Urban Traffic Congestion in India: A Critical Review

Abstract

Road transportation is most widely used transportation system as it is a first step which promotes development and improves the economy, the city/state/country. The negative impacts associated with road transportation system are parking, congestion, and accidents out of this; congestion is the most negative aspect. Traffic congestion means the accumulation of vehicles in particular stretch of road network with low traffic speed and flow. Traffic congestion occurs due to increase in population along with rapid urbanization. A review study is conducted through literature survey of research journals, articles, reports, etc. which adopted measures to decongest the roads. This paper discusses about congestion, contributors to congestion, why mitigation is necessary, classification, impacts, evaluation methods/parameters, measures to control, and application of technologies in traffic management. The study concludes the application of least cost measure in controlling through adequate analysis of different measures by simulating the conditions for data collected by using software like VISSIM, CORSIM, SUMO, etc. the least cost measure for decongestion are enforcement and channelization as it does not require massive infrastructure development to control the traffic till certain level of traffic.