Traffic Management Analysis Around GHQ Rawalpind

Abstract

Pakistan at national level is facing the problem of traffic growth of 54% (Traffic studies,2009) as compared to neighboring countries like India which have growth of 23%. Pakistan is seventh biggest population of the world .The growing population demand of new roads and traffic structures .As, our construction of new structures doesn’t meet the demand therefore, traffic problems came into existence. Rawalpindi is the fourth largest city in Pakistan. In Rawalpindi, the road network represents a spider-net structure. Around 3500 new vehicles are registered in the city of Rawalpindi every month (Traffic growth projection, 2010). Both the road structure and the general traffic environment are not of the required standard and congestion is common and increasing. Traffic congestion at any place causes great inconvenience to users and also involves considerable amount of user costs, such as travel time, additional wear and tear of vehicles, additional fuel consumption, psychological effect, safety hazards,etc. With this reference, traffic management has become an area of great concern to researchers and transportation managers and agencies all over the world. Pakistan like most other developing countries is facing the problems of rapid traffic growth. Recent years have seen a mammoth increase in traffic volumes in Pakistan. Rawalpindi is unlike a typical cantt/garrison, it encompasses both civilian and military population (especially high ranked army personals) and various military and civil installations, offices, business centers and schools etc. These factors results in heavy volume of traffic around GHQ area, which lead to congestion at intersections and roads around it, especially during the peak hours. This, in turn, creates a security issue in the prevailing environments of Pakistan in addition to the adverse effects of traffic congestion. Due to the security concerns many routes around GHQ have been restricted for the movement of civilian traffic which also lead to congestion at other routes around GHQ. Many intersections around GHQ are recently renovated and extended Convoy Route and other locations around GHQ are un-signalized, therefore traffic management remains a serious issue at these intersections. Moreover, GHQ is also located adjacent to the Mall/GT Road. Because of this prime location it carries a major proportion of the city traffic. Lack of appropriate traffic management in the form of un-optimized traffic signals and number of un-signalized intersections