Impact Analysis of Bus Stop on Urban Traffic Characteristics- A Case Study of Urban Mid-Block, Rajkot

Efficient transportation system is a crucial factor for the growth of a nation’s economy. Many arterial roads in many developing countries exhibit deteriorated capacity and poor performance. Various studies are done on this problem in some developing countries and found that because of urbanization, there is often a great deal of activity on and alongside these roads, which affects the way in which they operate. This interference to the smooth flow of traffic is known as “side friction. Urban roadway capacity is influenced by various factors like speed of vehicles on the road, width of road, structure of the road, construction work on roads (e.g. work undertaken for Metro Rail construction), various land uses that attract motorized / pedestrian traffic bound to hospitals, institutional, commercial area, shoulder and roadway width, access points, terrain etc. However for urban roads, the impact of side frictions i.e. bus stops, encroachments, on -street parking, pedestrian crossing, entries and exits from major roads etc. are also much significant. Among all the friction generators, understanding the impact of bus-stops is particularly important from planning perspective in the Indian context. Therefore, this study presents a methodology to quantify the impact of bus-stops on the speed of other motorized vehicles under heterogeneous traffic conditions. To analyse the impact of bus stop on urban traffic characteristics road inventory, classified volume count, speed studies with friction data will be collected on urban mid-block in Rajkot city. Data collection will be done by manual method. Using this data travel time delay and reduction in speed will be obtained. Based on the results further recommendations will be given.