After reviewing briefly the models available in literature to take account of the effects on operating conditions due to heavy vehicles, the paper examines some traffic data analysis of the Italian A22 motorway and later presents a closed-form traffic model for heavy vehicles via the queuing theory. Some applications of this model are displayed for operational purposes and a critical evaluation of the results is also made in comparison with some experimental evidence.