Motorway Service Area Planning

Service area, which is used to safeguard the traffic safety, alleviate drivers' long-distance fatigue, guarantee the travel vehicles' maintains, is an important constituent of expressway. As there is still no related specification of layout and design about service area in our country, how to plan the service areas in the expressway networks becomes more and more significant at present.This article begins with the overall service area planning, then proposes the princeples which operate the service area location, analyzes how to determine the service areas' scale and rank.Firstly, according to expressway's present situation and further planning, this paper analyzes the service areas' current status and the meaning of reserching the expressway service area overall planning.Secondly, based on the investigations and studies on some expressway service areas, this paper summarizes the service areas' characteristics, explains why and how to classify the service areas into three ranks.Thirdly, this paper introduces "three appropriate principles" of service area location, then takes Shaan Xi province expressways as an example to demonstrate the location method.Fourthly, this paper introduces the way to calculate the scale of expressway service areas, brings up the formula of scale, analyzes each parameter, including the calculation of parking area, the relation between parking area and service area scale, and how to use the parameters such as the volume of traffic, the driving-into rate, the peak-rate and the turnover-rate.Finally, using the location and the scale calculation method, this paper selects several typical routes of Shann Xi Province expressways, discusses the method and process on service area overall planning, subsequently proposes the Shann Xi Province expressway service area planning.