‘th Intemational Conference on Engineering Research, Innovation and Education January 12-14, 2023, Sylhet, Bangladesh, PAPER ID: 293 Investigation of Width and Capacity Loss at Five Major Roads in Dhaka City Nusrat Jahan Ekra", Prof. Md. Abul Kalam Azad? and Dr. Md. Jahir Bin Alam? "Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, European University of Bangladesh(EUB) *Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, European University of Bangladesh(EUB) *professor, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, SUST Email: nj.ekra@gmail,com azadS8@eub.edu.bd jahiralam@yahoo.com Corresponding author [Nusrat Jahan Ekra] Abstract: A solid transportation infrastructure is erucial for a country’s rapid economic and industrial progress. This may mark the beginning of modern roadways, which can be wide and free of side friction, Reduction of roadway width due to side friction is a major problem for the public transport system. © Width loss; The specific objective of the study is to identify the key factors which contribute to the reduction of roadway width by measuring the total width and capacity loss. Regarding this purpose, five major roads of Dhaka city has been © Bus parking; investigated i.e. Mirpur-1 to Technical, Rampura Bridge to Malibagh, New Market to Dhaka City Collage, Rampura Bridge to Merul Badda and Gabtoli to Technical. From the observation it has been found that the main causes of road width reduction are parking, construction materials, waste and dustbin, police Box, street hawkers. Depending on some parameters such as obstruction length and width, the percentage of width and capacity loss has been determined, Among different causes most of the road width loss for a value of 31.25% occurs due to bus parking and road side street hawkers. On. the other hand, Rickshaws and CNG cause the least amount of road width loss. From the comparison among different roads, maximum capacity loss of 3.95% is obtained from gabiol to technical whereas minimum capacity loss of 0.57% is observed from rampura bridge to malibagh. Overal, the study has shown some potential findings regarding road capacity conditions of major ‘commercial areas to formulate some initiatives for further improvements. Keywords: © Side friction; ‘© Capacity loss; © Street hawkers; 1, Introduction Dhaka is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is the hub of the nation’s industrial, commercial, cultural, educational and political activities. Typical urban transportation facilities in Dhaka city include railways, waterways, airways and roads. Logically, the majority of planning, and research efforts have concentrated on the road system(Islam et al., 2018). In Dhaka City one of the major problems in Transportation System is the loss of capacity of roads which is caused due to a set of reasons. Due to various factors the roads within this capacity is a key contributor of traffic congestion. As this is known that traffic congestion in Dhaka City is one of the most important factors behind major economic and environmental loss. The experts have found that High-amount vehicles and lack of streets are the major causes for this capacity loss(Menendez, 2013). According to a survey conducted in Dhaka, the key factors responsible for road capacity reduction are on-street parking, on-street shops and markets, on/off-street, Page | S88construction, roadside dustbins, poor road maintenance, water logging, and so on (Mahmud et al, 2008). Therefore, the objective of this study is to find out the width and capacity loss along five major roads in Dhaka City. Thus, the appropriate policy can be undertaken for improving the current deteriorating situation based on usable capacity for the commercial areas, 2. Methodology 2.1 Study Area This selection has been deemed important because the results based on them can be expected to represent the whole commercial areas of Dhaka city (Islam et al., 2019). Based on these, the following roads have been selected: Mirpur-1 to Technical, Rampura Bridge to Malibagh, New Market to Dhaka City Collage, Rampura Bridge to Merul Badda and Gabtoli to Technical. 2.2 Materials and Methods After classifying the types of obstruction the calculation of percentage Reduction of Road width has been calculated using various factors. To do so, a set of data have been collected from different locations. The method used for calculation is dependent on following parameters i.e. Width of Road and Width of Obstruction. Regarding obstruction at the selected route, a roadway length of 1km has been preferred for simplicity. Data has been collected mainly at peak hour to find out all the contributory side frictions on the road. For primary data collection, observations and survey have been carried out in two shifts ic. morning and afternoon at Thursday. 3. Calculation As a part of the calculation, different side frictions have been categorized. Based on effective roadway width and length, percentage loss has been calculated using the following formula (Chandra & Kumar, 2003)- % Reduction of Road Width = With of Obstruction OD y¢ 199 w Width of Rowd FO = Length of obstruction Reduction (%). % Capacity Loss =n A @ Usable Capacity (9%) = 100 — Capacity Loss (3) 4. Result and Discussions General findings of this study such as side friction factors and their contribution at effective roadway width reduction as well as roadway capacity reduction have been demonstrated. Parking, on the road, waste disposal and road side hawkers have been mostly observed among different types of obstruction, ‘The percentage of width and capacity loss has been depicted through bar chart for the selected ‘major city roads. The analysis has been carried out to identify the major issue which interrupts the free flow of traffic in the commercial hub of Dhaka city. Page | 589Width Loss (%) Capacity Loss (%) 31.25 Ba 15.63 10.42 781 833 781 Percentage (%) Ba Bus Rickshaw Van Road side Wastage NG Obstructions Hawkers Figure 1, Percentages of width and capacity loss at Mirpur-1 to Technical Width Loss (%) _ Capacity Loss (%) Percentage (%) Bus Rickshaw Van == Roadside © Wastage = CNG Hawkers Obstructions Figure 2, Percentages of width and capacity loss at Rampura Bridge to Malibagh Width Loss (%) Capacity Loss (%) vias 781 8.33 10.42 rae) 8.33 we mo GE ge Bs ges Ricsy Von Reade Car ck NG Hoon Obstructions Figure 3, Percentages of width and capacity loss at New Market to Dhaka City College Observing the figures of width and capacity loss, the maximum width loss occurs for street hawkers at almost all the locations. This type of commercial activities along the carriageway also blocks the footpath to be used by pedestrians. Secondly, on-street parking is responsible to the responsible reduction of roadway capacity. Bus parking occupies the maximum road width out of Page | 590all the vehicles providing the highest value of 31.25%. Regarding this reason, Rampura Bridge- Merul Badda is the critical zone to be considered. 1m Width Loss (%) Capacity Loss (%) 35/3125 31.25 $30 Sos $20 gis 210 Bos so Bus Rickshaw Van Roadside Car. «= CNG_~—~Pubilie Hawkers Meeting Obstructions Figure 4, Percentages of width and eapacity loss at Rampura Bridge to Merul Badda Width Loss (98) _m Capacity Loss (%) 31.25 $20 5.65 3 B i 10.42 11.46 510 7st 833 781 Bus Rickshaw Van Roadside Car Truck CNG Hawkers Obstructions Figure 5, Percentages of width and capacity loss at Gabtoli to Technical capacity Loss H Usable Capacity Technicalto —Technicalto —Technicalto—-Mirpur-Ito—Gabtoli to Mirpur-1 Shyamoli Gabioli Mirpur-10 Figure 6, Compa yn among road capacity loss Page | 591From figure 6, it can be decided that the maximum capacity loss has been found at Gabtoli- Technical representing a value of 3.95%. Due to the existence of bus stand, parking has become a common insight of this area. Also fruit sellers and other vendors have been observed with their stalls along the main road. On the other hand, Rampura Bridge to Merul Badda has been considered as the efficient road providing a minimum capacity loss of about 0.57%, 5. Conclusion Traffic is a frequent phenomenon in Dhaka city. The capacity loss due to countless factors is a dynamic player of traffic congestion and other transportation problems. Among different types of side frictions parking, stalls on the road, scraps of stall, electric pole, waste and dustbin, police barricades, roadside activities and increasing footpath width are analyzed in the context of effective roadway width loss. Maximum capacity loss has been found at Gabtoli to Technical Roads showing a value of approximately 4%. Conversely, Minimum capacity loss has been obtained at Rampura Bridge to Malibagh. Maximum width loss occurs for Bus and Road Side Hawkers which is about 31.25%, Based on these observations, some strategies can be implemented, such as the execution of traffic rules, proper waste management, the restriction of illegal parking, the prohibition of street hawkers, and so on. This simplified method can be adopted for evaluating the capacity condition in further studies if the existing reasons are improved or not, Future investigation can be conducted to analyze the effect of capacity loss on the other roads around the city. Acknowledgment ‘The authors acknowledge the students of the Department of Civil Engineering at European University of Bangladesh for their assistance to conduct the field survey as a part of thesis work. References Chandra, S., Kumar, U., Effect of lane width on capacity under mixed traffic conditions in India, Journal of Transportation Engineering, 2003, 129(2), 155-160. Islam, M. M., Al Razib, M.S., Hasan, M. M. et al., Cause of reduction of effective roadway width, due to side friction in Dhaka City, American Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering. 2018, 3(1), 6-17. Islam, M. M., Islam, M. S., Rahman, F. I., A Brief Study on Capacity Loss at Major Rajshahi City Roads, Bangladesh, Proceedings of International Conference on Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering. 2019, 1-6. Mahmud, S., Haque, M. S., Bashir, G. M. M., Deficiencies of existing mass transit system in Metropolitan Dhaka and improvement options, Codatu XII, Vietnam. 2008. Menendez, M., On-street parking near intersections: Effects on traffic, Proceedings of the 13 th Swiss Transport Research Conference (STRC), Ascona. 2013 Page | 592