Traffic Characteristics in Hilly Tract Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Chittagong hill tracts are the only hilly region of Bangladesh, which is located in the southern part of the country. The hilly tract area covers 10 per cent of Bangladesh’s land area. The papers explore the traffic characteristics and identify the Level of Service in hilly tract region of Bangladesh. The traffic data were collected in weekday and weekend from 7am to 7pm. Volume capacity ratio method was used to determine the Level of Service (LOS). Extensive data analysis show that traffic in hilly area is heterogeneous and non-lane based. This heterogeneous traffic is facilitated by Passenger car unit (PCU). Then this PCU value was used to calculate LOS. Auto-rickshaw (42%) is the most influencing vehicle, while CNG and microbus contain 13% and 11% of total traffic respectively. Truck and NMV are less dominating traffic because of undular road conditions. Morning peak flow occurred at 9am-10am, afternoon peak has been observed at 2pm-3pm and evening peak has been observed at 4pm-5pm. Results indicating that in level of service is highest in New Marine Drive and Old Marine Drive road but in Teknaf-Cox’s Bazar road LOS is medium level. Evaluating existing conditions of all roads it can be recommended that effective traffic signal, traffic rules and regulation for vehicles and pedestrians should be applied, also carriageway width should be increased. However, this study result will help city planner and traffic engineers to produce effective rules and regulation for hilly tract region.