Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | April 2013 ISSN - 2250-1991

Research Paper Engineering

Effect of Traffic Composition and Road Width

on Urban Traffic Stream

*KetanKumar C. Varmora **Dr.P.J. Gundaliya

* Civil Engineering Department, L.D.College of Engineering, Ahmedabad.

** Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department, L.E. College Morbi

ABSTRACT

Day by day the traffic of an urban streets increases rapidly .Due to the increase in traffic the problems related to this also
become more and more complex . Most of the Indian cities are having heterogeneous traffic(i.e., mix traffic of Non-motorized
and motorized vehicles) which make the use of same road. The area selected for this study was two lane/three lane urban road
of Ahmedabad city. For this study the Mid-block section of each Road has been selected. The video graphic as well manual
method was used for collection of traffic data such as measurement of flow and Spot speeds. Due to change in carriageway
width and vehicle composition, the traffic stream speed and flow also encounter more congestion level along the length of link.

Keywords : Heterogeneous Traffic; Urban streets; Speed; Flow; Traffic Stream; Vehicle Composition
1 INTRODUCTION this method. Another important traffic flow characteristics is
Day by day the traffic of an urban streets increases rapidly the flow which is measured in vehicles per hour. This is ac-
.Due to the increase in traffic the problems related to this curately possible by videography method. If we play the video
also become more and more complex .The urban roads of again and again we can count the total numbers of different
India generally carry the heterogeneous traffic which is the vehicles. Data related to Roadway and Traffic survey included
combination of various vehicles like Cars, Buses, Trucks, the following:
Motor cycles, Light goods vehicles, Auto Rickshaws, Pedal
Cycles, Hand drawn carts, Animal drawn carts etc. These n No. of lanes
all vehicles have different speeds, size, Load carrying ca- n Width of lane
pacities or passenger capacities etc. which affect the urban n Surface of the pavement
heterogeneous traffic flow. Most of the Indian cities are hav- n Speed of vehicle (km/h)
ing heterogeneous traffic(i.e., mix traffic of Non-motorized n Flow (PCU/H)
and motorized vehicles) which make the use of same road.
Table1 indicates total numbers of registered motor vehicles The width of each lane varies from 3.25m to 3.50 m. The
in Ahmedabad. In developing countries like India the urban lateral clearance includes width of paved shoulder, lateral
as well as rural road networks serve the heterogeneous traf- distance of any object or sign board from the edge of car-
fic having a wide range of type of vehicles, characteristics riageway.
(static as well as dynamic) of vehicles, variation in behavior
of drivers. Also there is wide variation in the income of urban 2.1 Overall Transportation Scenario:
people which directly affect ownership of different types of Traffic in Ahmedabad is characterized by significant presence
vehicles (i.e., Cars, two wheelers, cycles etc.).This results of inter city traffic and its composition. The city is presently
into heterogeneous traffic on urban arterial streets. Traffic in suffering from several transport problems like traffic conges-
Ahmedabad is characterized by significant presence of inter tion, parking difficulties, insufficient road width, and higher
city traffic and its composition. The city is presently suffer- use of personalized mode of transportation, high delay at
ing from several transport problems like traffic congestion, signalized intersection, proliferating intermediate passenger
parking difficulties, insufficient road width, and higher use of transport vehicles, road accidents and inadequate mass tran-
personalized mode of transportation, high delay at signal- sit facilities.
ized intersection, proliferating intermediate passenger trans-
port vehicles, road accidents and inadequate mass transit 2.3 Vehicular Growth and Composition:
facilities. There are different category of vehicle registered in
Ahmedabad city. It is obseeved that the predominant
2.0 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS mode of transport within the city is two wheelers. It con-
The area selected for this study was two lane/three lane sists 71.64 of total registered vehicles. However four
urban road of Ahmedabad city. For this study the Mid-block wheelers (cars) and three-wheelers are of 15.22 and
section of each road has been selected. The first traffic sur- 4.94% respectively. On the other hand primary survey of
vey work was carried out on 132’ ring road near pallav cross this study also indicates percentage of bicycles in vehicle
roads. This road has three lanes on each direction of traffic composition is also significant. The overall growth rate of
flow. To measure the spot speed, time taken by different ve- two wheelers is more than cars and 3 – wheelers. Total
hicles to cross 40.00/50.00 m distance was measured in sec- vehicles registered in Ahmedabad are covered more than
onds. For example, a car takes 4.00 seconds to cross 50.00 20% share of total vehicles registered in Gujarat. Overall
m distance then the speed of this car will be 45.00 km/h. The growth rate is 8.46%, which indicates high use of per-
disadvantage of this method is that it is too tedious and time sonalized vehicles. Average growth rate of vehicles also
consuming. However the results are accurate and reliable by shows increasing trend.

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Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | April 2013 ISSN - 2250-1991

Table-1 RTO, Ahmedabad- Vehicle population ute interval was obtained manually by using digital stopwatch.
Year Percentage Since the recording can be played a number of times in the
Sr Type of Of Vehicles laboratory, the data collected by videography are more ac-
No vehicle 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 composition in curate than the direct data collection in the field by manual
Last year method. However, where it was difficult to get a suitable place
for placing the video camera at a point to cover the required
1 Truck 31437 32612 34586 1.23
road stretch within the view limit of camera, manual method
2 Buses 23739 24142 24831 0.88 was used for collecting data directly in the field. For this meth-
3 Auto 115699 128240 139587 4.94 od a large number of students (i.e., students of M.E.second ,
M.E. fourth Sem,) were employed in the field for the selected
4 4-W 339055 383588 429688 15.2
period. The number of trained students were broadly divided
Two into two groups – one for classified volume count of traffic,
5 339055 383588 429688 71.6
wheeler while the other for obtaining spot speed for different vehicles.
6 Other 143001 724914 171906 6.09
Total 2238452 2444240 2651116 100 Depending on the availability of the data and the composi-
tion of different vehicle types in the stream, the vehicle type
observed in the field have been logically categorized into
groups. For example, in some cases, all bigger vehicles like
bus, truck etc. were put into one group. Similarly, car, jeep
,van etc. were put in one group.

The classified traffic counts were available for every five-

minute interval. Traffic counts were aggregated for 5- minute
interval and then appropriately converted into hourly traffic
volume in PCU per hour (PCU/H) .

Total Three stretches were considered for the case study. The
Fig. -1 Chart showing Vehicles composition data collection on these roads has been done by Videogra-
(Source RTO- Ahmedabad) phy. The collected data was then analyzed in the transporta-
tion laboratory and the speed and volume per five-minute time
2.4 Data Collection: interval was found out. The speed-flow relationship has been
The required data for and analysis and results are traffic vol- developed for all the three roads for 5 min. time interval data.
ume (V), realised stream speed at operating traffic volume
(Vs) , free flow speed (Sfs), capacity of road section, compo- The stretches of roads are listed as below:
sition of traffic and width of the road section. In the present 1. 132’Ring road (from Jaymangal to Pallav)
study, the video graphic method has been used for collection 2. From Naranpura AEC to Sola
of traffic data such as measurement of flow. At the 132’Ring 3. C.G.Road (from Girish cold Drink to Jade Blue)
road site, the video camera placed on the top of compound
wall, on the AEC to SOLA road, the video camera placed on The data collected for the above stretches are analysed and
the High angle at left side, While at C.G. road camera was put the speed flow graphs were prepared through Fig.2 to 4.
on the top of high compound wall. A continuous video graphic
survey was carried out for 2 hours in the morning and in the
evening. After collecting the data, the analysis has been done
in the Transport laboratory for classified volume counts and
speed measurements.

2.5 Data Collection Application:

The roads were selected in such a way that using different
sets of traffic data, Traffic flow can be modeled for a wide
range of roadway traffic and control conditions. Three road
stretches were considered under this study. Number of traf-
fic lanes, carriage way width, surface type and various data
collection techniques are considered in this study. Depending
on the prevailing roadway conditions and abutting land use,
two different methods were adopted for collection of traffic
data for this study. Where the abutting land use patterns were
favourable for placing the video camera at the suitable loca-
tion to cover the traffic movement on selected stretch of road, Fig. 2 Speed –Flow relationship(132’ Ring road-Jayman-
the video graphic method was used for collection traffic data. agal to Pallav)
Otherwise the manual method was adopted for the same. In
video graphic method, a pre-selected suitable stretch of the
road was marked by painting and road marker were placed in
the beginning and end of the marked section of road in such
a way that they are not directly visible by the oncoming traffic,
but can be identified by the video camera.

The video camera was placed at a suitable location (e.g on

the roof of high rise building or on the top of compound wall by
the side of the road) and the traffic movements on the marked
road were recorded continuously for the selected period to
cover the peak as well as off peak traffic movements. The
recording was then replayed a number of times in laboratory
and the traffic volume, composition of traffic and travel time of
different modes were extracted by manual method. The num-
ber of vehicles and there types were noted for every 5 minute Fig. 3 Speed –Flow relationship (Naranpura AEC to Sola
interval. The travel time of different vehicle during each 5 min- road)

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Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | April 2013 ISSN - 2250-1991

Fig- 5 graph showing the relationship between Road

width and Flow

Fig. 4 Speed –Flow relationship(C.G. road Girish cold 3 CONCLUSIONS

drink to Jade Blue) Based on traffic demand and desired level service, the car-
riageway width is provided in terms of number of lanes. Nor-
The maximum flow was observed on 132’Ring road(Table-2) mally the width of traffic lane should be uniform along the
in which two wheelers have more contribution . Also the graph- length of a roadway with same number of traffic lanes. How-
ical relationship between the road width and the flow(PCU/H) ever in this study the carriageway widths were found to vary
is shown in the Fig.-5. even along the length of the urban road, and similar links in
different locations were also found to have variations in the
Table-2 Road Stretches with maximum Flow values having varying carriageway width. The non-uniform carriageway width along
widths the road is common especially in developing countries. Due
to change in carriageway width, the traffic stream speed also
Maximum flow
Sr. Name of Road Stretch No. of Total encounters more congestion level along the length of link. An-
Lanes Width observed
No (m) (PCU/H) other factor is the composition of Traffic which is very much
important. As the Volume of Large size and slow moving vehi-
132’Ring Road(Jaymangal to cles increases the traffic flow as well as the speed decrease.
1 3 9.5 3955
Pallav)
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2 Naranpura AEC to Sola Road 2 6.2 3274 I am very much thankful to all M.E. (TRANSSPORTA-
TION) students , Prof.N.D.Hajiani and Prof.N.G. Raval of
C.G.Road (Girish Cold Drink to L.D.College of Engineering for their valuable help during car-
3 2 7.1 2786
Jade Blue)
rying out this traffic survey.

REFERENCES
[1] Arpan Mehar and Satish Chandra (2012),”Microscopic Traffic Simulation of an Urban Road in Mixed traffic Condition”, National Conference and Workshop on Recent
Advances in Traffic Engineering (Rate-12),SVNIT, Surat,India. | [2] Dipti Thanki and A.K.Patel (2012),”A Methodology on Urban Road Network Simulation Using VIS-
SIM”, National Conference and Workshop on Recent Advances in Traffic Engineering (Rate-12),SVNIT, Surat,India | [3] Dr.Satish Chandra (2004)” Capacity Estimation
Procedure For Two-Lane Roads Under Mixed Traffic Conditions”,IRC,Paper No-498. | [4] Highway Capacity Manual -2000. | [5] Himani Patel et al.(2012),”Evaluation of
Roadway capacity of Inter-city Expressways on Plain and Hilly Terrain using Microscopic Traffic Simulation”, National Conference and Workshop on Recent Advances
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