Development of Traffic Congestion Model to Evaluate the Level of Congestion and its Associative Cost for an Urban Arterial Road: a Case Study

This paper consists of a study conducted to quantify the traffic congestion problem. The quantification is made in terms of congestion cost and index. To study the effect of congestion, a road stretch of Thiruvananthapuram city in Kerala state was selected. A traffic congestion index was assessed based on travel time model. Congestion index helps to rank the road segments which will be useful for prioritizing the traffic management measures effectively. Another tool used for quantifying the congestion was the congestion cost. From the study, it was inferred that the congestion cost for the study stretch was about 0.03% of GSDP of Kerala and about 25% of the expenditure allocated for the road transport sector during the Kerala state Budget 2020–21. The economic analysis of traffic delay cost will inform the policymakers in monetary terms the actual impact of the traffic congestion and delays that the society bears and helps to allocate the resources efficiently. © 2021, The Institution of Engineers (India).