CEE April-June 2012

• Impact of information & communication technology on trip rate and time of travel • Evaluation of demand management measures like flexible work hours, promotion of public transport and non-motorized transport on travel pattern. Metropolitan transportation: Increase in the size of the city creates more diverse travel needs across various sections of the society. The quality of transport supply, so far, has been judged based on the vehicular traffic congestion on roads or in parking lots despite the fact that 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the travellers use walk, bicycle and pedal rickshaw as the mode of travel either for the whole trip or part of the trip for covering access of egress portion of the trip. As such, public transport and non-motorized transport modes become more relevant for bigger cities from sustainable development point of view. Both of them ensure social equity, are environment friendly and also raise urban productivity. Whereas mass public transport in the metropolitan cities is largely inadequate in supply and deficient in service quality, the facilities for pedestrians and other NMVs are non-existent or in extremely poor condition. Research efforts are required on following themes for improving traffic and transport scenario in metropolitan cities: • Equilibrium mode share for the optimum travel cost • Impact of improvement in pedestrian infrastructure on transit ridership • Integration of para-transit modes with mass (rapid I semi-rapid) transit systems: Methodology, Operational viability, Community acceptance ln impact on transit patronage • Transit and NMT prioritization along hierarchy of urban roads for the prevailing land use pattern • Transport terminal and transfer station for inter regional and metor-region movements: Location and Capacity analysis • Multimodal seamless travel : Operational Issues & Implementation Methodology • Innovative Investment Models for augmentation of transit and NMV infrastructure for long term sustainability • Developing guidelines for selection, planning and design of appropriate transit systems • Developing methodology and guidelines for transit route planning and scheduling • Establishing composite level of service thresholds for transit supply quality • Land-use planning strategies for Transit Oriented Development • Evaluation of impacts of transit oriented development on sustainable urban development. Urban traffic: Research challenges Unlike traffic in cities of developed nations, the traffic on Indian roads is characterized by mix of variety of motorized vehicles and non-motorized vehicles including pedestrian as well. Road system in most of the Indian cities have evolved following the development of residential, commercial, industrial and recreational land uses without any study and analysis of these land use changes on the vehicular as well as pedestrian traffic movements in the vicinity and on the transport network as a whole. Even though, the roads are built with varying widths of right of way, the functional specifications for such roads in hierarchal system in terms of access from neighbouring land use and mobility requirements are grossly overlooked. The traffic movement quality has worsened further due to phenomenal increase in personal vehicles like two wheelers and cars on one side and declining share of mass publi c transport system on the other. The existing guidelines/standards for traffic facility design are at least two decades old and are largely based on experience in homogenous lane based traffic in developed countries. There is need to overhaul the standards in view of the drastic changes in the vehicle technology, traffic volume and variety in fast expanding urban road network in recent past. Moreover, the sustainable transportation policy framework stipulates optimum utilization of resources for the effici ent movement of people ensuring social equity. So far, efforts to relieve 'congestion' have been quite local and cosmetic which lacks comprehensive long term approach to the urban traffic issues. It has mostly been limited to expansion of road widths and building up of grade separated intersections I interchanges without proper understanding of land use dynamics. In the process, most sustainable modes of walk and bicycles/pedal rickshaw shave been grossly ignored. In this context, it is extremely important to establish standards I guidelines for planning, design and operation of traffic facilities bases on the indigenous research efforts as outlines below: • Verification of suitability of passenger car as representative vehicle to express traffic flow • Developing dynamic vehicle equivalent factors for traffic characterization in terms of passenger car I two wheeler considering influence of road geometry, flow rate and composition 58