Critical Assessment of Road Capacities on Urban Roads - A Mumbai Case-study

Road capacity in general refers to the maximum traffic flow obtainable on a given roadway using all available lanes; usually expressed in vehicles per hour or vehicles per day. This depends upon several factors, mainly, traffic conditions, road geometry characteristics, environmental factors etc. The present study is a critical assessment of road capacities on major urban roads in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Field traffic surveys were carried out to capture the classified volume count for major arterial, sub-arterial and collector roads spread across Mumbai through manual as well as video graphic techniques. Based on the collected data, the existing traffic volume per lane was ascertained during peak morning and evening hours. This has been compared with the maximum Road capacity values specified as per IRC 106-1990 for urban roads to critically analyze the existing capacity potential of major roads in Mumbai. Based on our study, it was observed that volume per lane for several major roads in Mumbai are way beyond the capacity. However, interestingly, no major congestion issues were found in these roads notwithstanding the excessive volume.