Identification of local attraction points of the traffic flow and methods of increasing the throughput capacity of Lokomotiv street in Tashkent

Abstrak

The article examines the formation of the traffic flow, the traffic volume and the throughput capacity of Lokomotiv street in Tashkent. A comprehensive analysis is presented of the main factors contributing to congestion, including the railway crossing, the T-shaped intersection, the technical condition of the pavement, the public transport stop and the irregular stopping and parking of vehicles. On the basis of field observations the hourly traffic volume and the composition of the traffic flow were determined. The design throughput capacity of the street was found to be 4840 veh/h, while the mean traffic volume calculated from the observations amounts to 1059.75 veh/h, which corresponds to a load factor of 0.219. The results show that, despite the sufficient overall capacity of the street, the breaking of the continuity of the traffic flow at individual local sections is one of the principal causes of congestion. The part of Lokomotiv street crossing the railway, where the number of traffic lanes is reduced from two to one, was identified as a local attraction point, i.e. a bottleneck. Taking into account the closure of the barriers for 10–15 min in every hour, the capacity of this cross-section is only 908–1008 veh/h and the degree of loading there reaches 0.58–0.64; during one closure period the queue reaches 680–1015 m, which is 1.9–2.9 times the length of the section under study, and takes 9–14 min to dissipate. In order to eliminate the problem, proposals were developed for carrying the street under the railway in a tunnel, ensuring the continuity of the traffic lanes, introducing adaptive signal control, optimising the location of the public transport stop, restricting irregular parking and applying intelligent transport systems.