The Distribution of Traffic Volumes

The distribution of hourly volumes is described and its form and characteristics are discussed. Theoretical models of the distribution are derived so that an estimate of the distribution may be obtained if only a fraction of the traffic data for the year is known. Depending on the size of this sample different estimation procedures are recommended. The hour has long been the conventional counting interval used for traffic counts over long periods. Other counting intervals are considered to determine if the hour is the best unit. The distribution of daily traffic volumes is found to be best represented by a displaced gamma distribution.