EFFECT OF ROAD SIDE DEVELOPMENT ON SPEED AND SERVICE VOLUME OF TWO LANE ROADS

Abstract

Roadside development deals with the development of aesthetic and other amenities of road and abutting land. Proper planning is needed for roadside development right from preliminary stages of alignment to construction and maintenance. In India highways are rapidly getting congested and choked by undesirable development and encroachments. The people dump garbage and waste material on roadside shoulders apart from indiscriminate parking on roads. The result is that the main traffic on the highway is subjected to hardship and deteriorating level of service. The absence of legislation directly empowering the competent authority in highway development responsible to remove encroachment has created a situation where shops, hotels, tea stalls, repair shops, petrol pumps, weigh bridge, residences and commercial establishments are extended their activities right on the highway land. The present study was undertaken to observe the effect of roadside development and oustnieuons OR speed anu placement of a vehicle on intermediate and tWo--lane roads. Data was collected at 26 sites having obstructions of different types and at varying distances from pavement edge. It was observed that on a 5.5 m wide road the effect on speed is same for all types of obstruction when it is 60 cm from pavement edge. The speed of a vehicle was also influenced by an object placed on side shoulder/pavement edge. It reduces 10-15 % when a car is placed on pavement edge. Speed volume relationship drawn at four different sections of two-lane roads indicated that capacity reduces by 13 % due to one side encroachment and 22.8 % due to both side encroachments