Safety improvement at junctions

Abstract

Road traffic injuries are a critical public health problem in Sri Lanka. As social and financial costs of traffic injuries are colossal. There is an urgent need to inquire about the number of accidents. A significant number of these accidents are happening at junctions. This research has been focused on finding the cost effective method of reducing accidents at junctions. Within the Western province where the highest concentration of traffic was observed, a significant number of road accidents have been reported. For this research project ten junctions which includes four 4 legs junctions: Dehiwala, Yakkala, Talawatugoda, Golumadama, and six 3 legs junctions were selected within the six police divisions; Dehiwala, Moratuwa, Mt. Lavinia, Koswatta, Gampaha. By companng the nature of accidents - Rear-end, Head-on, Angle, Side-swipe, Pedestrian with the relevant contributory factors such as Traffic volume, Pedestrian volume, Parking volume and Geometry, five relationship have been derived. Problem identification and relevant solutions for these junctions are based on these relationships. It has been found that most of the problems are associated with the road geometry, unauthorized parking, road crossing pedestrian and poor visibility.