Assessment of level of service and suggestion for major arterial roads in Vijayawada

Abstract

Like every coin has two sides the urbanization is also showing the consequences by taking toll on the urban infrastructure. Urban streets are not spared from the ill effect of urbanization. As a result of which the operating condition of road available to the commuter decreasing day by day. The urban road networks in recent times are badly suffering from the problems like decreasing speeds, increasing congestion, increased travel time, and decreased level of service and increase in accident rates. So available urban transport network need to be utilized more efficiently which can achieved by proper management of traffic flow in urban networks. I have chosen LOS to determine the existing traffic condition on a particular stretch in VIJAYAWADA. In India Level of Service (LOS) is not well defined for urban streets. The analysis procedure followed in India is that developed by HCM 2000. Speed ranges of LOS categories for various urban street classes defined by HCM are appropriate for developed countries having homogenous type of traffic flow. India being a developing country its traffic is very much heterogeneous having vehicles of different operational characteristics. So LOS criteria in Indian context should be defined correctly considering the traffic and geometric characteristics of urban streets. Defining LOS is very important as this is the first step of LOS analysis. In this report I defined LOS for NH-5 which is passing through the core part of the city using three parameters delay at intersection, average speed and v/c ratio and at the same time tried to compare the results obtained from these parameters with USER PERCEPTION study. User perception is basically the direct interaction with users and asking them to rate the LOS on a scale of A-F. The data such as delay at intersection, average speed and traffic volume counts are collected through primary survey. After the data is collected the LOS is defined using the mentioned three parameters. The results are found to be significantly lower than that mentioned in HCM-2000. Heterogeneous traffic flow and roads having varying geometric and surrounding environmental characteristics are the major reasons for this lower Level of Service. The high share of commercial vehicles,iii Assessment of level of service and suggestion for major arterial roads in Vijayawada private vehicles and the existing land use are the main reasons behind this low Level of Service. It can be suggested that this NH-5 passing through Vijayawada needs substantial geometric improvements to mitigate the demand of exponentially growing traffic.