SPATIO-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC FLOW ON SARGODHA-JHANG ROAD (PUNJAB) PAKISTAN

Abstract

Traffic flow in Pakistan has become more complex in recent years due to rapid population growth and rapidly generating economic activities. The main objective of this research was to explore the various factors and attributes related to road network configuration contributing to an irregular traffic flow and congestion at second class inter-district national highway section Sargodha-Jhang road, Punjab, Pakistan. It is a national highway road section in central Punjab extending 124 km. Primary data related to traffic flow and volume was collected manually in mode of time and space while secondary data about annual volume of traffic (3 years) gathered from Punjab highway department, southern Zone Lahore. Global positioning system (GPS) is used to mark the different locations of collecting samples with latitude, longitude and elevation. The analysis is performed in MS Excel by applying descriptive statistics and analytical tendencies and results are geographically presented by various graphs and maps prepared by using ArcGIS 10.5 software. Traffic flow was analyzed on hourly, weekly and yearly basis by comparing spatial and temporal average and variance. Results determined the hourly fluctuations as peak from 8:00AM – 9:00AM (1,103 vehicles) and 2:00PM - 3:00PM (1,215 vehicles), medium from 11:00AM – 12:00AM (1,000 vehicles), and low hours from 5:00PM – 6:00PM (800 vehicles). Thursday and Saturday were the busiest days in a weekly flow of the traffic while the Friday was least busy day regarding the weekly flow of traffic. Likewise, the yearly results of traffic flow also shown slight increase in volume of traffic vehicles over the last three years. Lastly few suggestions were proposed to bring the regularity, road safety, less traffic jam and congestion and to avoid the traffic accidents in the study area.