PA Practice Exam #15
I just took the practice exam, and question #15 makes no sense. The explanation is very vague, and I even uploaded the question to ChatGPT, which gave me A as the right answer!
Can someone explain this to me, please?!
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You need to consider all aspects and information provided.
In the AM peak hours when the coffee shop would be in operation, check the traffic count and understand where it is all heading. Site A shows 100 vehicles turning onto Main Blvd from the northern first street section and 258 turning onto Main from the southern portion, 358 total. At Site C on the same side, 436 approach the site heading straight down Main and another 97 are turning towards the site, for a total of 533. At Site B, 597 vehicles are heading towards the site during this time, which would be the most and give the shop more potential business.
I would also advise that you shouldn't be cross-referencing ChatGPT for this information, as it also incorrectly synthesized the exhibit and information provided. Eastbound at 258 isn't the highest volume, it only considered Site A's relevant patterns and volume, and didn't even take into account the 100 going in the same direction as the 258. It also determined Westbound to be 'irrelevant due to the median', despite it being an integral consideration for all sites, as well as the correct answer being on the Westbound portion of the boulevard where the actual highest volume of traffic occurs.
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Flora
779 turn onto Main towards Option B, but consider the traffic that is turning at the Third Street turn (412) and the amount heading straight (597) towards the site. Not all 779 cars are heading straight down Main, along with the 223 cars turning left onto Main from Fourth street, and a portion are veering off prior to reaching the site (412).
436 head towards Option C along with 97 turning right from Third Street. All together, you have 533 potential vehicles that pass by Option C, and 651 passing by Option B.
See markup below:
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All,
This question confuses a few people each year - it's been discussed at length in the Community a few times before!
If you've never seen one of these traffic flow diagrams before, it looks like a lot of numbers to start with, but once you know how to read them, they're really easy to answer correctly.
Here's the reply I sent to someone with a similar question about this practice exam question in the past:
Read the question details carefully. You'll see one or two of theseat most, and the questions typically provide you with enough information to be able to figure it out in the moment pretty easily. I haven't touched one of these in several years, so let's walk through it real quick:
The map is a map of car counts "Vehicular traffic analysis" for 8 AM and for 5PM. The question states that the coffee shop is open from 5 AM to 12 PM (Noon). That means you can completely ignore the 5PM map entirely.
The arrows and car counts show the number of cars heading in each direction at the intersection, for each block. So all the cars that run from First St onto main are accounted for (more or less) at the Main/Second intersection, and so on - for any given location, you're only dealing with the arrows and counts at the adjacent intersections The question states that Main Boulevard has a planted median preventing left turns except at intersections. This tells you that all traffic that is relevant for the coffee shop site has to be on the same side of the road as the coffee shop site - meaning you only want the "upstream" intersection in this case. Again, read the question carefully! You don't add up all of the numbers, you do add up all the numbers for the right side of the road from the preceding block.
So for site A, it's 100+256 = 356 cars passing by that could turn in.
Site B has 597 coming from the Main/3rd intersection that could turn in, plus 54 that turn onto that side of Main from 3rd St, totalling 651 cars.
Site C has 97 cars that pass it from turning at 3rd St, and 436 cars that were on Main before 3rd preceding to Main & 4th st. 97+436 is 533 cars.
So B is the correct answer.
Generally, questions on the ARE don't require a ton of calculations, and tend to use mostly addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. The test only gives you a couple of minutes per question, so the questions are generally answerable in a couple of minutes or less.
And here are a couple of Community posts from the past saying the same things in different ways:
https://are5community.ncarb.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/13888319686295-Question-8-Programming-Analysis-mock-up-exam
https://are5community.ncarb.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/27892897333271-Vehicular-traffic-analysis-PA
Happy studying,
Ralph, the Amber Book Team
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