Comparative Evaluation of Malaysian HCM 2011 and US HCM 2010: Ramp Merging Expressway

It is important for traffic engineers in Malaysia to comply with the relevant and appropriate standards and manuals to determine the performance of highway facilities that will provide accurate result reflecting the existing operation of highways. This paper provides the comparative study in performance evaluation of ramp segment between Malaysia Highway Capacity Manual 2011 (MHCM 2011) and US Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (USHCM 2010). The study was conducted by analyzing data collected, obtained by using Trax Apollyon Automatic Traffic Counter at Km 12, Grand Sepadu Expressway, Selangor. The evaluation of performance for ramp segment was measured by density.. Both densities measured using MHCM 2011 and USHCM 2010 were statistically compared with empirical data provided and the accuracy of both manual was calculated by using the root mean square error (RMSE) for each manual. Correspondingly,RMSE for MHCM 2011 showed lower value which was at 2.44 compared to 2.70 for USHCM 2010. Results showed that MHCM 2011 was more accurate in measuring the density for the ramp section as it has lower value.