Recent Advances in Traffic Engineering

Knowledge of fundamental traffic flow characteristics and vehicle behaviour are necessary for appropriate operation of system. In developing countries like India, the urban road traffic, in particular, is highly heterogeneous. It comprises of vehicles of widely varying static and dynamic characteristics. Heterogeneous traffic flow creates enormous delay, wastage of fuel, air and noise pollution, accidents and interruption to emergency vehicles. The fundamental parameters of road traffic flow are speed, flow and density. If these parameters are measured properly on congested urban road links, then mathematical models can be developed. These models are basic need for quantifying capacity and consequently determining level of service of the road. Models for the free flow conditions are available for the congested Indian urban roads, but very few attempts have been made for developing model for the forced flow conditions. It is difficult to capture stop-and-go condition for developing the speed–flow relationship from the field observations. Hence, this study aimed to develop an appropriate methodology to collect the data for the stop-and-go condition particularly. The congested road links of Kalupur area of Ahmedabad city have been selected, where heterogeneous traffic is flowing creating enormous delay about more the one hour in the evening peak period. The data is collected by videography and then analysed for small time interval of 20–30 s. The speed–flow–density curves are plotted for free flow as well as for forced flow conditions, and different equations are obtained.

Rapid increase of transportation demand in urban roads causes delay, congestion, raise in vehicle operating cost, and safety and environmental problems. In this research, effort is made to evaluate capacity and level of service in divided and undivided mid-block sections of urban roads in peak and off-peak hours of the day. Speed and traffic volume data were collected by a video record method for 12 h. As the traffic in Indian cities is heterogeneous and has various static and dynamic characteristics, it needs to be converted into homogeneous traffic, so that we can evaluate capacity and level of service; therefore, it has been done by three methods, homogenization coefficient, PCU value as per IRC, and Chandra’s method, and the result with the capacity and level of service is compared. Various speed–flow, flow–density, and speed–density relationships were made based on field data. Speed–density relationship was developed by Greenshield, Greenberg, and Underwood models, and the R2 values were more fitted into the Underwood’s model; hence, the capacity was estimated based on this model. The level of service was analyzed by DPCU/C and PCU/C for the morning and evening peak hours, and the observed level of service of the most peak hour periods of the road sections was obtained C, D, and E. Also, friction model has been developed by SPSS software, in which the input variables were BIC, V/C ratio, PSV, PEDC, and PEDSW and the output variable was the speed. It was observed that friction has a substantial effect on the speed of vehicles.

Capacity plays an important role while planning and designing of any roadway. The features of geometric of a roadway like the grade and curve radius will govern the capacity of a roadway. Passenger car unit (PCU) is used to estimate the capacity of the roadway. The passenger car unit values of a vehicle type alter concerning to speed. The speed of the vehicle is governed by geometric features of a roadway. This work objective is to learn the effect of geometric of the roadway such as grade, curve, and straight sections on PCU values of heterogeneous traffic conditions on a two-way four-lane national highway. Geometric and traffic data collected at 7 sections on NH-16. PCU value’s estimation of the vehicle types of mixed traffic is difficult as compared with the homogeneous traffic conditions. PCU values are estimated by using speed–area ratio (dynamic PCU) method. Dynamic PCU (speed–area ratio) approach considers the vehicle average speed. The outputs had revealed that the capacity of the roadway declines as the percentage of downgrade increases. With an increase in the percentage of upgrade, the capacity of the road increases. The capacity of the roadway increased at the quick curve in contrast with mild curve and straight roads.

The heterogeneous traffic conditions with non-lane-based traffic flow can be best evaluated by simulation of traffic. The present study uses VISSIM to simulate the mixed traffic of Indian multilane highways as it is a time increment-based multimodal simulation software. The psycho-physical behavior of drivers is considered in the present study because the driver performs an action when a threshold is reached to its boundary and is expressed as the function of speed differences and distances between the vehicles. The calibration by several dimensions is done on car-following model that has been modified by Wiedemann in VISSIM. The driver of a vehicle in VISSIM considers the leading vehicles and vehicles on adjoining lanes. Thus, hysteresis plots of relative speed against relative distance are made for aggregated leader and follower vehicles based on follower vehicular category to get the calibrated coefficient of correlation parameters (CC) used in VISSIM. A new simulation model with calibrated CC parameters is made to get a more realistic capacity estimate of multilane highway in Indian conditions.

The emergence of IT parks in Pune city has led to an increase in the flow of traffic during peak hours at Bhumkar Chowk, which is a four-legged un-signalized intersection with a vehicular underpass. This paper attempts to enhance the performance of Bhumkar Chowk intersection which is a typical example of a heterogeneous traffic scenario seen in India. The work is also carried out to resolve the traffic congestion by reducing the travel time, queue length, delay and traffic volume. Signals are designed for the intersection as well as new vehicular underpass adjacent to the current underpass is proposed.

On urban roads in India, there has been a rapid increase in Motor vehicles (MV) and also an increase in a large number of non-motorized road users since last few decades on urban roads in Srinagar metropolitan area (SMA) under heterogeneous traffic conditions. Traffic congestion in the city will cause a large number of problems. The current situation of traffic jam condition on urban-transport networks are very high and that occurs as use rapidly growing and is distinguished by longer trip times, smaller speeds, and fast-growing vehicular queuing. The present methodology aims to study traffic congestion indicators such as level of service (LOS) of roadway, Travel Time Index (TTI), and their variants. The data were collected at different locations in the CBD area of the city where high traffic congestion flows were observed. At these selected locations, vehicular volume count, spot speeds (m/s) were observed during peak and non-peak hours. Motor vehicles were categorized based on different vehicle groups. The final results obtained from the calibration and validation of models were discussed and the obtained level of service comes under F. It was concluded that Rainawari was found to have the major traffic congestion different in peak hours and the concerned authorities like Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) should take proper remedial measures to control traffic congestion issues on the road link between NIT Srinagar and Dal gate especially Rainawari area.

The Highway Capacity Manual 2010 (HCM 2010) specifies the importance of user perception in evaluating the Automobile Level of Service (ALOS). Hence, the objective of this study is set to develop a unified methodology for quantifying the ALOS on the divided urban corridors, based on the automobile user perception. To study the behaviour of automobiles at different flow conditions, speed profiles of test vehicles were collected with the in-vehicle Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile phones. The ‘Speed Tracker’ application was used to record the travel data in every second along with the location coordinates. To have a wide variety of travel conditions, four divided urban corridors of length varying from 2.9 to 3.8 km were identified in the state of Kerala as the study stretches. The segmental analysis was carried out for studying the speed variation behaviour of the vehicles with corresponding flow values. The Acceleration Noise (AN) and the speed ratio (SR) were found to be the most significant measures for defining ALOS. Non-linear regression analysis was carried out to model these measures of effectiveness. k-means and fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithms were used to obtain the threshold values for ALOS. Silhouette coefficients were calculated for validating the cluster results, and the results showed that k-means algorithm is giving better results compared to FCM. This method can be used for assessing the quality of four-lane divided urban corridors incorporating the user perception.

Highly increasing vehicle population results in transportation problems, and thus it leads to the requirement of more efficient transportation systems. Indian urban road traffic consists of different types of vehicles with different sizes, speed, and maneuverability moving on the same right of way without lane discipline and without obeying general traffic rules. They create chaos on junctions and result in enormous delays, more fuel consumption, air and noise pollution, accidents, and also restrict the movement of emergency vehicles. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the travel time delay in existing traffic conditions. The aim of this study is to quantify the delay in travel time and to identify its causes. As per that the various traffic surveys have been carried out on selected stretches of Kalupur region in Ahmedabad. In this study, it is proposed to measure the travel time delay and to ascertain the notable factors which result in these delays. License plate method and GPS in floating car method are used to collect travel time data during peak hours in the morning and evening, respectively. With the help of the data collected, Flow–Delay model is generated. Average travel time observed in this area is about 15–20 min/km during evening peak hours. It is found that the travel time delay depends on traffic flow, its composition, slow-moving vehicles, haphazard movement of vehicle without lane discipline, boarding alighting of passengers on the bus stops, and rickshaw stops. It is suggested to provide an efficient mass transport system at separate levels in this area.

In India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways registers 480,652 road accidents in 2016 and it was 501,423 in 2015. Red Light Running is one of the major causes recorded at the signalized intersection for road accidents. Surat is one of the fastest-growing cities in India with a population of 6.04 million in 2016. The population of the city is increasing day by day as numbers of people are migrating. To reduce RLR and to improve traffic safety and security, Red Light Violation Detection (RLVD) system is introduced under the Intelligent Traffic Control System (ITCS).To detect the violating vehicle, Red Light Violation Detection Application (RLVA) software is completely designed and developed. This system is different from the traditional traffic signal system, in which a Smart camera with high capacity is placed to cover the area over which vehicles are restricted to passed. The main purpose of this research is to check the effectiveness of camera enforcement system at the signalized intersection for heterogeneous traffic.

The magnitude and nature of traffic flow in developing countries are difficult to evaluate due to its mix traffic conditions. In transportation network, intersection plays a vital role to increase the efficiency of the entire road network. Analysis of these nodal points (intersection) is required to evaluate the performance of the intersection through the assessment of operational parameters such as saturation flow and its level of service (LOS). However, the complexity of discharge flow in Indian scenario is mainly due to its mixed properties of traffic stream where both motorized and non-motorized vehicles are traveling in the same stretch without any lane discipline. Also, no single vehicle dominates the traffic stream consequently prediction of saturation flow is more sensitive to that mixed traffic. The passenger car unit is a common platform for the conversion of mixed traffic into a standard unit by taking passenger car as a conventional vehicle. The present study focuses toward the analysis saturation flow at signalized intersection using various PCU estimation methods under mixed traffic conditions. A detailed comparison of the saturation flow obtained by the each methodology with standard saturation flow value given in HCM (2010) is also presented. Traffic and vehicular data were collected from six signalized intersections from three Indian cities such as Delhi, Chandigarh and Allahabad using video graphic method. The prospective method resulted in a lower difference in saturation flow respect to HCM (2010) is proposed for non-lane-based mixed traffic stream.

This chapter focuses on the performance evaluation of Indian urban roads from the perspective of travel time reliability. Travel time data on two important road corridors of Surat city were collected using a license plate matching technique for this purpose, and the performance of these corridors was assessed using and various travel time reliability metrics. Statistical models were developed to identify the functional relationship between space mean speed (SMS) and planning time index (PTI). As Indian traffic comprises of multiple vehicle classes, an attempt was made to analyze the effect of vehicle composition on the average travel time using artificial neural network (ANN)-based approach. It was observed that travelers must consider the higher cushion time while planning a trip on both of these corridors. The developed regression models demonstrated the strong functional relationship between SMS and PTI on both of the sections. Developed ANN models revealed that the percentage of car and auto-rickshaws present in the traffic stream significantly affects the average travel time along with the total volume of traffic.

Traffic and transport planning in fast-growing metropolitan cities in India is the most challenging task for the urban transport planner, in view of the faster traffic and transport demand growth observed recently. Increase in travel times and their variation are significant issues on urban corridors owing to heavy traffic volume and congestion. The level of service is decreasing, and vehicular delays are intolerable during peak periods. The situations call for in-depth analysis of associated attributes. An important traffic corridor of Surat, a fast-growing metropolitan city in the state of Gujarat in India, is selected for studying the attributes and developing the estimation model as a typical case of urban corridor. The attributes associated with travel time are uncertain and imprecise in nature due to the dynamic traffic environment. Therefore, a soft technique fuzzy rule-based approach has been advocated for developing the travel time estimation model. Estimation model is further validated with field data, and sensitivity analysis with respect to identified attributes has been carried out.

Efficient modelling of vehicular traffic is a challenging task in the context of Indian traffic conditions. One of the approaches for modelling traffic is using simulation. Though there are several traffic simulation software available, all of them are developed for the lane based and homogeneous traffic conditions. However, traffic conditions in many countries are heterogeneous and lane-less and for simulating such traffic, either specific software needs to be developed or calibration of existing software for such traffic conditions is required. For example, one of the commonly used software, namely VISSIM can be calibrated for such traffic conditions and is already reported in literature. However, VISSIM being licensed software, researchers have developed an open source software, namely Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO). Though the initial development of SUMO focused on homogeneous and lane disciplined traffic, later researchers started developing modules for the Indian traffic with its wide mix of vehicle types and improper lane discipline. This paper presents a methodology for the calibration of SUMO for Indian heterogeneous traffic conditions by calibrating its parameters. Data from a 2 km segment in Chennai was used for the calibration. In the first level, parameters that can affect the driving behaviour under such conditions were identified using sensitivity analysis and one-way ANOVA test. Then optimal combination of parameters were identified using Genetic Algorithm (GA). Performance comparison was done with calibrated VISSIM for the same test bed. Average speed obtained from both the simulation software (VISSIM and SUMO) were compared and the errors were calculated in terms of Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) with respect to actual speed values. Results were found to be comparable, indicating that SUMO can be calibrated for simulating Indian traffic.

Understanding driver behavior is extremely important for the design and analysis of any transportation infrastructure. Several methodologies exist to collect information on driver behavior. However, most of these apply to homogeneous traffic with lane discipline. In India, like in most of the low- and middle-income countries, the traffic is highly heterogeneous and exhibits poor lane discipline. In this case, the vehicles interact not only longitudinally, but also laterally. Hence, these traditional methodologies may not work in such a scenario. The objective of this paper is to present a data collection method which will help to collect information about individual vehicles in highly heterogeneous traffic with poor lane discipline. Instrumented vehicles help to observe individual driver behavior accurately and precisely. Although such vehicles are present in various universities in the USA (such as University of Michigan, Southampton, Texas A&M University, to name a few), their purpose of such vehicles is different. However, the major challenges are associated with data processing and extraction. Since these sensors give large data, its processing is not easy, and it offers challenges. This paper discusses the opportunity such a vehicle offers to understand driving conditions and the challenges the researchers might face. This paper also presents some simple applications of the data.

The simulation-based prediction of traffic conditions based on current and past traffic observations is an important component in the intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications. Infrastructure, in the form of toll plazas, is inevitable for collection of revenue after the development of National Highways in India. Intelligent transportation systems utilize the advanced technologies and employ them in the field of transportation. The implementation of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) at toll plazas will improve the toll plaza operations. A simulation model can help in the evaluation and optimization of toll operations of existing toll plazas as well as in the planning and design of similar systems. With this motivation, a lane-wise classified vehicle count prediction algorithm, which can simulate traffic conditions at any time interval, has been developed in this study based on Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). Vehicle arrival was modeled by assuming Poisson’s distribution, followed by classification. Lane selection was done using the probability-based discrete random number generation. Radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based electronic toll collection (ETC) system gives timely varying traffic counts observed at the toll plaza, which has been utilized to develop and validate the simulation model. The flexibility with respect to the probabilities of the proposed algorithm makes it more applicable in the area of ITS. The observed vehicle count for each lane has been compared with the simulated values. The results of statistical tests show that there is no significant difference between actual and simulated traffic for each lane.

Present study attempts to evaluate the operational efficiency of urban roadway links using V-Box. An urban arterial of 5.8 km length in Surat city of Gujarat is selected and divided into six links based on the number of intersections in the entire facility. All links are identical in geometry (six-lane divided) with different land use patterns. In order to evaluate the operational efficiency of these links, the number of runs of different categories of vehicles including motorized two-wheelers (2W), auto-rickshaw (3W), big car and small car (4W) and heavy vehicle (bus) has been taken at different time periods. A number of 30 runs of each vehicle category were taken on the entire facility for peak hours and non-peak hours. The collected data has been analysed for spatial and temporal variation in speed for different vehicle categories. The spatial variation has been checked by analysing the inter-segmental variation of speed. Also, within each segment, the variation of speed for different category of vehicles for peak and non-peak hours has been studied. Further, cumulative speed plots have been plotted to check the variability of speed for different segments for different vehicle categories. Furthermore, the excess speed over posted speed limit for different mid-block sections has also been checked.

The constantly increasing market demand in transport leads to a less peaceful transport system affecting many citizens both during the day and overnight. Noise is seen as the most important environment issue for those living in the neighbourhood of a railway line. According to data obtained from Ministry of Indian Railways, 11,000 trains run every day, of which 7,000 are passenger trains (Graphical representation of Noise levels in and around Mumbai during 2011). These trains have the potential to generate noise especially while stoppage in or nearby railway stations. Attempts were made to evaluate the noise levels in and around the railway platform in the Surat city. Based on levels of exposure to noise sources, total of 06 study locations were identified. Noise levels on weekday and weekend were measured in three time shifts day, evening and night at the predefined study spots. It is observed from study that the majority of the noise levels exceed the limit stipulated by Central Pollution Control Board at all locations. For better representation of results, box plots were illustrated. The research was carried out to quantify the noise potential nearby Surat railway station and the same can be utilised in order to mitigate the issue. Attempts should be made to reduce noise levels for humans exposed to area nearby railway station. Noise barriers should be provided to absorb noise coming from movement of trains, and some safety aids like earplugs have to be used by those people who are continuously exposed to higher and noisy area. Regular maintenance of railway track solves the issue up to certain extent.

With increasing number of vehicles and mobility facilities, traffic and parking problems are ubiquitous in urban areas. The approaching road to public places such as railway station and bus stations is typically congested. On station road, public attractions such as shops, hotels, and restaurants generate huge parking demand. The same situation occurs on station road of Valsad city. Valsad is a situated in the southern part of Gujarat state, India. Valsad railway station is connected by India Railway Services with the major cities such as Surat, Ahmedabad in North, and Mumbai in South. In particular peak hour when the train arrives or departs this road observes heavy congestion. Traffic is interrupted due to nearby shop visitors also as vehicles are parked on the road itself due to inadequate parking facilities. Concerning these issues, a proper parking solution is needed. For that purpose, parking study is conducted on station road to find out parking demand and parking characteristics. Parking survey was conducted for three days at station road, Valsad. License-plate method was used in on-street parking survey. This road was divided into 19 different segments for accurate and rapid data collection. In analysis, parking accumulation, volume, load, duration, turnover, and parking index was calculated. Peak parking demand for two-wheeler, car, auto-rickshaw, and LCV is 281, 9, 22, and 3, respectively. On the basis of peak parking demand, angled on-street parking can be provided with using odd-even parking system.

Most of the Indian cities are suffering from rapid growth of traffic volume which causes disruptions in easy travel to the destinations. With the addition of informal public transport (IPT), these difficulties have multiplied. Rise in share of low passenger capacity IPT is increasing the passenger car units (PCU) on roads manifold. This, in turn, enhances delay, road density and pollution, while reducing speed. This paper aims to assess the problems caused by IPT and suggest strategies to control them in Kolkata. The busy Rashbehari and Hazra intersections of Kolkata are studied here, and some planning schemes are tested by restricting the IPT that results in overall reduction in the number of vehicles, PCU load, road density in that intersection.

India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 km, out of which about 5200 km is of the river and 4000 km is of canals that can be used by mechanized crafts. Water transportation by waterways is highly under-utilized in India compared to other large countries. So, it causes unsustainable transport and more pressure on road and rail. In this study, demand estimation of regional transport from Surat to Saurashtra region is carried out with Do-Nothing condition and after applying ferry service. Home interview survey is carried out in particular zones of Surat, and data collected are income, vehicle ownership, working members for each household and travel time and travel cost of current mode of travel from Surat to Saurashtra region. Stated preference survey is carried out with designed travel time and travel cost for ferry service to check behaviour of people to shift to ferry or not. Multinomial logit model (MNL) is applied by considering travel time, travel cost, income and vehicle ownership as variables, and it is found from model that people will shift to ferry services with designed travel time and cost.

Bike sharing system is increasingly seen as a sustainable way of making short trips in a limited space like university campuses. This paper is the case study of a bike sharing system PEDL by Zoom Car that is introduced in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) campus. The main objective behind introducing this system is to reduce the vehicular movement inside campus and to create a safer, sustainable and pollution-free environment in the campus. In this paper, authors talk about the planning and design involved in launching the bike sharing system in the university campus. Further, a comprehensive analysis to identify the parking stations across the campus is shown in the paper. The importance of GIS in identifying these stations and accessibility analysis will be explained in this paper. A preliminary usage analysis and statistical analysis are carried out to estimate the OD matrix, peak hour trips and non-peak hour trips. The data is also used in estimating the factors like maximum/minimum number of trips per day, maximum round trips and also the trip durations which further help in understanding the bike usage pattern of the users. This being a new system in the campus has a limited data for analysis which is a limitation for this paper. The future work involves in collecting more data on demographics and to model the mode share in the bike sharing scenario in university campuses.

Sustained economic development and expanding road network have led to rapid increase in the number of motorized vehicles in India. The total number of registered motor vehicles was 230 million in 2016 with a growth rate of about 10.7% annually. Presently, the transport sector accounts for nearly 18% of the total energy consumed in India. Diesel and petrol are strategic commodities, and they play a vital role in the socio-economic development, and nearly, 98% of the transportation energy needs are met through petroleum products. Rising crude oil prices and uncertainty about their supply can have negative implications for the Indian economy. In order to reduce this uncertainty, it is important to plan and use the resources judiciously. Thus, energy conservation has become a vital national concern. One of the ways to conserve fuel is minimize its wastage. The simplest way might just be to switch off engines while the vehicles are in idling condition waiting for their turn to cross the intersection at signals. Therefore, it is important to quantify the fuel loss due to idling delay. On the basis of the idle time and idle fuel consumption rate, the loss of fuel is estimated and converted in monetary terms. The outcomes of this study may help in proposing suitable remedial measures to reduce idling fuel consumption.

This study investigated exposure of PM2.5 to the commuters travelling in various modes of transportation. Three types of transport mode were selected to conduct this study, namely bus, car and auto-rickshaw. Further, a total of five categories made out of three transport modes were finalized for the study, i.e. car with and without air-conditioning; bus with and without air-conditioning; and auto-rickshaw. The monitoring was done during morning, evening and off-peak hours of the day. The measured concentration inside non-AC bus as well as in non-AC car was found much higher than the permissible limits. On the other hand, among AC vehicles, slight variation was observed in the concentration of particulate matter during different monitoring hours. AC car was found to be the most efficient among the rest with PM2.5 detected as minimum as 43.8 µg/m3 in evening peak hours followed by AC bus with minimum average PM2.5 detected as 52.2 µg/m3 during off-peak hours. Remarkably, among all the selected commuting modes, the highest concentration was found in auto-rickshaw (>100 μg/m3). The results report that the fine particulate level to a very large extent is affected by the mode of transport as well as the air-conditioning and ventilation system. It was observed that close modes with air-conditioning has reduced the exposure level than open modes.

India’s crude oil import is growing phonemically and is likely to grow more, thereby posing a major threat to the economy of the country. A robust policy direction is a need of the hour. Since there is a lack of study in analyzing the inter-relationship among the sectors of transportation, energy, and economy, this research work is aimed at performing an in-depth study of these sectors by considering the parameters such as vehicular population, model split, fuel consumption, and fuel costs. System dynamic (SD) simulation models are built using the STELLA software, and these parameters are forecasted for the future years until 2026. In this research work, when the existing trend of growth rate for these sectors was assumed to continue over a horizon year (2026), it was found that a large part of the economy is being spent for meeting the energy demands. So SD simulation models are built in which a scenario of increasing the growth rate of public transportation and at the same time curbing the growth rate of personalized transportation with a modal split value between the both as 70:30 showed a considerable decrease of 29.49% in fuel consumption and 58.04% in fuel cost. This modal split under the desirable scenario has resulted in a savings of 14,629 crore rupees for the horizon year in the road transport sector for Chennai city, India. Finally, this study recommends that in order to achieve sustainability in the city, the model split between public and personalized modes of transportation has to be paid crucial attention.

Public transport plays a major role in transporting people from one place to another for work trips in India. It is a preferred mode for work trips, mainly due to the low travelling cost. Whenever the trip makers travel by public transport mode with higher travelling cost, they expect a more reliable service. If the expectation is not fulfilled, they may like to shift their mode choice from public transport to a service with better travel time reliability, such as para-transit and personal vehicle. This modal shift will affect the traffic flow characteristics of different roadways and also adversely affect the environment. So, this study focuses on estimating the travel time reliability of roadway public transport especially air-conditioned public buses of Kolkata and adopt measures to improve it. As case study, one of the AC buses of Kolkata (Route: AC9) originating from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand and terminating at Karunamoyee Bus Stand has been selected. The actual travel time has been compared with the scheduled travel time for different times of the weekdays over a week. Moreover, to highlight the difference between peak and off-peak hour, the travel time reliability measures of the AC9 during peak and off-peak hours of the day have been estimated separately as reliability buffer index, on-time performance, travel time measure, and punctuality index. A comparison of different alternative modes on the basis of travelling cost is discussed. Finally, some factors which affect the travel time reliability of buses in Kolkata have been discussed and some measures to improve the present reliability condition of the buses are recommended.

Trip length is the length of a trip measured in the distance or in time. In this paper, different parameters are taken and their influence on the trip length is studied for various cities in India. The overall goal of this study is to estimate the trip length by generating models. These generated models are used to develop ready-made nomograms. In this study, the development of models for trip length with relationship between variables such as dependent (trip length) and independent (socio-economic and land-use data) variables by using regression analysis. In this study, Microsoft Excel software is used for developing models. PyNomo software is for development of nomograms for quick estimate. Among all socio-economic and land-use data parameters average monthly household income, total population, total literates, commercial area (%), industrial area (%) and intermediate public transportation vehicles are correlated to trip length.

Route choice behaviour of transit riders is the key factor that affects the performance of a transit network. One of the major uses of technology in transit assignment is giving prior information to the riders about the trip which will influence the choice of the rider. A day-to-day model is proposed here which will give the variation of route choice with the provision of static information and is compared with the deterministic user equilibrium (DUE) model results. A factor for the importance of information is introduced to get the effect of information on transit rider’s route choice. Sensitivity of the model is analysed by varying demand and information. A laboratory experiment along with a field survey is conducted to get the factor for the importance of information. Two key factors that affect route choice are considered: (i) experience acquired in the route on the previous day and (ii) information provided for the users about the route section. Multiple linear regression analysis is carried out to get the importance of information. The coefficients for information varies between 0.13 and 0.49.

Vehicular pollution is mainly responsible for the air pollution in metropolitan cities such as Delhi which has been nominated as most polluted city of the world. This paper is based on the study of prediction of reduction in emission of different air pollutants mainly carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compound (VOC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulfur (SOx), and particulate matter (PM) under different scenarios in Delhi during 2017–2028. The effectiveness of various scenarios which are Business-As-Usual (BAU) existing conditions in current environment and three other reduction scenarios, namely odd–even policy (OEP), electronic vehicle penetration (EVP), and integrated scenario (IS), is evaluated in order to emission reduction over two intervals which are short-span (2023) and long-span (2028) by International Vehicular Emissions Model up to 2028. It is found that, there are huge increment observed in the Delhi’s vehicle population, and it would reach about 40% up to 2028 in comparison with 2017. By comparing all scenarios, it is found that EVP scenario is more effective in case of CO. CO would reduced ~27.47% up to 2023 and ~41.81% up to 2028 while OEP scenario can reduce emissions more effectively for VOC, NOx, SOx, and PM and would reach to 26.51 5, 27.7%, 35.63%, and 30.29% in short-span while 24.54%, 29.23%, 35.98%, and 29.78% in long-span as compared to BAU scenario. Overall OEP scenario is performed best for other criteria pollutant except CO compared to other controlling scenarios.

The fast growth of ‘surrounding regions’ often termed as ‘sprawl’ of metropolitan cities is a matter of concern for all the concerned planning authorities. This haphazard development directly implies multitude of social, economic and environmental repercussion (Theobald 2001). With an extension of city limits, these areas get included in the city, the fringes of the cities keep moving outwards, new nucleus are formed, new flow paths for people and goods are established. Success and sustainability of transportation planning here depend upon many important attributes like availability of adequate road network, transit nodes, modes of transportation, ease of movement, and above all an integrated land-use planning approach, supportive of successful transportation planning. A timely prediction and assessment of growth attributes can help in prioritizing the planning efforts along with expenditure on infrastructure building. Very often such attributes are intangible and require a qualitative assessment based on human perception. Main objective is to put forth a methodology that includes the quantitative assessment of qualitative or ‘human experience’-based inputs as a part of this paper. The method used includes mainly three phases: first phase includes the Delphi survey for getting the qualitative inputs of the attributes considered, the relative importance of the attributes is gauged using the AHP technique, and the outcome in terms of crisp quantitative assessment is derived using the fuzzy mathematical procedure. Outcomes can help in assessment of the ‘sustainability status’ as compared to certain ‘best practice’ scenario and thus can help devise strategies and policy formulation towards achieving the same.

Wireless sensor technology used for continuous structural health monitoring (SHM) of the road infrastructure has increased the usability as well as the capability of data collection. However, electrochemical batteries are the main power source for these wireless sensors but they have to be replaced or charged regularly. For efficient usability of this, wireless health monitoring systems can efficiently self-sustain via an energy source. The solution lies in piezoelectric energy harvesting from road pavement itself using the mechanical energy generated by moving traffic. In this paper, a prototype for piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) has been developed utilizing the d33 mode of piezosensors, which converts the vehicular motion energy into electrical energy. Testing of prototype PEH has been conducted by fixing it on road surface to carry out a comprehensive parametric study with varying pavement surface, weight of vehicle, and speed of vehicle on the voltage and power output. It is found that power generated from PEH surface bonded on concrete surface is approximately 10% higher as compared to bitumen pavement, and it is also increasing with the increase in speed and weight of vehicle. Maximum open-circuit voltage of 82 V and peak power output of approximately 2.8 mW, whereas maximum average power output of 0.25 mW is generated with a truck weighing 7 Ton at speed of 40 km/h on concrete surface using the 1 MΩ load resistance circuit. Maximum energy of 0.72 μJ was stored in a 10 μF capacitor with single pass of a vehicle.

Heterogeneous traffic in India is a complex phenomenon deals with highly transient vehicle compositions, their static and dynamic characteristics, and combination of non-motorized and motorized vehicles. It is difficult to collect and analyze the real traffic data due to the complexities of mixed traffic, creates need for simulation model to replicate the actual traffic scenario. VISSIM is microscopic traffic simulation software used to model urban-mixed traffic conditions. It is able to generate speed trajectory of vehicles in network, which is used to analyze driving activities of vehicle in terms of average speed, maximum speed, acceleration, deceleration, idling period, cruise period, etc. These driving activities mostly occur at signalized intersection because of signal control operations and creates high pollution zone. Present paper highlights traffic flow simulation for signalized intersection in VISSIM to recognize zone of influence through acceleration and deceleration activities of vehicle. It is the stretch at which vehicles come under influence of the intersection and lead to sharp deceleration followed by idle and acceleration phase. Vehicle speed trajectory is generated in VISSIM and zone of influence is identified based on spatial speed fluctuation profile. Calibration of model is carried out to match the vehicles’ speed–acceleration parameters to the real traffic conditions. The speed trajectory of vehicles in real traffic has been collected through velocity box instrument embedded with GPS system. The model is validated by comparing simulation results with collected real traffic data through statistical errors. An urban-signalized intersection of Vadodara city located in Gujarat state is for the study.

Road Over Bridges (ROB or flyover as it is popularly called in India) are considered as a solution to reduce the delay at an oversaturated at-grade signalized intersection. However, this provision of flyover remains a short-term solution, as it is seen that flyover also reaches to the same congestion level after a few years due to increased personalized vehicular traffic. To analyze the effect of a flyover over the years, vehicular delay, fuel consumption, and emission for the range of traffic volume are estimated. One intersection, Bhikaji Cama Place intersection in New Delhi, is considered as a case study. This is a four-legged signal-controlled intersection. Three scenarios are considered. Scenario A is the existing condition of flyover and signal phasing plan, Scenario B is with flyover and with proposed signal phasing plan, and Scenario C is without the flyover and proposed signal phasing plan. Scenario B includes comparison of alternate signal phasing plans to obtain the best signal design for existing traffic to minimize the delay. Delay estimation, fuel consumption, and emission estimation have been carried out by existing methods for all the three scenarios.

Traffic in developing countries has a heterogeneous vehicular mix that uses all the network links and lacks lane discipline. Modeling and controlling such a mixed traffic system are challenging since most of the well-established models were developed for homogeneous traffic. It is hypothesized that segregating the mixed traffic by assigning a unique mode to each link will enhance system capacity. Towards achieving it, this paper proposes optimal mode-route assignment formulations with the objective of minimizing the total system travel time. However, perfect segregation is not always possible since the solution depends on the network topography. A viable solution is to make some links multi-modal. Another formulation is also presented in this paper to address this issue. Both the formulations are demonstrated using sample networks. Linear and nonlinear integer mathematical programming methods are used to explore the qualitative characteristics of optimal mode-route assignment using the single-path routing method. The results indicate that, in the worst case where perfect segregation is not possible, proposed formulation II can identify network with the least number of the multi-modal links. This research will help to develop effective strategies to model, control, and enhance the safety of mixed traffic networks.

Pedestrian simulation software has been in use for evaluation analysing “what if” scenarios, simulating emergency evacuations besides design of facilities. The main aim of this study is to examine and identify the appropriate pedestrian simulation software for representing the real-world situations. This process has been carried out by comparing the performance of different simulation software such as VISWALK, PEDESTRIAN DYNAMICS, and PATHFINDER. VISWALK works on the principle of social force model whereas PEDESTRIAN DYNAMICS works on social force model with Visual angle method while Path Finder works on multi-agent-based model with continuous modelling approach. Classroom evacuation during 2013 Ya’an earthquake in China (Li et al. in Saf Sci 79:243–253, 2015) is considered as the research problem to evaluate the simulation performances. In addition, calibrated parameter values of VISWALK (Gaddam et al. in Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, 2018) have also been used to check their adoptability to emergency situation in (Li et al. in Saf Sci 79:243–253, 2015). To achieve the desired level of precision, optimum simulation runs were performed using standard normal coefficients. The results show that VISWALK with calibrated parameters is able to represent real condition accurately. However, PATHFINDER and PEDESTRIAN DYNAMICS are user-friendly compared to VISWALK. The study presents the performance of simulation softwares, their merits, and demerits. Finally, it is concluded that irrespective of modelling approach, the calibration and validation of the model parameters for a given condition are essential.

To plan the pedestrian infrastructure facilities, it is imperative to understand the pedestrian perception towards key critical attributes influencing sidewalk and crosswalk. However, a review of existing research literature suggests that evaluation of walkability of pedestrian infrastructure remain unexplored in a typical Indian setting. This paper addresses this research gap with respect to pedestrian infrastructure evaluation in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, a premier IT hub and a focal point for educational institutions, where a significant proportion of population uses walking for their daily commute needs. This paper demonstrates a user perception-based approach, proposed to identify and analyse the important factors of the urban environment that support or detract pedestrians from walking. In this study, initially, a brief literature review is taken up to identify a key set of parameters influencing the walkability of pedestrian infrastructure in typically Indian context. Then, user perceptions on these attributes are collected in a suitable five-point Likert scale. The collected data are then analysed based on grey relational analysis (GRA), a suitable multi-attribute decision making (MADM) technique to identify and prioritize the most important variables related to pedestrian walkability. Results indicate that safety and security are perceived as the most important parameters influencing pedestrian walkability.

Rapid urbanization and related motorization along with random development at the suburban level without adequate infrastructure have created several transport-related externalities such as (a) traffic injuries and fatalities, (b) congestion, (c) transportation-related air and noise pollution and d) mobility issues faced by poor in a typical urban Indian context. In this regard, the increased use of public transit (PT) system could be an effective demand-management instrument to mitigate the above-mentioned externalities. Although, bus is the most popular PT-mode across the nation, metro rail has emerged as an effective alternative during the recent past. Nevertheless, a successful metro rail system incorporates an efficient feeder system. The inadequate supply of feeder system for the metros, arising due to the absence of the necessary planning is consequently forcing the metro riders to stick to auto-rickshaws or private motorized vehicles like two wheelers, which in turn are polluting the environment. On the other hand, bicycle transportation, if planned and implemented with necessary measures, could be an effective, pollution free and cheaper feeder to metro in a typical Indian context. In this regard, this paper aims to propose a methodological framework to identify the key set of factors influencing bicycle a feeder or access transportation mode to metro by understanding the perception of bicyclists and non-bicyclists towards key attributes related to bicycle-metro integration.

The study is focussed on star rating and prioritization of accident black spots based on severity and likelihood of crashes. The study also includes prioritization of road safety measures, economic analysis, and investment plan for the same. The case study is based on a stretch on NH 44 in Delhi urban area of 18.38 km road length. The study is carried out on sixteen identified black spots along the stretch identified by Delhi police. The data has been analyzed using International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) software, “ViDA” and star rating scores have been calculated separately for vehicle occupants pedestrians, motor cyclists, and bicyclists separately for all black spots. The findings suggest that an investment of 32.73 crores for road safety countermeasures on these 16 black spots on NH-44 can save 9235 fatal and serious crashes in 20 years with net present value of economic benefits 181.2 crores coupled with benefit–cost ratio of 5.58.

With over 5.4 lakh kilometres of roads and the number of motor vehicles that have crossed the mark of 2.1 lakh thousand in 2015 along with urbanisation, road crashes emerge as complementary. But the fact that the number of crashes and injuries has dropped and on the contrary, the fatalities and severity of accident have inflated by 4.7% in 2016 with respect to the previous year, the severity is the factor that has been rising. Thus, the study focuses on determining Risk Index by proactive measure for rural highway which is a quantified value based on various factors such as exposure, crash severity and probability, as per various researchers. The study was carried out only on National Highway with reliable accident data as they are major contributors to road crashes, i.e. one-third of total crashes occur on National Highways which constitute only 2% of the road network in India. The factors such as geometric design and road infrastructure are considered for Safety Index calculation and further, the validation is based upon the historically available authentic accident data. The study results show a good correlation between ranking of the road segments as per Risk Index and based upon available road accident data. This validated technique can be used to determine risk on the road without relying on the unreliable accident data and safety measures can be incorporated on the road segments as per priority which is determined based upon the Risk Index of the highway segments.

Injuries related to road traffic are the major causes of death among people in the age bracket of 15–29 years (World Health Organization 2015). In many developing countries, motorized two-wheelers are the dominant means of transport and contribute to a more significant proportion of road fatalities. Leading causes of death are wounds to the head and neck that account for 88% fatalities in developing countries. India comprising of a significantly considerable percentage (70%) of two-wheelers with weak enforcement of helmet laws and poor compliance poses further challenges. This paper is divided into three sections. Section one reviews the literature on compliance behaviour from different theoretical disciplines to understand the behavioural factors that motivate compliance behaviour with the law. The second section reviews the empirical literature on helmet compliance across various countries with a mandatory helmet law. The overview brings to light that mere presence of a helmet law does not motivate compliance behaviour and more often lead to “token compliance”. The meaning of helmet use should be properly understood through in-depth interviews to understand the motivations to comply. The third section focuses on the evolution of helmet law in India. The overview suggests that regulations focus heavily on penalty structure and withdrawal of license as the primary disincentive to motivate compliance. Finally, alternative approaches to increase helmet compliance are discussed, and a regulatory framework that recognizes the coexistence of law, morality and social norm is suggested.

Pedestrian traffic crashes have become a very common scenario on urban arterial roads because of rapid growth in developing countries like India. Due to high speed of vehicles and continuous flow of traffic, the crossing of pedestrians particularly at mid-block of an arterial road becomes concern issue of safety. The crossing behavior of pedestrian is governed by age, gender, vehicle speed, pedestrian’s speed, type of following vehicle, and gap acceptance. Microscopic analysis was carried out considering different parameters like age, gender, crossing pattern, pedestrian’s crossing speed, vehicle categories, vehicle speed, and vehicular gap which were extracted from videos. Gap acceptance is an indicative measure of risk-taking behavior of pedestrian while crossing the road. It was observed that female pedestrians having less risk-taking practice for crossing the carriageway are compared to male. Study also estimated critical gap using Raff’s method for different age group and gender and it was found to be less for young age group compared to middle and old age group pedestrian. Similarly, critical gap for female was observed to be more than that for males. For the study site, two types of crossing patterns were observed namely straight and oblique. Majority pedestrians were found to follow the straight pattern rather than the oblique pattern. The present study helps to understand the complex pedestrian road crossing behavior which can be useful for improving pedestrian safety measures at mid-block section and further planning of the facilities for pedestrians.

The main objective of the current study was to develop simulation models for the different pedestrian facilities (such as sidewalk, walkway and foot over bridge) in Gangtok near M.G. Marg, and estimate the capacity for such facilities. The data collected from the field was used as input for the development of the simulation models using VISWALK commercial software, and thereafter the models were calibrated and validated accordingly. The developed model was calibrated using VISWALK COM Interface programming in MATLAB. Genetic algorithm (GA) was used to calibrate the sensitive parameters affecting walking speed. The calibrated models were then validated using a new set of field data and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the models was computed. The results showed that male pedestrians moved with higher speed than female pedestrians by 3.5–12 m/min. Similarly, the pedestrians with luggage moved at a speed lower than the ones without luggage (~2–5 m/min). The average walking speed over the sidewalk was found to be more than the walkway. Using sensitivity analysis for the simulation, the reaction time of the pedestrians (tau B), direction-dependent force (B_soc_isotropic) and strength of the speed-dependent social force (A_soc_mean) were found to have a greater impact on the average simulated walking speed and were thus further considered for calibration and validation. It was also observed that the MAPE between observed and simulated speed ranged between 4.06 and 7.57% for the different facilities. Moreover, the correlation between simulated and observed walking speed was found to be between 0.81 and 0.98, and the P-values for both were found to be quite similar. The simulated capacity values for the different facilities were also estimated and it could be seen that the capacity was dependent on the width, location and type of the facility.

The study aimed to understand the factors profoundly affecting the present motive of the pedestrians to use the foot overbridges (FOBs) in two different cities of India and also put forward recommendation based on the pedestrians’ suggestions to improve its future usability. An interviewer-administered questionnaire survey was conducted over two cities, namely Kolkata and Bengaluru covering various FOBs. The perceptions of seven different factors related to the condition of the FOBs were ranked on a five-point Likert scale from very poor to very good. The demographic survey showed that majority of the pedestrians using the FOBs were male pedestrians and aged between 23 and 45 years. Also, students and servicemen preferred to use the FOBs more than the others. Using multinomial linear regression (MLR) method, it was observed that in Bengaluru, factors such as security and surface affect the preference of the pedestrians towards using the FOBs. Similarly, in Kolkata, security along with width and comfort significantly affects the preference of the pedestrians. The survey results indicate that to improve future usability of FOBs, installation and maintenance of lift/escalators/ramps along with proper security (in the form of CCTV camera and security personnel) were essential. The study also put forward specific recommendations which provide valid information to the planners and designers, to improve the existing FOBs or construct FOBs in future to attract more pedestrians.

This paper aims to clarify the concept of surrogate measures of safety, summarizes the past research in the area and to investigate how simulation can be used in assessing the safety of intersections and midblock on the selected Project Corridor. In this context, four-lane divided carriageway connecting Gurugram with Faridabad and thus spanning a length of km 24.3 has been selected as the study stretch. For the above road corridor, traffic safety measures have been carried out based on the observed road crash data using different types of statistical approaches, mainly before–after comparisons of observed data, and forecasting studies based on road safety audits. This is primarily carried out on the assumption that there is direct correlation between the degree of safety on a road and the number of road crashes that occur there. Even though road crash data is a true representation of safety, its use in safety studies has many limitations. There are many other techniques which can be used for traffic safety evaluation in advance before the accidents occurs. These techniques are called traffic surrogate models. The word ‘surrogate’ means ‘substitute’ or ‘replacement’ which implies that by using surrogate measures to determine traffic safety as another factor to represent traffic safety. The surrogate measure model has been attempted on Gurugram–Faridabad road which is one of the major links between the two cities. It is regularly used by thousands of motorists commuting between Gurgaon and Faridabad. About 279 road crashes were reported on the study stretch during the last seven years which accounted for 165 road deaths and 250 persons injured.

Driver safety is one of the prime concerns of traffic engineers in the design and construction of highways. Highway collision causes both social and economic losses. So the primary focus is always there in understanding the driver behavior over various geometric sections for the development of safe geometric roads. So in this study, an attempt was made to understand the acceleration and deceleration behavior over the horizontal curved sections. To do so a four-lane divided highway was considered and continuous data of the vehicle was collected using GPS techniques with the help of 30 distinct drivers. Each of these drivers drove around a stretch of 40 km with the attached GPS device to the vehicle. Using this data six distinct acceleration and deceleration regression-based models are developed corresponding to the cases of maximum, minimum and average acceleration and deceleration. From these models, great insight on how the geometric parameters are influencing this driver’s acceleration and deceleration behavior is obtained. With these models, it is observed that radius and previous tangent length are the most influential parameters affecting driver behavior while approaching the curve. Radius and vertical gradient are found to be the highly correlated parameters with the acceleration behavior on the curve.

Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a formal and independent safety performance review of road transportation projects by an experienced team of safety specialists to address safety. Noida–Greater Noida (NGN) Expressway is aneight-lane divided carriageway connecting Noida and Greater Noida. This Expressway has witnessed high crash rates and therefore, a comprehensive RSA was conducted and suggestions for improving safety on this expressway were recommended. These included replacement of concrete guard post on median by double row metal beam crash barrier, redevelopment of entry and exit points as per Indian Standards, marking and road studs on each of the traffic lanes and particularly near exit/entry points of auxiliary lanes. The Speed Enforcement Cameras and Close Circuit TV with Variable Message Signs were also installed at every 2 km. As the RSA recommendations were implemented in the year 2013 by the concerned stakeholders, an analysis was carried out to understand whether the measures had contributed towards the reduction in road crashes if any in the subsequent years 2014, 2015 and 2016. It was evident from this analysis that the total crashes after RSA had exhibited 84% reduction coupled with 91% reduction in fatal crashes. The analysis further revealed that the average speed of all types of vehicle had marginally increased after implementation of RSA recommendations, despite an annual increase in traffic in addition to crash reduction. The paper culminates with the analysis of the crash data to arrive at crash reduction factor followed by the use of HDM-IV wherein the economic benefits derived based on crash reduction was deduced.