Proposta de adaptação da metodologia do highway capacity manual 2000 para análise de vias arteriais urbanas em Fortaleza

Abstract

Arterial streets are responsible for the vast majority of the transient traffic in large Brazilian cities, thus their adequate supervision is a major concern in order to maintain acceptable levels of mobility in the network. The Highway Capacity Manual – HCM 2000 is a manual produced by United States transportation agencies providing methodologies for the assessment of the level ofservice and to estimate the capacity of several components of the traffic system, including a specific section regarding urban streets analysis. This methodology is divided in two methods: 1st Method – Street class determination; 2nd Method – Level of service assessment; and 3rd Method – Simulation of the space average speed . In this work, however, the assumed research hypothesis has considered this methodology to be inappropriate to the Brazilian reality due to differences in the physical-operational aspects of the network as well as differences in drivers behaviour characteristics. Consequently, this research aimed to verify the feasibility of the HCM 2000 methodology to arterial streets of Fortaleza and suggest adjustments to improve its effectiveness vis-à-vis the quality assessment of the transient traffic corridors in this city. Conceptual debates were complemented by the quantitative analysis of a 15 sample dataset obtained from the most important traffic corridors in Fortaleza. As a result, adjustments in the two first methods were suggested and the 3rd method was found to be recommended for planning analysis purpose only. The findings in this research are expected to contribute for the further development of a fully national methodology that would able to accurately reflect the Brazilian urban arterial streets traffic scenario.