Estimation of Capacity of Urban Roads under Heterogeneous Traffic Conditions

Abstract

Now-a-days, the traffic condition in India is of heterogeneous nature due to its dynamic nature. As the traffic on
roads rises rapidly therefore, it is very essential to determine, prepare and design the roadway features according
to the future .The objective of this paper is to estimate capacity for heterogeneous traffic condition. Estimation
of traffic volume on road is relatively tough. Value of PCU can be used to measure the flow of traffic. Urban
road of Nagpur i.e. from Hingna T-point to Chatrapati Square is selected to calculate its capacity. This study
emphasizes the need for capacity estimation to plan, design and control the rising vehicular population. The
types of roads and the agencies controlling it were characterized. The Inner Ring Road from Hingna T-point to
Chatrapati Square was divided into seven zones for the ease of study. Afterwards, the Traffic Volume study was
conducted by direct method of counting using tally sheets which is also called Paper and Pen method. The data
collected was used for calculation of PCU value. Then, using Selected Maxima method capacity of the stretch
was calculated and the effect of width on the capacity was studied and measures were suggested to improve the
capacity.