Critical Traffic Points for Congestion Dependence on Travel Time Indices in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Critical traffic points for occurrence of traffic congestion in urban road networks depend on travel time-delay indices-based information. The rapid growth of population in urban areas jeopardizes the mobility with the consequences resulting into traffic congestion. Limited studies based on the critical phenomena associated with complex networks, which allow analytically prediction of critical traffic point occurrence of traffic congestion exist. The current work analyzes the same with an objective to elucidate various locations on pre-selected urban road networks to assess traffic flow variations resulting into either low or high vehicle movement. Travel time-delay data were collected using test moving cars. Results indicate that, the critical traffic points that have low travel- delay transition index below 0.70 signifying the jam and crowded traffic flow condition, while with higher values greater than 0.70 indicate free flow phenomena. On the other hand, high congestion index values indicate jam and crowded flow conditions whereas low index values below 0.5 signified free flow conditions. It is thus concluded that critical traffic points indicated to experience jam and crowded traffic flow condition need detailed study on relieving the situations. Major aim is mitigating the propagations of traffic congestion at the respective locations.