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Tolling as a method of financing transportation systems is becoming increasingly common worldwide. The collection of fees from road users under public-private partnership agreements is based on prescribed toll fees/rates. According to the prevailing level of human, traffic, environmental and economic development, these toll rate policies vary from country to country. In India, road toll rates are prescribed by the Gazette of India: Extraordinary(Part II Section 3 sub-section [i]) published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under the National Highways Act, 1956. Each year, the toll rates for each toll facility in India are set as per the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. There is now a need to revisit the policies on fixing toll rates in India. The present study presents a critical literature review of the toll rate policies in India and other developed and developing countries. The study provides a comparison of the different vehicle classes considered for toll rates and it is found that most of the classifications are based on gross vehicle weight (GVW) and on number of wheels and axles. Additionally, the toll rates for different nations are compared and it is found that Indian toll rates are lower than those of the developed countries. Finally, the research gaps are given for further research.

This study is carried out to estimate the passenger car unit (PCU) values of different vehicle categories at a typical four-legged roundabout based on the concept of time occupancy. A stream equivalency factor (k) has also been developed based on the estimated PCU to convert the heterogeneous traffic flow into a homogenous stream equivalent without making use of PCU factors. Relationship between entry flow and circulatory flow has been plotted based on the observed data corresponding to the time period in which there was queue formation in the approach. Further, estimated critical gap and follow-up time have been used to derive the capacity by HCM 2010 equation. A multiplicative adjustment factor is suggested for the use of HCM 2010 equation directly in the field to estimate entry flow under heterogeneous traffic condition. The study results may be suitable for revising the code of practice, named IRC 65–1976, and useful for ongoing national-level efforts of developing Indian Highway Capacity Manual.

The service time and time headway of the vehicles are used to define the equivalency factor of different vehicle classes at the toll plaza. Both the service time and time headway are point measures and do not account for the system delay (time difference when a vehicle enters the queue and leaves the tollbooth) caused to the vehicle. The present study aims to quantify the system delay incurred to the vehicles at electronic toll collection (ETC) lanes under mixed traffic conditions using a microsimulation approach. Field data collected from one toll plaza located on a National Highway are used for simulation model generation. A new terminology called system delay-based toll equivalency factor (DTEF) is introduced to convert the different vehicle classes into equivalent passenger cars. The DTEF variation for different approach volumes and heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) compositions were checked at different ETC penetration levels. A total of 288 scenarios have been worked out, and simulation runs have been made for all such scenarios to obtain the DTEF values. The average DTEF value of HCV was obtained as 2.20. Further, it is found that with an increase in approach volume and HCV share in the traffic stream, the DTEF value increases. The outcome of the present study will be useful to field practitioners and engineers to determine the capacity in equivalent DTEF/hr and level of service of a toll plaza in terms of system delay.

The traffic conditions in India consist of a high degree of heterogeneity in vehicle categories plying on the highways without any lane-following behavior. A similar behavior is observed at the toll plazas where a dedicated lane assigned to a vehicle class is encroached by the vehicles of other categories, causing a mixed nature of the traffic in the same lane. In the present study, service headway is taken as the measure of effectiveness for studying the effect of mixed traffic conditions on traffic operations at electronic toll collection system (ETC) lanes, which are called FASTag lanes in India. Service headway is composed of processing time and the clearance time of the vehicle. Videographic data were collected at three different toll plazas located on National Highways in India to capture the variability in traffic and human behavior. The results showed that the service headway for a vehicle varies between 1.56 s and 34.40 s. The service headway-based toll equivalency factors (HTEF) are developed for converting the mixed traffic flow into a homogeneous equivalent for FASTag lanes. The results showed that the HTEF varies from 1.01 to 2.61. The results are validated spatially with data taken from a different site, and no significant difference was found between both the converted and equivalent data. Field engineers can use the developed HTEFs to estimate the traffic flow in equivalent terms based on the traffic composition. Further, the present study results can also be used to study the capacity and level of service (LOS) of FASTag lanes.

Surrogate safety measure (SSM)-based proactive safety assessment in developing economies like India with weak lane discipline mixed traffic conditions is limited and often lacks qualitative aspects of reliability. On further investigation, challenges of data acquisition, the viability of a specific SSM, the corresponding threshold value for the identification of conflict, and availability of reliable road crash data are observed to be the key hurdles in achieving robust results and proposing measures for mitigating rear-end conflicts and risks of crashes. The present study highlights the hurdles in performing the safety assessment for rear-end conflicts in mixed traffic conditions with weak lane discipline and proposes possible measures to overcome these hurdles.

ABSTRACTThe present study focuses on modeling roundabout in heterogeneous condition and understanding the effect of change in two-wheeler composition on the entry capacity using microscopic simulation technique. A four-legged roundabout of 25m diameter, located in the city of Chandigarh, India was considered as the study area. As Indian traffic flow is highly heterogeneous due to the presence of vehicles with varying physical and operational characteristics, each vehicle modelled separately in PTV VISSIM. Model calibrations were performed using speed distributions, conflict areas, priority rules, and driving behavior parameters. Comparison with the field data obtained from the study roundabout (indicates the applicability of the developed simulation model in assessing the hypothetical scenarios. Study results indicate that the PCU values remain steady under varying compositions of two-wheelers in the traffic stream. In addition, the effect of two-wheeler proportion on roundabout capacity is insignificant in the study area.

Traffic operations at toll plazas are influenced by the merging and diverging behavior of vehicles near the toll plaza in the flare area. Proper guidelines for the design of merging and diverging sections at toll plazas under mixed traffic conditions are not specified by the Indian Highway Capacity Manual, the Indian Road Congress, or the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Thus, the present study attempts to develop design criteria for diverging and merging lengths. The field data were collected using the performance-box instrument at Ghoti toll plaza located at National Highway No. 60 in India, operating under mixed traffic conditions. The concept of discretization of speed profile is proposed and applied to segregate sections of the zone of influence into ten equal parts each of 50 m length. The statistical test shows that speed has a significant difference between the sections and also in between the different classes of vehicle. Results of the speed-distance plot show that the second-degree polynomial function is the best fit for zone of deceleration and power function for the zone of acceleration. The study revealed that, for 50 km/h approach speed, the minimum diverging and merging distances should be 125.67–308.98 m and 47.93–294.23 m, respectively. The proposed guidelines for merging and diverging length are useful for the design of the flare area and to improve operational efficiency and level of service at toll plazas operating under mixed traffic conditions.

Toll plaza operations in India are entirely different from that of the United States (US) and European countries. The majority of tollbooths in India are manually operated, where all the vehicles arriving at the toll plaza have to stop at tollbooth to pay the toll. During this process, a vehicle first decelerates, joins the queue and pays the toll at tollbooths. Afterwards, the vehicle accelerates and regains the stream speed. The overall process causes delay to each approaching vehicle due to deceleration, waiting time in the queue, service time at the tollbooth and finally due to acceleration. Hence, the present study aims to quantify the overall delay that includes system delay (service time and waiting time), acceleration and deceleration delays at manually operated toll plazas under mixed traffic conditions. The overall delay model has been proposed by using (i) dynamic acceleration and deceleration values, (ii) waiting time in the queue and (iii) service time depends upon traffic composition and approach volume. The delay thus obtained from models has been validated from field observed delay values and it is found that no significant difference between observed and predicted delay values. Therefore, the proposed delay model can be used in future to quantify the vehicle delay at toll plazas and can also propose Level of Service (LoS) thresholds and the number of tollbooths required for prescribed LoS.

Increasing road traffic accidents and fatalities, road traffic safety has become a major health concern all over the world. Over the years several studies have been carried out to enhance the road traffic safety aspects. However, majority of the studies are focused lane disciplined homogeneous studies. The lack of studies concerning safety in heterogenous traffic environment with weak lane-based movements motivated this study. Safety assessment is usually done using the crash data (reactive approach) or using TCT employing surrogate measures (pro-active approach). In this study, vehicle trajectories at signalized intersection with weak lane disciplined mixed traffic conditions have been extracted and used to estimate various SSMs for safety assessment. The extracted empirical traffic data is further used to develop a microsimulation model for acquiring vehicular trajectories in various traffic scenarios. The data generated from simulation is then analyzed for rear-end conflict and crash risk probabilities. Based on results probable measure to mitigate rear-end conflicts at signalized intersection with weak lane disciplined mixed traffic are studied. Also Based on the results from variation in number of conflicts, SSM of DRAC is observed to be suitable for weak lane disciplined mixed traffic conditions.

User’s acceptability and perceptions are the important issues for the successful implementation of road pricing schemes. In a developing country like India, the toll collection is switching from Manual Toll Collection (MTC) to the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) and Open Road Tolling. A better understanding of perceptions and acceptability on different road pricing schemes can help transport planners and decision makers to know the public support for road pricing schemes before and after implementation. A questionnaire based survey has been used to explore perceptions and acceptability of road pricing schemes such as High Occupancy toll (HOT), Dynamic Toll Pricing (DTP), Distance based pricing etc. For the present study, the sample of 550 respondents has been taken with the help of an online platform and face to face interview. The results show that about 41.18 percent of the users are willing to use the distance-based pricing scheme. The study developed multinomial logit model to analyse the acceptability of different pricing schemes. The results show that there are significant differences in user acceptability by the type of charging scheme proposed. HOT was most acceptable by users who perceive less travel time savings for using toll roads. The acceptability of DTP decreases for users who felt tolls are not an appropriate mechanism to fund roads. Number of toll booth passed is a significant parameter affecting acceptability of distance based pricing. In addition; socioeconomic variables also affect each of the pricing schemes. The signs of estimated parameters fit prior knowledge and are statically significant.The outcome of the present study will provide a reference for providing a users’ acceptable pricing scheme in India.

A higher degree of heterogeneity in vehicle class and drivers, coupled with non-lane-based driving habits, creates several challenges in traffic flow analysis. This study investigates vehicles’ microscopic driving behavior at signalized intersections operating under weak lane discipline with mixed traffic (disordered) conditions. For this purpose, a comprehensive vehicular trajectory data set is developed from field-recorded video footage using a semi-automated tool for data extraction. Microscopic parameters such as relative velocity, spacing between vehicles, following time, lane preference, longitudinal and lateral speed profile, hysteresis evidence, and lateral movement of different vehicle classes during different traffic phases are presented in the study. The data is then segregated into three flow conditions: stopped flow, saturated flow, and unaffected flow. It is found that smaller vehicles prefer near-side lanes over far-side lanes. Motorized three-wheeler (3W) and motorized two-wheeler (2W) vehicle classes exhibit the greatest lateral velocity, lateral movement, and aggressiveness. This results in several interactions between vehicles as a function of different leader–follower vehicle pairs. Signalized intersections with more heterogeneity in traffic composition, especially higher composition of 2W and 3W vehicle classes, exhibit higher levels of aggressive driving behavior that might lower safety standards. As a practical application, ranges of various driving behavior parameter values for different leader–follower combinations and traffic conditions are quantified in the study. The observations and results are expected to help better understand prevailing driving behavior in disordered traffic and contribute toward robust calibration of microscopic traffic flow models for better replicating disordered traffic conditions at signalized intersections.

•Capacity estimation for urban midblock with weak lane-disciplined mixed traffic.•Suitable Deterministic and stochastic capacity estimation methods are identified.•Calibration of traffic stream models, Product limit method, & Sustained Flow Index.•Set of modified guidelines and procedure for probabilistic capacity estimation.•An augmented method of determining Level of Service based on Survival Probability.•Freedom to provide a desirable/ tolerable LOS respective to the demand and supply.•This can supplement traffic authorities in regulating the congestion in urban areas.

This study proposes a time occupancy approach to estimate passenger car units (PCUs) at urban signalized intersections with different interaction levels between vehicles under saturated green time conditions. The study shows a variation in PCUs with varied traffic and geometric conditions. Traffic data have been collected through videography techniques at signalized intersections in three metropolitan cities in India. Traffic flow discharge and clearance time of different vehicular categories have been extracted from the video during the saturated green time. The observed ranges of dynamic PCU values for two-wheelers, three-wheelers, big cars, light commercial vehicles, and heavy vehicles are 0.12 to 0.32, 0.45 to 0.80, 1.40 to 1.80, 1.60 to 2.20, and 3.50 to 6.50, respectively. Regression-based PCU models have been developed for each vehicle category to address the variation of individual vehicle PCUs with traffic compositions and flow rates. The model analysis shows that traffic compositions and flow rates are significantly affecting the PCU values. The PCU is a complex parameter requiring several field attributes. Therefore, to overcome the complexity of estimating PCUs, a concept of flow equivalency factor (FEF) has been proposed based on the estimated PCUs. The FEF can directly convert the mixed motorized vehicular flow into an equivalent standard passenger car flow without actually making use of different vehicles’ PCU factors. All the developed models have been validated for field conditions and results are found promising with field data. The developed approach can be used effectively for developing countries with a mixed traffic stream.

The complexity of vehicular interactions at the toll plazas is more severe than in any other traffic facility due to the multiple decisions the driver has to make in a really short time. This creates a lot of interactions between different vehicle classes and hence hinders the smooth movement of vehicles inducing safety issues and delays. The present study investigates and quantifies longitudinal and lateral speeds at the toll plazas operating under heterogeneous and non-lane-based traffic conditions. High-quality trajectory data are developed from the traffic video recorded using two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) flying simultaneously upstream and downstream of the toll plaza. Distribution fitting for longitudinal speeds has also been attempted in this study. The mean longitudinal speed in the merging section is 33.13% lower than in the diverging section. The average lateral speed observed in the merging section is 1.65 km/h, whereas, in diverging section, it is 2.08 km/h, which is 26% higher. The lane changing or selection is prominent only up to 120–140 m from the toll plaza in the merging section and in a zone of 100–200 m toward the toll plaza in the diverging section. The longitudinal speeds in merging and diverging sections distinctively followed the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution. The observation and results are expected to contribute toward the more realistic imitation of field conditions in heterogeneous traffic for simulation studies and will help in reducing delays and improving the facility's overall efficiency.

ABSTRACTThe novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) significantly impacts all sectors and brings the whole population to stuck at home due to a countrywide lockdown in India. Due to the lockdown, the major influence is on students and education systems all over the world. The present study attempts to study the effect of COVID-19 on traffic patterns and choice of mode for the students to reach their host institute. The response survey was carried out, and the pre- and post-travel patterns were investigated for the participants. The interesting finding is that irrespective of the income level, parents are more serious about the safety of their child against COVID-19. As the available infrastructure is not adequate to follow the COVID-19 protocol, parents have insisted on using their personalized mode to send their children to school subject to the utmost social distancing norms followed by schools. Policymakers and planners may use the outcome of the present study to see the impact of educational trips

There are 543 toll plazas across the National Highways and State Highways in India and most of them are currently operating under Manual Toll Collection (MTC) system. The Government of India has recently adopted Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system over MTC system, but, due to the technical constraints of toll plazas, they are either operating with both ETC and MTC systems or with MTC system only. The motive of switching from MTC to ETC is to reduce congestion and delay time. However, due to the fix toll charges for a vehicle type and heterogeneity in traffic mix, the peak hour traffic causes congestion that ultimately returns to enormous delay to users. The present study proposes the policy framework of Dynamic Toll Pricing (DTP) that alleviate the congestion at toll plazas by consisting of shifting traffic volume from peak/congested hours to off-peak/non-congested hours. This type of pricing proved to be one of the methods to control the traffic by elevating the toll in peak hours and thus giving discounts in off-peak hours. Such type of study about dynamic toll is not yet carried out for Indian scenario where traffic is highly heterogeneous. Hence, the main goal of the present study is to evaluate the DTP for the Indian condition and thus to examine the effect of discount and time saving on the shift in peak hour traffic demand. The observations revealed that most of the respondents are willing to shift in the morning peak hour than evening peak hour. The maximum shift was observed for small cars and for 25 % discount in toll charges. Further, the price elasticities of demand are calculated and are found to vary between -0.03 and -1.19 i.e. with 1 percent of discount the traffic volume changes between 0.03 % to 1.19 %. The output of the present study may set up a framework for DTP in India and may be used for analysing the travel choice behaviour models in future studies.

The goal of this research is to introduce the fundamentals of a game theoretic approach to model pedestrian roadway crossings, as well as road users interaction strategies in such scenarios. For this reason, the most influencing factors in users’ decision and choice of strategy are employed to develop the model. This plays a central role in building a robust micro-simulation model to simulate the trajectory, and movements, of traffic participants in roadway crossing scenarios, in which there is no traffic control and management systems to conduct the traffic and users movements. The road users’ interactions in a mixed traffic environment will become more challenging by the deployment of fully/partly automated driving systems, where the intentions and decisions of interacting agents must be predicted/detected to avoid conflict and improve the traffic efficiency.

ABSTRACTLevel-of-service (LOS) is a key index that reflects the operational condition of the toll-plaza. Although it has been observed that the developed countries have a very effective system at the toll plazas; but, the developing countries are still struggling to achieve the properly managed system that could improve the customer satisfaction at toll plazas. Hence, a sample of 1431 respondents has been collected at four toll plazas located in India and analyzed, for users' perceived LOS. The ordered probit model was developed and the results show that humps at tollbooth is a highly influencing variable. The study results reveal that the users not only consider delay but also a multitude of factors such as age, education, experience, frequency, aesthetics etc. while evaluating the users' perceived LOS at toll plazas. The results obtained from the present study portrays that all significant factors need to be considered when planning of toll plazas.

The present study attempted to develop a methodology to quickly estimate the level of service (LOS) at manually operated tollbooths where approaching traffic volume is mixed in nature in the same lane. Videography data collected at five toll plazas located in northern and western part of country. The vehicle approaching at toll plaza were divided into seven categories and headway data extracted from the video. The time headway is measured by taking the time difference of two consecutive vehicles at the same tollbooth. Field observation shows that there is a wide variation observed in headway for different vehicle type as well as within same vehicle type as leader and follower vehicle combinations. This may be due to varying toll rate, vehicle characteristics, drivers and tollbooth operators’ personal attributes. The present study developed tollbooth capacity estimation model by taking harmonic mean of traffic composition present at tollbooth with respect to the capacity achieved of respective vehicle class using headway method. Using approach volume and capacity estimated with the help of developed model in the volume to capacity (V/C) ratio is calculated and LOS thresholds are defined using clustering technique. The field observed V/C ratio ranges from 0.28 to 1.30. The study proposes six LOS ranges from LOS ‘A’ to ‘F’ at toll plaza based on V/C ratio. A threshold V/C ratio of less than 0.50 has been defined for LOS ‘A’ whereas more than 1.05 represents LOS ‘F’. The study outcome will be useful for toll plaza management and field engineers to quickly evaluate LOS at toll plaza with less efforts and cost.

Up-surging pedestrian and vehicular traffic also causes increase in number of conflicts. Aggressive behaviour of the driver or pedestrian could be one of the key factors resulting in the accidents. Traffic data was collected from five sites at mid-block section of an urban arterial road in three metropolitan cities in western India. Using the ordinate based extracted data trajectories were plotted for the pedestrian and the vehicle. In total 2123 interactions of undesignated road crossings are observed. Parameters like conflict point, pedestrian and vehicle velocity, pedestrian details, vehicle class, type of conflict, Time to conflict point (TTCP) have been identified and estimated. Safety surrogate method of Time Difference to Collision (TDTC) has been implemented in this study. TDTC is defined as the difference between the time required by the pedestrian and the vehicle to reach the conflict point. Objective of the study is to identify and measure the degree of aggressiveness exhibited by pedestrian and vehicle drivers after observing an imminent conflict. This study aims set-forth procedure and recommendation that result in the development of an all-purpose process that shall help in the analysis of process in analyzing the aggression in vehicle-pedestrian conflicts. Conditions and limitations have been set, that help in identifying the aggressive behavior of vehicle driver or pedestrian. After analysis, all the interactions have been classified into three levels of aggressiveness and cautious. Attempt to map a Change in behavior from aggressive to cautious and vice versa based on the results has been done.

In developing countries, pedestrians mostly cross the road at the midblock section to access the place of their interest. During such crossing operations, pedestrian use force gap to cross the road and force the approaching vehicles to change the path or apply the break to avoid conflict. Such pedestrian activity causes interruption to vehicular flow and ultimately cause delay to the vehicular traffic. The present study attempted to estimate such delay due to crossing pedestrians at undesignated midblock locations. Field data are collected from two highly populated cities of India. Delay due to the crossing pedestrian to the individual class of vehicles at the undesignated pedestrian crossing midblock location is worked out by comparing time by taking by interacting and non-interacting vehicles to pass the same trap at the same vehicular composition and flow level. The results were verified by probe data collected for each category of vehicles using Global Position System (GPS) based V-box device. The statistical tests are performed to validate the field observed value, and it is found there is no significant difference between the delay estimated from both methods. Further, level of service (LOS) has been defined based on the delay and volume to capacity (V/C) ratio, and the result has been compared with Indian Highway Capacity Manual (Indo HCM) and previous study. The result of the present study will be useful for better estimation of travel time and reliability analysis.

Level of Service (LOS) is an important parameter that reflects the operational condition of the toll plaza. Gaining a better understanding of users’ perception of LOS at toll-plaza can be useful in developing policies for improving service quality. A sample of 1150 respondents has been collected at four toll plazas and analyzed, for users perceived LOS. A questionnaire has been designed and a respondent has been asked for rating highly influencing variables. The variables contain the ordered nature variables like waiting time and a discrete nature variables like gender and hence vehicle specific ordered probit models were developed to find the important variables affecting on the users’ perception towards different LOS. The results obtained for different vehicle categories (car, passenger and commercial vehicle) demonstrated that there is a wide variation in users’ perception of different vehicle classes towards different LOS.

At signalized intersections, due to variability in vehicle types necessitates converting mixed traffic flow in to equivalent passenger car flow with a help of passenger car units. This study proposes a technique to estimate saturation flow by converting mixed traffic flow from vehicle per hour to PCU per hour by estimating the PCU values using time occupancy method during the saturated green time with different level of traffic interaction. Traffic discharge and clearance time have been extracted from the video of collected data. Regression based stream equivalency models are developed for quick and easy estimation of saturation flow.

•Service quality of toll plaza is analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach.•Nine hypotheses are formulated based on the existing literature review.•The effect of five latent variables and sixteen indicators are determined.•Driver’s behaviour, infrastructural, trip characteristics and tollbooth operators’ behaviour positively influence service quality.

•Willingness to shift FASTag system is evaluated using users’ perception data.•The passenger car users are more likely to shift towards FASTag.•Positive coefficient of commercial vehicles shows willingness to adopt FASTag.•The older age group is less willing to shift towards FASTag than the younger age group.•Awareness is found to be the most important factor for shifting.

The present study demonstrates the influence of operating speed on capacity of a midblock section of urban road. Speed–flow data collected at 12 midblock sections of 6-lane and 4-lane divided urban arterials in four metropolitan cities of India are analyzed to determine their capacity. Lane capacity was found to vary from 1482 to 2105 PCU/h. This variation is explained on the basis of city size and driving behavior, which would influence the free flow speed on the road. Free flow speed was also measured at each section and these speed data were used to determine operating speed 85th percentile of free flow speed of standard car) on the road. Lane capacity was found to be strongly related to operating speed on a road and a second-degree polynomial model is developed between the lane capacity and operating speed. This model is further validated by collecting speed flow data at two new sections and their capacity was estimated from field data and from the model developed in the study. The predicted capacity was found to be matching with field capacity and the maximum error was 0.10 percent. Operating speed on a road can vary due to road surface condition, side friction or similar other factors. All these will have influence on capacity of the road. The capacity model suggested in the present study can be a useful tool to determine capacity of an urban road from its operating speed data.

The highway capacity manual (HCM-2010) is widely referred document around the globe for planning and design of roads. However, the transferability of HCM recommendations for heterogenous traffic condition represents a significant research issue as they are often not suitable to adequately explain the traffic complexities of a mixed-traffic state. This research investigates the suitability of HCM equations for determining the entry capacity of a four-legged roundabout under mixed traffic condition and proposes a methodology for validating and calibrating HCM equations for performance evaluation. Data corresponding to traffic composition, traffic volume, critical gap and follow-up time have been extracted from the video records collected at two roundabouts. The relationship between entry flow and circulatory flow has been plotted from the observed data when there is a complete saturation in the approach leg and depicted that it follows a negative exponential behavior. It implies that the entry capacity reduces exponentially with the increase in circulating flow. The critical gap has been estimated by various methods such as Maximum Likelihood Method (MLM), Root Mean Square (RMS) method and Probability Equilibrium Method (PEM). Further, a stream equivalent critical gap of 1.60 seconds and stream equivalent follow-up time of 1.24 seconds have been derived due to the mixed traffic scenario at the study location. A multiplicative adjustment factor of 1.1 is suggested for the use of HCM 2010 equation directly to estimate entry capacity under heterogeneous traffic condition. The study results may use for planning and designing of roundabout under mixed-traffic flow condition.

The extensive use of aggregates in highway construction has led to the depletion of natural resources, which has given impetus to the use of non-conventional materials. Natural aggregate consumption can be greatly reduced by utilizing improved/lime-stabilized expansive soil as the subbase layer of flexible pavement. This study investigates the same by virtue of laboratory and field scale investigations. Modified proctor test, unconfined compression strength test, and California bearing ratio test were performed on black cotton soil with different proportions of lime (0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, and 12%). The optimum mix of black cotton soil–lime (BCL) with 6% lime was obtained. A thorough structural assessment of flexible pavement test section constructed with optimum BCL subbase enabled substantiation of the BCL mix's superior strength characteristics. The structural evaluation of test sections using a falling weight deflectometer (FWD) demonstrated that a section with a BCL subbase layer displayed 25–30% lower peak deflections than control sections (GSB). From FWD deflection, the back-calculated modulus of the BCL layer is 1.5 times higher than the conventional GSB, which leads to better performance than the GSB, confirming its use to replace the GSB. Additionally, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses were conducted to validate the improvement in mechanical properties achieved by lime stabilization. Then FEM analysis was carried out using PLAXIS. The service life ratio was improved by 10% and 48% for fatigue and rutting, respectively, using the BCL mix as the subbase layer.

•UAV based high-quality trajectory data of toll plaza is used.•GEV distribution is found to be best fitted as per the K-S test for speeds at the toll plaza.•Lateral speeds are studied, and sections of lane change at toll plazas are identified.•Acceleration models for different vehicle classes are developed in merging and diverging sections of the toll plaza.

This study demonstrates that passenger car unit (PCU) values for a vehicle are not static and vary with traffic volume and composition. Data collected at eight urban arterial roads in India were analyzed to explain the dynamic nature of the PCU factor. All vehicles in the traffic stream were divided into five categories, and simultaneous equations were developed to determine the speed of a vehicle type from information on traffic volume and composition. These equations were used to show the variation in PCU values with traffic volume and composition on a road. The change in PCU values was explained on the basis of the relative interaction of vehicle type in the traffic stream at different volume levels. A proposed range of PCU values for big vehicles was from 1.47 to 1.65 for big cars and for heavy vehicles from 5.51 to 6.54, respectively, when their proportions in the mix remained within an observed range in the field. Similarly, a range of PCU values for motorized three-wheelers of 0.99 to 1.01 and a set of PCU values for motorized two-wheelers of 0.20 to 0.23 were obtained. Accuracy of the PCU values estimated through simultaneous equations was checked by comparing the estimated values with those calculated directly from the field data. Statistical testing showed that there was no significant difference between field-estimated and model-predicted PCU values. Further, the speed–volume relationships developed by using two sets of PCU factors yielded the capacity values with a difference of less than 2%; this result indicates the correctness of the methodology in this study.

This study demonstrates that passenger car unit (PCU) values for a vehicle are not static and vary with traffic volume and composition. Data collected at eight urban arterial roads in India were analyzed to explain the dynamic nature of the PCU factor. All vehicles in the traffic stream were divided into five categories, and simultaneous equations were developed to determine the speed of a vehicle type from information on traffic volume and composition. These equations were used to show the variation in PCU values with traffic volume and composition on a road. The change in PCU values was explained on the basis of the relative interaction of vehicle type in the traffic stream at different volume levels. A proposed range of PCU values for big vehicles was from 1.47 to 1.65 for big cars and for heavy vehicles from 5.51 to 6.54, respectively, when their proportions in the mix remained within an observed range in the field. Similarly, a range of PCU values for motorized three-wheelers of 0.99 to 1.01 and a set of PCU values for motorized two-wheelers of 0.20 to 0.23 were obtained. Accuracy of the PCU values estimated through simultaneous equations was checked by comparing the estimated values with those calculated directly from the field data. Statistical testing showed that there was no significant difference between field-estimated and model-predicted PCU values. Further, the speed–volume relationships developed by using two sets of PCU factors yielded the capacity values with a difference of less than 2%; this result indicates the correctness of the methodology in this study.

The main objective of the present study is to prepare an algorithm for the choice of lane causing minimum delay based on drivers’ perception using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method. The TODIM (Portuguese acronym for Interactive Multi-Criteria Decision-Making) is based on the prospect theory. The effect of human behavior on lane choice at toll plaza is studied using the user perception survey. The data required is collected by pictorial survey at the toll plaza, nearby petrol pumps, and hotels. The pictorial survey includes the scenarios to understand the lane choice based on the user preferences about the vehicle composition, number of vehicles in queue, and lane changes. In the case of toll plazas, toll lanes are the alternatives, and vehicle composition of toll lanes, number of vehicles in the queue, and number of lane changes required to choose the target lane are all different criteria. A vehicle entering the toll area has to take care of all the available conditions and select an alternative to minimize the delay. The TODIM method requires the weightage matrix of the criteria, which is obtained using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). It is seen that the number of vehicles in the queue has the highest weightage followed by the proportion of heavy vehicles. These are the prime factors affecting the lane choice behavior at the toll plaza. The algorithm can be further used to predict the best alternative for the emerging vehicle, which will help to minimize its delay.

The present study extends the basic concept of linear speed-density relation to mixed traffic condition and attempts to develop speed equations for different categories of vehicles generally found on an urban arterial in India. Field data were collected on different sections of urban arterials in New Delhi, Jaipur and Chandigarh by video recording method. All vehicles in the traffic stream were divided into 5 categories and a set of simultaneous equations is developed relating speed of a vehicle type to the densities of all categories of vehicles in their individual terms. These equations are solved for some assumed values of traffic volume and traffic composition and effect on speed of each vehicle type is explained. Accuracy of the equations is checked by comparing the observed values of speed with calculated speeds.

Developing countries like India do not have inadequate crossing facilities for pedestrians in an urban area. Traffic infrastructures are also designed by keeping motorized vehicles as focus, and less attention has been given to most vulnerable road users. This results in unauthorized access of pedestrians in the regular motorized traffic lanes for walking and crossing purpose. Pedestrians cross the roadway at their place of interest at any convenient location which may be undesignated, i.e., not marked with zebra crossings or pedestrian signals. Such pedestrian crossing operations not only interrupted the regular traffic but also put themselves at high risk of collision with moving traffic. Vehicles experience a delay due to the interference of such crossing pedestrians, which negatively affects stream speed and capacity of the section. Indian standard has not provided any guidelines for pedestrian crossing facilities like zebra crossing and signalized crosswalk. However, crossing warrants are narrated for grade-separated facilities based on PV2values, where Pand Vare the peak hour pedestrian volume peak hour vehicle volume, respectively. During crossing operation of pedestrian, the interaction of pedestrian with different classes of vehicles is different, at the same time a single pedestrian may create more delay to the vehicular traffic instead of a group of pedestrian crossings at the road section. Such aspects are usually ignored in PV2analysis, and hence, the present study attempted to provide warrants for different pedestrian crossing facilities based on delay incurred to vehicles due to crossing pedestrians.