What is a Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE)?

Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) or passenger car unit (PCU) is the number of passenger cars that will result in the same operational conditions as a single heavy vehicle of a particular type under identical roadway, traffic, and control conditions.

PCE factors are used to convert counts of heavy vehicles into counts of passenger cars such that a mixed flow of heavy and light vehicles is converted to an equivalent traffic stream consisting entirely of passenger cars.

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