Abstract:
n this modern world Transport is the engine of social and economic activities of the cities.
The cities economic and social activities are affected by traffic congestion. Traffic congestion
is the ever growing challenges of the all major cities in developed and developing countries
and it is directly and indirectly affects the cities and countries�۪ economic growth. Due to the
traffic congestion the commuters travel time and travel costs are increasing, delay from
school and major business meetings and lose working hour. Measuring the level of traffic
congestion is the basic step to understand the level of traffic congestion and to provide the
suitable mitigation methods. From the recent years Addis Ababa is facing traffic congestion
at the major intersections and different routes. The general objective of this research is
measuring the existing level of traffic congestion for the selected intersections of Addis
Ababa. In this study, measuring the level of traffic congestion was measuring based on the
travel time approach. Travel time, traffic volume, and travel speed data were collected at
three segments, two mid blocks and two intersections. Accordingly, the travel rate, the delay
rate, total travel delay (veh.-min), were calculated. Based on the result of the total segment
delay of the selected three segment�۪s total veh-min delay was about 12,708 veh- min (212
veh-hr or 27 veh-day). Only at these segments 19,495 min per year or 324.9 hr per year are
will be lost due to the traffic congestion. High volume of vehicle, high number of pedestrians
and inadequate walkways, bus and taxi stop points, on street parking, poor mass transport,
poor traffic management system and driver bad behavior are counted as the major causes of
traffic congestion at this intersections. Launching traffic congestion charge at this selected
area and highly congested roads of Addis Ababa are play a positive role to reduces the level
of traffic congestion and minimize the unnecessary commuter�۪s trip demands.
