Existing Situation of on Street Parking and Impacts on Effective Carriageway Width and V/C Ratio: A Case Study of Rajshahi City Corporation Area

Abstract

Rajshahi is an important and divisional city of Bangladesh. Rajshahi city has well organized internal communication as well as connection to other parts of the country. But, the growth of slow moving vehicles such as easy bike and auto rickshaws in Rajshahi has created many problems. One of the worst issues is, being parked these vehicles at the major intersection points. It is becoming a crucial issue in managing the transportation system since it affects the overall accessibility of a city. On street parking is now creating severe transportation problems in major roads of Rajshahi city. Moreover, on street parking is one of the main reasons of road congestion in Rajshahi city. This paper aims to explicate the parking scenario of the major intersection of Rajshahi city of slow moving vehicle traffic through analyzing the parking location, modal share of parking and parking supply analysis such as accumulation rate, volume, load, duration, occupancy, turn over etc. Required data has been collected from four major intersections named as Talaimari, Laxmipur, Monichottor and Railgate in Rajshahi city corporation area from 8.30AM to 12.00AM by using parking space inventory method and parking usage survey by petrol. Traffic volume count survey is also conducted to know the effects on V/C ratio with and without parking. The study found that the Monichottor intersection has the worst condition, even the level of service of the road is fallen because of the illegal on street parking. It also provides the comparisons between designated parking bay and non-designated place of parking. This study can help to explore the possibilities of moderating the present parking problems of Rajshahi. As the traffic on the existing road system increases, congestion becomes serious problems. Thus there could be medium and long term solution measures.