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Transportation system management for Madurai city using GIS
4.4. Diversion of Traffic
Madurai LPA is divided in to two parts viz Madurai North and South by river Vaigai. There are a number of bridges and causeways constructed across the river to establish good connectivity. But the old Albert Victor Bridge (A.V.Bridge) and the newly constructed bridge over the old Kalpalam causeway play a major role in handling the traffic. The old Kalpalam causeway was closed after the construction of the new bridge and it is presently used as a parking place for the tempos and other goods vehicles. During the peak hours, the volume of traffic handled by both the bridges are exceeding the capacities. As a TSM measure, it is decided to divert some of the traffic movement through the old causeway. By considering the capacity of the causeway only cycles and two-wheelers are taken for the diversion. The traffic from North to South Madurai is assigned to the right link of the Kalpalam; similarly, the traffic from the South to North Madurai is assigned to left link. 4.5. Parking Management Parking management was selected as the next measure. As far as Madurai CBD is concerned it is not an easy measure to ban parking, as it will lead to major local problems. So parking may be permitted if the V/C ratios of the links are less then 0.8. It is specified as the design capacity for urban roads as per IRC: 106-1990. Recommendations are made for restricting parking only when the links are identified as highly congested. After the application of parking management, the LOS improved rapidly. Analysis shows that reduction in parking width will reduce the traffic congestion. The effect on V/C ratio for the important roads due to this measure is presented in Table 2.
4.6. Effect of New Links To control future traffic problems inside the Madurai LPA, the Corporation of Madurai had decided to construct three ring roads in and around Madurai, namely outer, intermediate and inner ring roads. The outer ring road running through the outer edge of the LPA is under construction and is expected to be finished by the year 2003. The intermediate and inner ring roads planned to be constructed inside the LPA are yet to commence. So only the effect of outer ring road is taken for the study. It is connecting six major arterial roads running out from Madurai. The diversion of traffic during the peak hour in different years from these roads is predicted from the overall diversion given per day in CTTS report (CTTS Report, 1997) with the assumption of 12 percent peak hour flow. New traffic volume on each link is the difference between the projected traffic and the diverted traffic. Two wheelers are not considered for the diversion of traffic during peak hours. Due to this measure, the V/C ratio on NH-7 (Thirunelveli Road) is greater than one. This is due to heavy truck movement and higher population density along this road. 4.7. Overall Improvement The effect on V/C ratio and LOS for the entire city road network due to application of each TSM measures is studied using the avenue program. Suitable coding is written in the avenue to take care of entire road network. Overall V/C ratio of the CBD road network is calculated using the formula: 
The effect on overall V/C ratio for the entire city road network due to One-way streets, Parking Management System and Diversion of Traffic is presented in Table 3. Analysis shows that the overall V/C ratio is less than 0.81 for the present condition. But for the year 2007 the overall V/C ratio is greater than 1.15. Hence the long-term TSM measures such as widening of roads and construction new roads may be implemented to reduce the congestion in the future.
The overall improvement made in the LOS after the applications of all the measures is studied, by giving weightage to the length of the links. The LOS offered on each link before and after the application of TSM measures are represented in the form of colour-coded maps. These colour coded maps help the planner in choosing the roads has to be considered for the upgradation in the present and for the future traffic conditions. The effect on LOS for the year 2002 before and after application of all TSM measures is shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. 5. Conclusions Various feasible TSM measures are applied for the improvement of each link to facilitate efficient traffic movement. TSM studies for the Madurai Local Planning Area are effectively carried out using Arc/VIEW. The overall improvement of the network is studied after the application of various TSM measures. The following are the major conclusions:
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