Evaluation of Capacity and Level of Service for Selected Urban Arterial Roads—A Case Study of Rajkot City

Abstract

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.