Investigation on the impacts of bajaj driving behaviors on traffic flow and safety (case study of bishoftu city, Ethiopia)

Abstract

Transportation engineering aims at creating the best route between two locations within three considerations: safety, time, and cost. Drivers’ behavior at roads is one of the main concerns for any traffic engineer for its effect on safety. To a large extent, the safe operation of any system requiring direct human control depends on the level of behavior that the human controller provides. The main objective of this topic is to Investigation on the impacts of Bajaj driving behavior on traffic flow and safety. The study area is located in Bishoftu city. The city covers 182.78km2 (18278 ha) with the total population of 201408. Data were collected from survey questionnaire, where the number distributed questionnaire was 600. The number of returned from respondent was 552, 460 (83.7%) males and 92 (16.7%) females. The participants’ (drivers) real application for these behaviors, 145(78.4%) of the participant said that (rarely-Often) they drive speedy while they are angry, 20-50% of them said that they lose their temper during speedy driving. More of traffic accidents can happen at other section of the road. So LOS have not much effect on traffic accident, and the area with more accident have less traffic volume, when it compared with driving behavior effect. It show that generally of road accident and bad traffic flow is caused by human factors which refer to the behavior of driving. Bajaj vehicle factor has the highest percentages for the cause of road traffic accident. It was found that the highest driving impacts are, aggressive driving, drive out of lane, inattention, and speeding, distracted driving, angry driving and wrong turning and lane changing are identified. The main causes of bad driving habits related to Bajaj drivers are, experience of the drivers, age of driver (younger drivers),low quality of license giver agencies, road types (common road) with other vehicles. And the main causes of traffic accidents, that are related to Bajaj driver driving behavior are, close following and tailgating, lane violations and zigzag driving or passing, being unfocused and distraction. Finally it recommended that, Increase enforcement, Education and awareness for drivers and pedestrians, separate the common roads of Bajaj and other vehicles, to force drivers who repeat traffic violations to suspend their driving license and to attend training courses concerning traffic laws and regulations, to encourage drivers to drive defensively and to obey traffic rules and regulations in all circumstances.