Traffic Congestion Assessment Tool for Urban Roads Based on Traffic and Geometric Characteristics: A Case of Hyderabad, India

Abstract

This study developed a travel time congestion index (TTCI) keyed to the differences in actual versus desired travel times for various types of roadways, and found that the TTCI is influenced by traffic and geometric characteristics of the roadway other than volume and capacity. The TTCI provides a continuous scale for assessing the level of congestion in the network. In general, the measurement of the level of service (LOS) across the roadway sections is adopted to measure the level of congestion. However, measuring LOS alone does not provide better insight into the reasons for congestion other than the volume-to-capacity ratio. Therefore, we developed the TTCI by employing traffic and geometric parameters to measure the congestion along the roadways on the urban road network. In addition to the development of the TTCI, level of service is measured and compared with the TTCI values for the selected road sections. The results indicate that employing all the variables together in a single technique yields much better and more-reliable values for congestion indexes. The results indicate that providing grade-separated intersections reduces traffic congestion to a great extent. The results also were found to be in line with the field conditions. This study also proposes using TTCI values to design the cordon lines for delaminating the congestion zones and estimating the level of service of the roadway. The findings of this study can be used by policymakers and transportation planners to design effective countermeasures for decongesting urban roadways.