EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF HEAVY VEHICLES ON TRAFFIC PARAMETERS BY USING HEAVY VEHICLE FACTOR

Safe, convenient and timely transportation of goods and passengers is necessary for development of nation. After independence road traffic is increased manifold in India. Modal share of freight transport is shifted from Railway to roadways in India. Road infrastructures continuously increased from past few decades but there is still need for new roads to be build and more than three forth of the roads having mixed traffic plying on it. The impact of freight vehicles on highway traffic is enormous as they are moving with slow speeds. Nature of traffic flow is dependent on various traffic parameters such as speed, density, volume and travel time etc. As per ideal situation these traffic parameters should remain intact, but it is greatly affected by presence of heavy vehicle in mixed traffic due to Svehicles plying on two lane roads. Heavy vehicles affect the traffic flow because of their length and size and acceleration/deceleration characteristics. This study is aimed to analyse the impact of heavy vehicles on traffic parameters.