Patna, May 24: Sanjeev Sinha, a professor at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Patna, along with two other professors, will present a paper at the prestigious Ninth Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS) Conference, to be held from June 20 to 23 in Jeju, South Korea.

The paper is titled “Capacity analysis of four-lane urban roads with a view to motorcycle volumes”.

Sinha will present the paper along with Pichai Taneerananon, associate professor at Prince of Songkla University, Thailand, and professor Satish Chandra, an IIT-Roorkee professor.

Talking about the paper, Sinha said: “Studies have shown that techniques have limited application for heterogeneous traffic situation prevailing in the developing world. As motorcycles are found in large numbers on urban roads in developing countries, the present study tries to determine their effect on the capacity of four-lane urban roads.”

The three professors have carried out the study in Songkhla province of Thailand, where speed-volume relationship was used for capacity estimation.

The study states that the capacity of four-lane urban roads in Thailand increases with the increase in percentage of motorcycles in the traffic stream.

Though the estimate of capacity is very close to that recommended by the Indonesian highway capacity manual, it is different from the estimated values for similar traffic situations in India.

Sinha also said motorcycles/two-wheelers are found in large numbers on the roads of developing countries, including India. The plan for transport infrastructure shall take into account their presence in the traffic stream.

Sinha said: “The present work shall be very relevant or plan of transport infrastructure for Bihar in general and Patna in particular where motorcycles ply in large numbers on the roads. The transport plan of Patna should be done in such a way that special preference shall be given for introduction of safe, economical, efficient and comfortable public transportation either in the form of conventional bus service or in form of high-technology bus rapid transit (BRT)/mass rapid transit (MRT). The non-motorised traffic shall also be taken into consideration while proposing transportation plan for Patna.”

The NIT professor also said that in Patna, where large number of two-wheelers and non-motorised vehicles ply on roads, these studies can be very useful in keeping an account of the number of vehicles passing on the roads.

Sinha’s study on transportation is similar to that of IIT, Patna, professor Rajiv Mishra who has developed intelligent transport system (ITS), which is essentially the application of computer and communication technologies to transport infrastructure and vehicles in an effort to manage on-road vehicles, road traffic load and routes to improve safety and reduce transportation time and fuel consumption.