Developing Improved Truck Passenger Car Equivalent Values at Signalized Intersections

This paper describes the methodology and findings for developing improved passenger car equivalent (PCE) factors for trucks at signalized intersections on the basis of field data and simulation modeling. The Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (HCM 2010) assumes a single PCE value of 2.00 for trucks at traffic signals. The proposed truck PCE values are sensitive to the proportion of trucks, truck type, and intersection’s approach grade. It is recommended that the current HCM 2010 approach of computing the heavy vehicle and grade effects on saturation flow rates independently be replaced with a new combined heavy vehicle and grade adjustment factor that takes into account the synergistic effects of heavy vehicles combined with upgrades.