BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, DHAKA -1000

OFFICE OF THE MEMBER SECRETARY OF THE COMMITTEE FOR ADVANCED

STUDIES AND RESEARCH, BUET, DHAKA

Application for the approval of M.Sc. Engg. Thesis Proposal

Date: 22 April, 2015
1. Name of the student
:
M. M. A. Kader Chowdhury.
Status
:
Full Time
Roll no.
:
0412042442F
Session
:
April, 2012.
2. Present Address

3. Name of the Department :

Programme
:
4. Name of the Supervisor

Green Dale, Flat- A3, 3rd Floor,

Road-10, House-13,
Section 6, Block- C,
Mirpur,
Dhaka-1216
Civil Engineering
M. Sc. Engg. (Transportation)

Dr. Md. Shamsul Hoque

Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
BUET, Dhaka-1000
5. Date of First Enrolment into M. Sc. Program: April, 2012
6. Tentative Title:
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ROAD INTERSECTIONS OF DHAKA
METROPOLITON CITY
7. Background and Present State of the Problem:
The system of interconnected roads, designed for the accommodation of vehicles and pedestrians,
is called Road Network. in a Road Network, there are two vital elements: Link and Node. Node
is also named as intersection and Link is the connecting element between the two intersections.
in a Road Traffic system, intersection is a place where two or more roads meet together.
Intersections are one of the important bottlenecks, which interrupt the smooth flow of traffic and
there by cause delay. This is the vital area of road network, though this is a very small area within
the road network, but this is a very important one. For avoiding the unnecessary delay or to get an
efficient traffic flow movement, these intersections need to be planned and designed properly and
carefully. Along with the appropriate road network and geometry, the necessary the necessary
traffic control device also needs to be applied wisely. Overall, we have to keep eyes on the
performance of intersection for getting an efficient road network.
In the developed countries like USA, UK, Australia, to obtain orderly movement of vehicles
through intersections they have strict traffic control rules, regulation and well established

planning, designing methodology for geometric design of road intersection and as well as standard
guidelines for the application for geometric design of road intersection and as well as standard
guidelines for the application of traffic control devices. Because of these practice, clear pattern in
queue formation and discharging can be seen from road junctions of these countries. Day by day,
they have been adopting least traffic engineering tools to provide better performance of the
intersection, which is the vital part of road network.
The Road Traffic system in Bangladesh is going through the worst phase since its formation. all
major signalized intersections within the urban areas have got severe traffic congestion which
produce long delay and insurmountable sufferings of the road users in Dhaka City. This is
happening mainly because of inappropriate / ill planning road network, faulty layout configuration
of the intersections, in appropriate synchronization of traffic signal, arbitrary setting of signal time
& phasing, poor enforcement in signal control and many other factors. However, from the fields
observation it has been identified that most of the total problems which cause traffic congestion is
the intersections.
Field observation revealed the faulty geometric condition of the intersections; illegal
encroachment and random pedestrian crossing are responsible for junction delay. Moreover,
improper turning radius, absence of medians and signs and faulty operation of police, absence of
following the lane system, etc. are some factors which are causing delay, making intersection
inoperative, degrading the overall performance of intersection.
As such, to augment overall capacity of road network, it is necessary to improve the performance
of intersection. This study attempts to investigate the selected intersections of Dhaka city, times to
evaluate them and compares them with the ideal condition and ranks them according to their
performance.

8. Objectives and possible outcomes:

The study is aimed at performance evaluation of selected road intersections of Dhaka
Metropolitan City. It will help the City Authority and Government to evaluate the present
condition of Dhaka Metropolitan City road network, also help them to find out the appropriate
solution of the present ill operated condition and give a conceptual idea of economic loss due to
present operation of intersections. Moreover, it will help to find out the probable ranking system
of road intersection inside Dhaka Metropolitan City. The main objective s of this study is:
a) To acquire geometric and operating conditions of selected junctions.
b) To determine existing vehicular, pedestrian traffic flow, amount of side friction, condition
of traffic control devices including signal timing, phasing and mode of operation.
c) To determine intersection level of service (LOS) by assessing v /c ratio, queue length,
delay and road occupancy.
d) To evaluate performance of the junctions based on LOS ranking and accident record.
e) To recommend junction performance improvement measures.

9. Outline of Proposed Methodology:

For finding out the intersections performance in a busy city like Dhaka, it will be better to follow some
criteria, such as:
a)

Traffic point of view.

b) Level of Service (LOS) point of view.

c)

Accident point of view.

Brief description of these points are described below

In a road network, vehicle is a very important element. We cannot avoid its contribution in road
network. For evaluating the road intersection of Dhaka Metropolitan City, at first it is important to find
the hourly volume of traffic in these intersections. From this vehicle count survey, it would be easy to
find out directional distribution (%DD) of vehicle, vehicle classification, trend of traffic flow in these
intersections. Then it can be compared with ideal value of road network. These results will help to rank
these intersections of Dhaka city with respect to traffic volume.
Generally, Level of Service (LOS) is a qualitative measure used to relate the quality of traffic service.
LOS is used to analyze road network with respect of queue length, delay, signal phasing and timing,
etc. In this research, the intersection of Dhaka Metropolitan City Area can be evaluated on the basis of
Level of Service (LOS). So, signal timing and its phasing related to road network can be assessed in
this research; pedestrian interference on traffic flow can be identified, overall, the delay of vehicle in
the intersection can be measured. It will help the researcher to find out the Level of Service (LOS) of
the intersection. It will give a chance for the comparison with the modern city road network.
Truly, the majority of road crashes or accidents are caused by human error. Research has shown that
driver accounts for over 80% of all fatal and injury crashes on road network. In this research, inside the
Dhaka Metropolitan City area, accident data can be found from secondary sources, such as: ARI
(Accident Research Institute, Police Headquarter, etc.). This accident data will help researcher to rank
these intersections of Dhaka city.
In this way, the researcher may able to find out the performance of road intersection of Dhaka
Metropolitan City.

10. References:
1. National Association of Australian State Road Authorities [1976], Guide to Traffic
Engineering Practice, Sydney, Australia.
2. Road Research Laboratory [1965], Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
on Road Traffic. HMSO, London, U.K.

3. Highway Research Board [1994], Highway Capacity Manual, HRB, Special Report
No. 209, USA.
4. Institute of Traffic Engineers [1994], Transportation and Traffic Engineering
Handbook, Second Edition, Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey, USA.
5. Kadialy, L. R. [1983], Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning, Second
Edition, Khanna Publishers, Delhi, India.
6. Papacostas, C. S. & Prevedorous, P. D. [2001], Transportation Engineering &
Planning, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi,110
001,2006.
7. Khisty, C. Jotin & Kent Lall, B. [2003], Transportation Engineering An
Introduction, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi, 110
001, 2006.
8. Matson, M. Theodore, Smith, S. Wilbur & Hurd, W. Fredrick [1955], Traffic
Engineering, Mc Graw-Hill Book Company, New York, Toronto and London,1955.
9. Ogden, K. W. [1996], Safer Roads: Guide to Road Safety Engineering, Avebury
Technical, Brookfield, USA.