Development of Traffic Congestion Index for Urban Road Links in Rajkot City

One of the most important problem which the world faces today is the problem of traffic congestion. It is necessary to define congestion and to quantify it in terms of various factors that cause congestion. The literature review has revealed that travel time is an important measure of congestion. An attempt has been made in this work to quantify congestion in terms of congestion index which is the ratio of delay experienced during the existing condition to the free flow travel time. Detailed information regarding all parameters that affect congestion such as traffic volume, number of pedestrian crossing etc. are collected. Effect of by roads is also quantified and incorporated in terms of the number of vehicle merging with traffic stream and number of vehicles crossing the traffic stream to merge with opposite stream of vehicles. The required data has been collected using both moving car observer method as well as video recording. Multiple nonlinear regression equation connecting congestion index. The developed congestion Index once developed would be useful in calculating and comparing the level of congestion of different road stretches. This would help in proper planning of traffic movement, by keeping a balance between the congestion index of different roads.