A Traffic Management Scheme to ease Vehicle & Pedestrian Movements in the Kottawa Town

Abstract

Among the suburban towns in Sri Lanka Kottawa can be considered as one that regularly faces many traffic related problems. It is observed that most of those who enter the town, face problems daily. In the case of drivers, their time is often wasted due to traffic congestion and in the case of pedestrians their safety is at risk due to the absence of a good traffic management system. Kottawa experiences severe traffic congestion because many motorists and pedestrians fail to follow the prevalent rules and because there is no proper traffic management scheme. There are three junctions in the town. Most of the motorists have to travel at least through two of these junctions. Therefore it could be seen that a considerable amount of vehicles frequently travel across the three junctions during peak hours. Southern Expressway users too travel through the Kottawa town since Makumbura interchange is situated next to Kottawa. At present, it is seen that most motorists including those who use the Southern Expressway waste their time at the Kottawa town. Stage 1of the Outer Circular Highway is now in operation and the other two stages will also be commissioned soon. Since they too will be starting from the Makumbura interchange, traffic in the town will increase further. At the time of this study in early 2014, there were many illegal constructions and there were street vendors conducting their daily businesses by the roadsides. These activities have reduced the capacity of the surrounding road network. The situation at Kottawa is further worsened due to roadside parking, the large numbers of pedestrian crossings provided in the Colombo-Awissawella (A4) Road and the existence of two unplanned bus parking locations at both sides of the A4 Road. In order to find solutions to these problems, the capacities of the roads were evaluated by compiling data related to vehicular flow, pedestrian movements and other supportive information of that area as at present and for the year 2034 (i.e. 20 years from now). From the data analysis, suitable solutions to improve the pedestrian and vehicle movements and vehicle parking facilities in the Kottawa town along with measures to improve safety are provided. Finally a suitable layout plan was introduced for the study area.