In traffic engineering, the degree of saturation of an intersection (typically under traffic signal control) or road is a measure of how much demand it is experiencing compared to its total capacity.
The degree of saturation (%) is a ratio of demand to capacity on each approach to the junction, with a value of 100% meaning that demand and capacity are equal and no further traffic is able to progress through the junction. Values over 85% are typically regarded as suffering from traffic congestion, with queues of vehicles beginning to form. The term practical reserve capacity (PRC) is often used to refer to the available spare capacity at a junction. A negative PRC indicates that the junction is over capacity.
Famous quotes containing the words degree and/or saturation:
“In considering the ledger equal, understand the greatest gift you have given your parents is the opportunity to raise you. The things a child gets from parents can’t compare to the things a parent gets from raising a child. Only by experiencing this can you understand the degree to which children give meaning to parents’ lives.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the absence of real life. All these dead, mechanized, specialized actions, stealing a little bit of life a thousand times a day until the mind and body are exhausted, until that death which is not the end of life but the final saturation with absence.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)