Design Service Volume, Capacity, Level of Service Calculation and Forecasting for a Semi-urban City

Traffic has grown in recently years with urbanization. In the recent scenario traffic is the major consent for any developing nation [1]. Transportation infrastructure plays an important role in the economic and social development of any country. We are moving in the era of smart transportation systems, but we are focusing only on the developed cities [2]. As some of the rural areas have been grown since past few decades, which approached to the urban city. These cities are somewhere about to be called as urban cities which we can call semi-urban cities now. A study on the similar semi-urban city have been carried out for the evaluation of design service volume of the road, capacity of the roads and the level of service. The Design Service Volume of this type of area might vary from Design Service Volume (DSV) of rural area & urban area. Hence, the calculation of DSV as by equation 1 for Mid-sized city or semi-urban or semi-rural can be considered. Capacity of a route is the maximum hourly rate at which persons or vehicles can move in a reasonable order of a point or a lane of road, during a period of time under the prevailing conditions of path, traffic and control [3]. Capacity is considered as the maximum capability of a given transportation mode or its particular component to serve a certain volume of demand, during a specified period of time, under given conditions [4]. A researcher emphasized on the need of developing highway capacity norms for Indian highways [5]. The main emphasis of the study was the development of simpler techniques for evolving capacity norms, based on observed data. A researcher analyzed traffic characteristics in Vadodara Ahmedabad section of the National Highway Number 8 to identify management measures that will lead to better traffic performance [6]. Level of service is defined as the qualitative measure of operational conditions with a traffic stream and their perception by drivers/passengers. Capacity standards are fixed normally in relation to the level of services (LOS) adopted for the design. In determining the level of service, quality terms of traffic flow at the point of drivers and passengers should be measured [7-8]. Level of service describes the conditions in terms of factors such as speed and travel time, freedom to manoeuvre, traffic interruptions, comfort, convenience and safety. Six level of services are recognized commonly, designated as A, B, C, D, E & F with level of service A representing the best operating condition /free flow and level of service F represents the worst/forced or breakdown flow. A researcher carried out study of level of service (LOS) of different segments, it was determined that for V/C ratio as well as for peak hour factor the LOS is F for the stretch path [9]. In determination of service level based on ATS and PTSF based on HCM 2000, generally, service level based on ATS in comparison to service level based on PTSF is in better condition, it means that divers have higher average speed and they almost pay no attention to traffic distance headway and time spent following, so, safety is less and disasters are more [10].

As per IRC 64-1990, the DSV of Single lane road in plain area under Indian conditions is 2000 PCU/day and for urban context, it is 900 PCU/hr [11].

10 % of daily traffic volume is considered as peak hour traffic volume [12].

Hence, 200 PCU/hr.

Consider mid value of DSV between ideal condition & urban condition.

$\operatorname{DSV}_{(\text {semi-urban city })}=(200+900) / 2$      (1)

DSV_{(semi-urban city)}= 550 PCU/hr. (for the case of peak traffic hours).

Researcher employed “classical” statistical approaches to predicting traffic; going forward over the years, data driven approaches have become the most discussed field of analysis in the literature, with a rich variety of algorithmic specifications, as effectively exposed by Andrea and Federico [14]. The authors reviewed the last decade of literature, starting from 2004, citing for the previous period three papers: by Vlahogianni, et al. [15], for short-term traffic forecasting literature and related conceptual and methodological issues up to 2003; by Adeli [16] and by Van Lint and Van Hinsbergen [17], for neural network and artificial intelligence applications to short-term traffic forecasting. Traditional methods, generally based on quantitative measurements of average time between vehicles and thresholds, fail to take into account the inherent vagueness of the driving process [18]. As a result of different conditions and driver’s perception, level of service is different at the signalized and unsignalized intersections [19].

Escalona, et al. [20] studies the effect of two service-level measures on the design of a critical-level policy for fast-moving items. Level of Service analysis for future traffic growth helps to relate the future ease of movement of traffic on the existing traffic facilities or road networks. It helps to plan a better strategies of transport system planning including development of road networks, traffic furniture’s and related facilities. Table 3 Level of Service Criteria based on V/Capacity ratio shows the LOS & V/C ratio. LOS is converted into percentile for the generalized LOS value of the city traffic road network on the basics of AADT as shown in Table 4.

Considering the LOS of the various road networks of the city in a generalized condition, the Table 5 shows the percentile average analysis of the LOS.

The generalized LOS of the city traffic is related to the AADT of the city. Hence, future LOS analysis is totally depending upon the relation of LOS & AADT. AADT & LOS are inversely proportional to each other.

Table 6 shows the future LOS of the city road networks and Figure 1, represents the same also.

Table 4. Level of service criteria based on V/capacity ratio percentile

Table 5. Percentile average analysis of LOS

Table 6. Future LOS on the basis of AADT

It has been concluded that the city which is approaching to the urban city also needs to be evaluated in respect with the existing traffic conditions to plan a better transportation facility. The level of service represents the qualitative measures of the traffic movement through the city road networks. The Figure 1 represents the future condition of LOS which creates a serious cause to think of planning the cities approaching the urban cities. This research can also be executed in macro scopic level. This traffic systems may be simulated for a better result.