A study on pedestrian safety, vehicular fuel consumption, and emissions using GIS and PTV VISSIM software

Due to rapid urbanization and industrialization, people from rural areas prefer to migrate to urban areas in search of employment and a better life. As a result, the cities’ population has seen an enormous rise in the past few decades. With the increase in population comes the increase in the need for providing better transportation facilities. The transportation sector has seen tremendous growth in recent years, but problems still need to be addressed for better commutes for traffic and pedestrians along the roads. Traffic management plays a huge role in regulating, controlling, and guiding traffic at junctions, parking areas, etc. It also concentrates on improving traffic facilities in developed and developing cities. In countries like India, where there is a quick increase in the population and whose citizens are known to not adhere to the traffic rules, traffic problems need to be solved quickly to avoid traffic congestion and accidents. The non-reliability of public transport led to an increase in private vehicles on Indian roads, which has led to the rise in fuel consumption and pollution in the cities. The harmful effects of vehicular exhaust on human health and the environment are numerous. For the present study, a 25-km stretch from NAD to Marikavalasa in Visakhapatnam, India, has been chosen and analyzed accidents along the route and found that the number of accidents at crosswalks with less stopping sight distance (SSD) is more than that of the casualties at locations where the SSD is as per code. A cycle time other than the real-time cycle time at four signalized intersections is proposed, which decreased fuel consumption by 41%. The number of pollutants released into the atmosphere was calculated using VISSIM software and found to be less using the proposed cycle time compared to the existing cycle time.