Methodology of Calculating Heavy Vehicle Equivalents

Passenger car equivalents (PCE) present a very important parameter for capacity calculation and road service level as well as a planning segment of road capacity. There are many ways of calculating PCE and most of them are based on Greenshield’s basic method. This paper studies the PCE calculation methodology and conditions under which it is applied. The first part of the paper is about role of PCE in analyzing traffic flow, and the rest of the paper is presenting methodologies for computation of PCE. Example of the latest method for determining PCE according to HCM-2010 is given in this paper. The goal of the research is presented by structural, parameter and functional analysis of methods. Further research directions of PCE are shown as well.