Travel time estimation modelling under heterogeneous traffic: A case study of urban traffic corridor in Surat, India

Achievement of fast and reliable travel time on urban road network is one of the major objectives for a transport planner against the enormous growth in vehicle population and urban traffic in most of the metropolitan cities in India. Urban arterials or main city corridors are subjected to heavy traffic flow resulting in degradation of traffic quality in terms of vehicular delays and increase in travel time. Since the Indian roadway traffic is characterized by heterogeneity with dominance of 2Ws (Two wheelers) and 3Ws (Auto rickshaw), travel times are varying significantly. With this in background, the present paper focuses on identification of travel time attributes such as heterogeneous traffic, road side friction and corridor intersections for recurrent traffic condition and to develop an appropriate Corridor Travel Time Estimation Model using Multi-Linear Regression (MLR) approach. The model is further subjected to sensitivity analysis with reference to identified attributes to realize the impact of the identified attributes on travel time so as to suggest certain measures for improvement.