Development of Empirical Equation to Estimate Corridor Speed of Vehicles in Metro Construction Work Zone

Construction of elevated metro line leads to a reduction in the average speed of vehicles due to congestions, diversions, and road incidents. This reduction in speed depends on recurring (e.g., congestion in rush hours) and non-recurring (e.g., road accidents) delay factors. Non-recurring factors involve incidents such as accidental bus stops, pedestrian crossings, or clearing debris from road, etc., some of which may occur at very short notice. This research paper presents a case study of Pune Metro Rail Construction (Corridor II) in India for developing an empirical equation to estimate corridor speed of vehicles in metro construction work zone. Observations were recorded in spatial and temporal zones using floating car method through video recordings and traffic count using manual method. Based on the traffic behavior pattern, five non-recurring delay factors (NRDFs) were defined, namely vehicles in lateral entry, slow moving vehicles, vehicles in the wrong direction, on-street parked vehicles, pedestrian interference and their correlation with speed of vehicles was tested. It was concluded that these factors have a strong negative correlation with the speed of the test vehicle. To estimate corridor speed with given NRDFs, nonlinear equation was formulated using empirical evidence and validated using larger simulated data.