Article

Rena Shukla, L D College of Engineering, Ahmedabad; Divyesh Patel ,L.D.College of Engineering

Urbanization and change in life standards along with socio economic up gradation resulted in rapid growth of private vehicle ownership and use. This causes stress on the existing urban transport system. In urban area road networks are with sharing of limited right of way by variety of modes in most of the cities of world. There is requirement of large size of road network and facilities in terms of infrastructure which leads to increase in urban boundaries. There are unmanageable problems like traffic congestion, accident, inadequate parking area, delay, inconvenience, uncomforting, environment and deterioration. To minimize or eliminate this kind of problems, proper traffic management by providing efficient road infrastructure facility and mobility. Mode shift from personalized vehicle to public transit vehicle is required. Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is one of the most effective solutions for removal of congestion. Before implementation of any facility there is a need to study the effect of proposed facility and mobility on traffic. There is need to study effect of BRTS on urban corridor before implementation. This research work carried out on study area Jashodanagar to Hathijan road of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The selected stretch is of 6.1 km length located in Vatva ward in south zone of Ahmedabad city. There is population of 1, 64,730 and 35,480 households in study area. Selected corridor is divided in to four segments to carry out micro level analysis. Stated preference survey is carried out up to 750 m width on both side along the selected corridor to collect information like Travel characteristics and rider type. Classified volume count survey at intersection and spot speed along midblock of the stretch is carried out. Vehicle occupancy survey is carried out to derive number of users and beneficiaries. Videography is carried out to estimate travel demand and traffic performance. Effect of BRTS is measured in terms of modal shift of private vehicle users to BRTS. Effect of BRTS is evaluated on mixed traffic performance using VISSIM software. Traffic projection is compared with BRTS and without BRTS scenario. Developed network model with and without BRTS in VISSIM is validated with error range of 0.84 % to 12.75 % which is less than the permissible error 20%.