MEASURING THE LEVEL OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN ADDIS ABEBA CITY,

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.