Impacts of Pavement Surface Condition and Geometric Characteristics on Traffic performance at Mid-Block Road segments (In the case of Addis Ababa City)
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Date
2023-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study focuses on investigating the influence of pavement condition and geometric
characteristics on traffic performance in different segments of Addis Ababa city. The research
was conducted on five collectors and one sub-arterial urban street, specifically examining
pavement distress, lane width, lane number, walkway width, road gradient, traffic volume and
travel speed. The statistical analysis revealed that certain geometric factors, such as lane
number and width, remained consistent across the segments and did not significantly affect
travel speed. However, walkway width and road gradient exhibited notable variations in
different sections. Further analysis indicated that walkway width had a weak correlation with
travel speed, as indicated by a p-value exceeding 0.05. Consequently, walkway width was
excluded from the multiple regression model, suggesting that it does not have a significant
impact on travel speed between Coca-Cola-Mesalemia and Tikelhaimanot to Mexico Square.
In this study, the impact of various factors on travel speed in different sections of Addis Ababa
city was examined. Variables such as traffic flow, road grade and pavement condition were
found to significantly influence travel speed, as indicated by their p-values being less than
0.05. To compare travel speed between distressed and non-distressed sections, travel speed
was conducted during off-peak hours, keeping other factors constant (driver behaviour and
environmental factors). The results showed a significant reduction in average speed in the
distressed sections compared to the non-distressed sections, with reductions ranging from
53.42% to 68.85%. The study suggests that, in addition to rehabilitation, implementing
periodic maintenance and ensuring proper geometric design can greatly improve traffic
performance in these road segments and the economic analysis shows that distress rating
between failed to very poor has more expense than of a distress rating poor to Good.
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Keywords
Pavement condition, Traffic performance and Geometric characteristic