STUDY OF TRAFFIC FLOW AND RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AT IDENTIFIED HIGHWAY LOCATIONS

Abstract

The rapid urbanization throughout the world has brought in very serious problems to be tackled by the society. In India the urban population has been increasing very rapidly and is expected to be about 325 millions (357 of total population) by 2001 AD. The growth rate of population in urban areas between 1971-1991 varied 3 to 5.57 per annum. Due to the rapid urbanization the vehicular traffic volume has also increased at a much faster rate, resulting in more and more environmental pollution problems. Therefore the issue of environmental impact evaluation has now become a major element in transportation planning and traffic management at all levels in the hierarchy of urban road system. In the present study an attempt has been made to investigate in detail the traffic related environmental factors such as noise and air pollution at some selected locations in Delhi metropolitan city. For this about twelve busy intersections and four locations on the straight stretch of N.H-2 were selected. At intersections, both ambient concentration of pollutants and noise levels were measured along with the volume counts, during the morning peak hours and at four locations on N.H-2 the noise level and traffic volume were recorded. Using the PCNE (Passenger Car Noise Equivalence) concept weighted flow (traffic vol) was calculated on N.H-2 and then a relationship between the noise level, weighted flow and distance has been established. The results of the ambient air quality measurements carried out at twelve busy intersections show that around most of the junctions the concentration levels of SPM, carbon monoxide (CO), and oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) remain far in excess of their safe prescribed limits during the day time when there is heavy traffic flow. The intersections' viz. Shandara chowk, lothiana bridge, Azad market and Minto road crossing requires immediate attention as the concentrations of NOx, CO and SPM were found to be exceptionally high. Noise level survey carried out at the intersections, show that even the minimum noise level was also higher than the maximum recommended limit of 65 dB(A). Keeping in view the high noise levels and alarming concentration of pollutants, traffic engineering techniques such as improvements to the existing intersections, modification of road alignment and synchronization of signals, parking restrictions, should be employed for improving the traffic flow.