Effects of Non-Motorized Vehicles on Traffic Flow Parameters

Abstract

India, being a developing nation has a heterogeneous traffic. The traffic consists of vehicles which can broadly be divided into motorized vehicles and non-motorized vehicles.The motorized vehicles include all cars, motorcycles, trucks, etc. whereas the non-motorized vehicles include cycles, cycle-rickshaws, rickshaw-van, hand pulled or cycle driven trolleys,hand pulled rickshaws, etc.. There has been a significant impact of non-motorized transport on intersection capacity and roadway segments between intersections. But, as per study that had previously been done the proportion of bicycle and other non-motorized vehicle is veryless as compared to that of motorized vehicles. However the presence of non-motorized vehicles highly affects the traffic parameters such as flow, speed and density. Hence for urban heterogeneous Indian traffic the consideration of the effect of non-motorized vehicles is highly essential for design of traffic stream. The thesis has been divided into various parts like data collection, data extraction, data analysis, field observations and statistical analysis using hypothesis testing. The experimental analysis involved in study of fundamental variables and studying the effects of non-motorized vehicles on parameters like flow, speed, density, lateral occupancy and queue length. The effect of %age of non-motorized vehicles is also discussed. The distance from road edge and the type of shoulder or kerb in the section is also considered for field observation. The statistical analysis part was done using hypothesis testing which helped us understanding the comparison between the variables like flow of different years and hence the statistical relation was penned down. The results of the study involved in showing the characteristics and effects of non-motorized vehicles on Indian heterogeneous traffic which was done as per the above procedure. As discussed the non-motorized vehicles have a very significant impact on the traffic parameters.