Current Science

Satish Chandra ¹, D. S. Rawat ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar 263 145, IN

Abstract

The genus Arenaria s.l. is represented by about 210 species of annual or perennial herbs distributed in the temperate and arctic areas of Asia, Europe, northern Africa, North America and South America1. In India, it is represented by 24 species2 mainly confined to the Himalaya of which Arenaria curvifolia Majumdar, Arenaria ferruginea Duthie ex F.

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Mithun Mohan ¹, Satish Chandra ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram 679 573, IN
2 Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi 110 025, IN

Abstract

In developing countries, one of the vital steps involved in analysing the capacity of any transportation facility is the estimation of passenger car equivalents (PCEs) for different types of vehicles to convert the heterogeneous traffic stream into an equivalent stream of passenger cars. This study proposes occupancy time method for the estimation of PCEs for different types of vehicles generally observed at unsignalized intersections in India. PCEs for vehicles executing different movements at unsignalized intersections have been estimated in this study and the dynamic nature of PCEs has also been explored. However, PCEs were found to be statistically similar across different movements and across intersections of different geometry.

Keywords

Heterogeneous Traffic Conditions, Occupancy Time, Passenger Car Equivalents, Unsignalized Intersections.

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Anish Kumar Bharti ¹, Ravi Sekhar ², Satish Chandra ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, IN
2 CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi 100 025, IN

Abstract

The present study demonstrates the application and usefulness of travel time reliability as a level of service (LOS) measure for urban arterial and inter-urban highway corridors on Indian roads. For travel time estimation, automatic vehicle license plate number data were collected through TrafficMon system. This system is a fully video-based enforcement system designed to measure the speed of vehicles passing in view of the camera, and read the vehicular license plate number. This system was implemented at the entry and exit side of the identified three study corridors and data were collected during morning and evening peak periods. The data were analysed and various travel time reliability measures were evaluated. The study also attempts to correlate reliability measures such as planning time (PT), buffer time (BT), planning time index (PTI) and buffer time index (BTI) with volume-to-capacity ratio which is the most widely used LOS measure for Indian roads. Analysis of results indicated that at LOS B the travel time of intercity highway was 40–46 sec/km, whereas it was 64–80 sec/km and 75–135 sec/km for urban uninterrupted and interrupted corridors respectively. The planning time for LOS B was more on urban arterial corridors when compared to inter-urban corridor for the same width of the carriageway. The upper limits of LOS B for PT were 132 sec/km and 63 sec/km for uninterrupted urban corridor and intercity highway corridor respectively. Other parameters of reliability like PTI and BTI were also evaluated and their values for different ranges of volume-capacity ratio were presented for identified corridors.

Keywords

Automatic License Plate Method, Buffer Time Index, Capacity, Travel Time Index, Travel Time Reliability, Urban Arterial.

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Arpita Saha ¹, Satish Chandra ², Indrajit Ghosh ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur 177 005, IN
2 CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi 110 002, IN
3 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology- Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, IN

Abstract

Significant work on level of service (LOS) has been conducted around the globe over the last two decades. However, till date, no guidelines exist for LOS of signalized intersections in India. The present study attempts to introduce LOS criteria for signalized intersection under mixed traffic condition. Thirteen intersections from four different cities of India were chosen for this study. Delay at intersections (which is the backbone for deriving LOS) is estimated using the area estimation method (according to HCM 2010). Clustering technique (to be specific, K-mean clustering) has been used to classify six clusters of delay corresponding to six different LOS and arrive at a LOS criteria. Silhouette method has been employed to validate the proposed delay clusters. The silhouette indices obtained justify the proposed delay ranges corresponding to the clusters and indicate the possible implementation of the proposed LOS for rating the performance of signalized intersections of India.

Keywords

Area Estimation Method, LOS, K-Mean Clustering, Signalized Intersection, User Perception Survey.

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Chintaman Santosh Bari ¹, Ashish Dhamaniya ¹, Satish Chandra ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat 395 007, India, IN
2 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India, IN

Abstract

The efficiency of manual toll transactions is highly depen­dent upon the service performance of tollbooth operators. The latter is a multi-attribute decision making (MADM) problem, as the performance of the tollbooth operators is influenced by various criteria such as traffic operation, tollbooth ergonomics, etc. The present study has used the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), a MADM method, to evaluate the criteria affecting the service performance of tollbooth operators. The identified criteria are further ranked based on their significance so that the concessionaire as a decision-maker may identify the most important criteria and take appropriate decisions to improve the service performance of tollbooth operators. Based on the available literature, the criteria affecting the service performance of tollbooth operators included service time, their capability in terms of service training, shift timings and personal safety. A structured AHP questionnaire was prepared for developing the relative importance matrix from the perception of the tollbooth operator. The weights were obtained from the AHP relative importance matrix and used for setting the priorities. The results show that the operator’s capability as a criterion and training given to tollbooth operators as a sub-criterion have the highest priorities with weights of 0.51 and 0.214 respectively (global weight). Finally, sensitivity analysis was performed to check the effect of change in weights of criteria on the service performance of tollbooth operators. Thus, the output could be used by the concessionaire to meet the requirements of the tollbooth operators for enhancing their service performance in order to improve the service level of toll plazas.

Keywords

Analytical Hierarchy Process, Multi-attribute Decision-making, Service Performance, Tollbooth Operators, Weights

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Chintaman Santosh Bari ¹, Satish Chandra ², Ashish Dhamaniya ¹, Yogeshwar Navandar ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, SVNIT Surat, Surat 395 007, India
2 Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee, Roorkee 247 667, India
3 Department of Civil Engineering, NIT, Calicut 673 601, India

Abstract

Most projects across the world are built under the public–private partnership (PPP) module. In the high-way sector, the highway projects are built by the con-cessioner, and in lieu of that, he generates revenue by collecting tolls from road users. The toll plazas built across the highways to collect tolls act as a bottleneck in highway facilities. Although the toll collection sys-tem has been improved worldwide, users are still expe-riencing an enormous delay at toll plazas due to congestion, especially in developing countries like India. This congestion is caused due to various factors such as long service time, an inadequate number of windows, traffic volume, categories of toll rates, etc., which lead to delay, degradation of capacity, and level of service. Different researchers in their countries have analysed all these factors. The present article gives a detailed literature review summarizing various studies on the different parameters related to toll plazas and proposes research gaps from the perspective of developing coun-tries. The challenges and methodology for evaluating various parameters are also discussed, and a way for-ward for future research is suggested.

Keywords

Capacity, level of service, mixed traffic, toll collection, toll plaza.

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Satish Chandra ¹, Ravi Sekhar Chalumuri ¹, Kamini Gupta ¹, Neelima Chakrabarty ¹

Affiliations
1 CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, Delhi–Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 025, India., IN

Abstract

Isolated speed humps are extensively used as speed-calming measures for motorized vehicles of different categories on urban roads. Most urban roads in India are provided with either a trapezoidal or circular speed hump based on the road category. The height of these humps influences the per cent reduction of speed at the crown of the hump. It has been observed that passenger motorized vehicles do not reduce their speeds before a speed hump, even when it is large. The objective of this study was to evaluate the driver perception and reaction distance near a speed hump and thereby examine the sensitivity of these parameters on the drivers of different age groups. For this, drivers of different ages (a total sample size of five subjects) were considered for real-time eye-tracking experiments. The experimental results of all subjects’ eye tracking images were examined in this study. The visit duration or dwell time for an area of interest (AOI) was estimated and compared among various drivers. The speed data were also collected using a velocity-box along with eye-tracking data of each dri­ver at the identified location. The collected eye-tracking experimental data were analysed using statistical techniques. Regression analysis between vehicular speed and fixation count was performed. It was observed that the power model was the best fit for the collected data. The visualization data helped to reveal the characteristics of fixation and reaction gaze points near the identified speed humps. The study results showed that driver attention was double when vehicle located between 0 and 20 m than 20 and 40 m from the speed hump. Drivers in the age group between 20 and 25 years had 48% AOI of visit duration, while for those in the age group between 30 and 40 years, it was 67%.

Keywords

Eye Tracker, Gaze Plots, Heat Maps, Regression Analysis, Speed Hump, Urban Roads.

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