FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF NON—MOTORIZED TRAFFIC

Abstract

Traffic flow on roads consists of three components, i.e. motorized vehicle flows, non-motorized vehicle (NMV) flows and pedestrian flow. This study concentrates on the NMV (bicycle and cycle rickshaw together) flows on urban roads. The study was carried out in Roorkee city, a small sized city with high intercity and local traffic on its roads. Data were collected through a combination of manual and videography methods on three roads, all of two-lanes with either one-directional or two-direction traffic. The impacts of roadway space and flow constraints and traffic composition and flow on speed of NMVs were studied. Spaces occupied by NMV (cycle and cycle rickshaw) in road side are also studied. Roadway width varied between 8.20 m and 11.0 m, and share of NMVs varied from 33% to 51%. Speed-flow data was studied at micro-level, by using different combination of speed of cycle, cycle rickshaw and NMVs with flow (total flow and NMVs flow) and percentage share of cycle, cycle rickshaw and NMVs in total traffic. The analysis indicated that on a road segment with no friction from opposite direction, the NMV speed reduced with an increase in total flow; on segment with friction from opposite direction it reduced with increase in total and opposing direction flows; and on segment with all frictions it reduced with NMV, total and opposing direction flows. The gap between speed ranges of NMVs and MVs also reduced under the three scenarios. The percent share of NMVs in total flow influenced the speed profiles. The micro-level analysis showed that effect of total flow on cycle speed is high in 2-way 2-lanes undivided road and effect on cycle rickshaw speed is same in all road type. Effect of NMVs flow in cycle speed is high on 2- way 2-lanes divided road and in cycle rickshaw case effect of NMVs flow is same in all road section.