TRF - 2019

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/17956

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item: Conference-Abstract
Development of general transit feed specification data for Sri Lanka
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Fernando, PDL; Mendis, BHA; Damsara, KDP; Kumarage, SP; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) refers to a common format that is used to represent transit data such as schedules and related geographical data (i.e. transit routes, stops). Provision of a specification for presenting transit data has expanded its applicability ranging from trip planning applications to operation analysis and research. At present transit data in Sri Lanka can be publicly accessed through each agency’s website or through applications developed based on these data. The interconnectivity of transit data of different transit agencies is absent at present and the development of GTFS data will address the issue. A GTFS feed generally contains agency, routes, trips, calendar, stops, stop times, shapes, frequencies and transfer files. The Paper addresses aspects considered for the development of frequencies, stop times and transfers files in Sri Lankan context. Frequencies can be represented in two ways based on the availability of a fixed schedule throughout the day by using the “exact_time” field. The paper highlights how the “exact_time” field was used for some bus routes of low frequencies. Development of stop times file is based on each transit mode’s timetable. But for buses, the data relating to stop time at each bus stop is not available. The paper highlights how these values were derived for Western Province Transport Authority (WPTA) buses and the National Transport Commission (NTC) buses based on average travel speed while maintaining priority for trips within the Western Province to WPTA buses. The transfer file enables transfers from buses to trains or vice versa. Due to the dispersed locations of railway stations and bus stops in some parts of the country and the number of data to be found being high an efficient way is suggested in the paper using the network analyst tool in ArcGIS software.
item: Conference-Abstract
Development of stop times file for general transit feed specification (GTFS) format in the context of Western Province bus transits
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Mendis, BHA; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
Public transport which is a vital aspect of transportation consists of a modal share 40.4% in Western Province of which 37.7% is of buses. However, regarding the convenience and ease of access to information, not so many measures are implemented in Sri Lanka. Recently in order to communicate better service information on public transportation to users, Google Transit service was enabled in Google Maps. To provide the information via Google Maps, Google accepts the data feed in the format of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) which is an international data format. Currently a static feed is provided which includes the components of schedule, fare and geographic transit information. The schedule component contains the file stop_times.txt which provide the schedule of a bus journey. For a certain bus journey, it gives the stops that the riders board and alight, arrival and departure time at each stop and the stop sequence of a certain journey. However, in Sri Lankan context, the transport agencies use the fare tables (figure 1) which depicts the stops that the bus makes and the fare at each stop and the bus frequency (figure 2) which gives the times that a bus of a certain route would leave the initiating bus station. In coding the arrival and departure times at each bus stop is required. However, in Sri Lanka no such time table exist for each and every bus stop. Therefore, an average speed was identified for each route and considering the distance travelled, arrival and departure times were recorded for each stop in a bus journey. In obtaining the average speeds, for the inter provincial buses, the average speed in the annual report of National Transport Commission was referred. In order to get the Western Province intra provincial bus average speeds the speed graphs of the CoMTrans Study were referred. An average speed for the whole day was taken approximately for all inter-Provincial buses. In practical scenario, inside Western Province most inter provincial buses do not allow the riders riding for a short distance to board the bus. Instead they are required to take the intra provincial bus. However, as the inter provincial buses travel faster than the intra provincial buses within the Western Province too, the google will indicate the inter provincial bus as the preferred best route. User is misguided. Another error identified in inter-provincial bus routes is, bus routes in the same corridor having different average speeds. For an example the two buses Colombo-Kandy and Colombo-Katugasthota travels in the same corridor. But the Colombo-Katugasthota bus route’s allocated average speed is higher than the Colombo-Kandy bus route’s average speed which are defined by NTC. Therefore, higher speeded bus route is given priority which is misleading. For above errors mitigation methods were carried out by adjusting the speed of bus routes depending on the practical scenarios, traffic conditions, Western Province boundaries and the impacts of expressway network. Also, a major drawback of coding exact times for bus routes is that is not representing situations where the buses being delayed or cancelled. Also the waiting time at each bus stop varies and cannot be reasonably included in the coding. In order to represent the most accurate service information, the real time data feed is required.
item: Conference-Abstract
The evaluation of factors influencing cycle trips in a heritage city. a case study on cycling tourist in Anuradhapura sacred city
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Wanniarachchi, SS; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
As the world endures an energy dilemma, most developing communities advance toward energy efficient modes and non-motorised transport modes such as walking, roller skate, skateboard and cycling. Cycling is an environmentally friendly mode that enables the commuter to experience the surroundings. Other than commuting, cycling-tourism is about a long to medium distance cycling trip for pleasure, experience, and liberty rather than exercise or sports. Being one of the major tourist attraction zones in Asian region, Sri Lanka experiences over two million tourists’ arrivals every year to visit South and East Coast, Ancient Cities, Hill Country and Northern Region. Anuradhapura is one of the well-known ancient cities with many historical monuments connected with roadway links. This study identifies the design and influencing factors of local and foreign tourists to encourage cycling within the Anuradhapura ancient sacred city rather than using 3-wheeler taxi or other motorised travel methods. As phase 1 of the research, an initial survey was carried out inside the Anuradhapura sacred city with a sample of twenty-one respondents out of the target population of local and foreign tourists. Data has collected through a questionnaire survey and discussions. The factorial extraction has been run to determine the factors influencing cycling tourism, and descriptive statistics have used to present the socio-demographical features of the study sample. The secondary aim of the research is to review the variations in soft mobility choices by local and foreign tourists based on the design and the extracted manipulating factors. The analysis of data has generated factors with very strong loadings to represent the variables used in the survey. The descriptive analysis shows that the majority of the tourist visit Anuradhapura for pleasure, religious and business. Most of the tourist respondents had arrived from East Asia and Europe. The study explains that majority of them has used motorised transport to arrive at Anuradhapura and after arriving has used cycling within the sacred city. The analysis has highlighted that greater number of tourists prefer to use cycling for a short distance journey. The respondents have commented that safety and security issues have been a major tragedy in riding cycles inside the sacred city. It had mentioned that potholes in the road and the areas where the road has been damaged and unpaved had caused notable accidents to the cycling tourists. The risk of theft and the awful surroundings in some areas of the sacred city has discouraged cyclists from riding through the area. The further discussions with cycling renters and cyclists have highlighted that the cycling tourist, both local and foreign have been relying on verbal instructions of landmarks and road, as the Anuradhapura tourist city map provided by the Ministry of Tourism - North Central Province and the google maps has not been providing the accurate information on the routes and pathways inside the sacred city. The effort of the research is to help town planners prioritise services and improvements designated to the location to promote cycling tourism. Sri Lanka’s tourism is one of the revenue generations industries through cycling tourism in the early stages of development. This study has taken a general view concerning the influencing factors of Anuradhapura scared city cycling tourism to develop the cycling within the sacred city and to develop the soft mobility within the Anuradhapura district ensuring more eco-friendly urban surrounding.
item: Conference-Abstract
Logit choice model for boat passenger transportation in Colombo, Sri Lanka
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Kaushalya, SMD; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
Public transportation service in Colombo canal network is a viable alternative or addition to road and rail road on Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR) corridors. Though environmentally friendly and frequently, the most economical mode of canal boat service, it remains largely under exploited in Sri Lanka. The prevailing public transportation modes such as bus, train and private transportation modes such as cars, motor bikes and taxis play vital roles in passenger movements within the country. But with the increasing population and the land scarcity in CMC region vast traffic and congestion problems exists in prevailing conditions. Thus, introducing another transportation mode is essential for future. Lack of data availability in the transport mode choice modelling has create problems implementing passenger boat transportation in CMR that leads to do more researches in the field. This study intends to present an idea of developing suitable passenger choice model on the basis of discrete choice modelling technique. ALOGIT software has been used for model setup and data analysis process. A stated preference pilot survey has been carried out in CMR region by proposing a public boat service route from Wellawatta to Battaramulla. The model was done for single level logit model. ALOGIT model was estimated to develop utility function to get an idea about people’s behavior patterns based on their socio-economic characteristics like age, gender, income level and based on travel characteristics like journey time, journey cost, waiting time, transit time. Further, separate travel characteristics, boat journey time and boat journey cost has been introduced to the model setup to identify public opinion of suitable fare terms for public boat transport service along the Colombo canal network. Results of this study provides an insight to incorporate boat transport service within the mainstream of CMR transportation planning.
item: Conference-Abstract
A methodology to develop a demand model for school trips in Western Province
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Damsara, KDP; De Silva, GLDI; Sirisoma, RMNT; Pasindu, HR
School trip is defined as a trip generated from a household or a hostel premises and ends at an educational institution (school) or vice versa. Origin-destination data is important to understand the travel patterns and also to estimate the future travel demand on transportation network over a particular catchment area. According to the administrative system of education, Sri Lanka consists of 25 districts which has 98 number of education zones having 312 education divisions. There are 10,194 total number of functioning government schools (National schools - 3.5%, Provincial schools – 96.5%) in Sri Lanka which have been categorized into 1AB – Schools having advanced level Science stream classes (1,029), 1C – Schools having advanced level Arts and/or Commerce stream but no Science stream (1,818), Type 2 - Schools having classes only up to grade 11 (3,288), Type 3 – Schools having classes up to grade 8 (4,059). Total school children population of the country is 4,165,964 and it has been divided among those 4 school categories as 1AB - 40%, 1C – 25%, Type 2 – 19%, Type 3 – 16%. Western province consists of 1,359 number of functioning government schools (965,113 students) in 3 districts which has 11 education zones and 38 education divisions. This study is focused on school trips, where the destination schools are located in western province. List of schools located in western province (as destination) is available in data management portal maintained by the Data Management Branch of Ministry of Education. Currently there is an ongoing project named as NEMIS-SIS (Student Information System of the National Education Management System) which collects data related to students who are currently enrolled in Sri Lankan Government schools. From that, origin city/town of the students which is required anonymously for this study can be collected. Based on those data Origin-Destination matrix can be prepared and a strong sample which covers all four types of schools discussed above can be selected. When selecting the sample, it is important to consider about the number of students and the number of teachers available in the school as well as whether the school is a boy school/girls school or mixed school. In Sri Lankan contest, travel patterns of school children depend on various variables such as school type, distance from home, access to transport, cost of travel etc. Therefore identification of origin-destination patterns and their relationship to those variables are used to develop a school trip demand model.
item: Conference-Abstract
A study of finding choice model for class-wise railway passenger demand for Sri Lanka Railways
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2019-09) Chandrasena, PDSB; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
Calculating passenger demand in the public transport is very important. In the railway service, passenger demand calculating is very important, because it is a mass transport mode. Passenger demand calculation is very useful when making decisions for existing railway lanes, changing number of train trips, opening new stations, changing capacity of stations and trains etc. Passenger demand calculation is much needed in finding requirements for introducing new railway lines, planning railway tracks and stations, planning train sets. Categorising service to different classes in public transport sector by facilities is crucial. In here same trip, especially same vehicle provides different facility. Different class passengers get same travel time, same distance same waiting time and only difference is the facility. Mainly in train and airplane provide class facility in the transport sector. In airplane there are mainly two classes as business and economy. In railways 1st 2nd and 3rdclasses are available. In Sri Lankan Railway there are three classes, namely,1st 2nd and 3rd. Among them 1st class is always available for reservation. Both 2nd and 3rdclasses can be reserved on availability. When starting new train trips (in existing line or in a new line) identifying passenger choice is very important and useful. Then authority can arrange train with mixed classes according to the passenger demand. If a choice model is available, it can be applied for the area and can find community choice patterns. It is useful for designing train set or order train set. By this way, railway can provide a better passenger required service. In this research, tried out to build a model for passenger choice when travelling by train on passengers’ choice on what kind of travelling class they need according to their need of comfort. So many passenger choice models were built for calculating rail passenger demand and many researches were done for identifying many attributes affecting passenger demand. This research initially takes that attributes to the model. Then analyses geographical, socio - economic, human facts for discovering attributes which affects passenger choice model for choosing different classes. Then construct passenger choice model for different classes in train travel. It can calculate which fraction of passengers like to travel in 2nd and 3rdclass in the railway station. While passenger demand can be calculated by using earlier passenger demand model, this model can show how many passengers come to station for seeking 2nd class facility or 3rd class facility.
item: Conference-Abstract
A study of the performance of passing climbing lanes along Colombo – Rathnapura – Wellawaya – Batticaloa Road
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa., 2019-09) Eknaligoda, DM; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
With the increasing population and the development in the tourism sector, increasing volumes and a higher percentage of heavy vehicles and recreational vehicles in the traffic stream from Colombo Capital to central hills has created many traffic-related problems recently. Specially all the essential supplying services including fuel, food, export goods are transported using major highways. Traffic operations along steep upgrades grades on two-lane highways in mountainous terrains in central mountains are extremely important considering safety and level of service (LOS). Applying Climbing lane concept on two-lane highways is a good recommendation to reduced prevailing extreme conditions. “A climbing lane is, in effect, a passing lane added on an upgrade to allow traffic to pass heavy vehicles whose speeds are reduced” (HCM,2010). However, applying Passing Climbing Lanes (PCL) are not a common practice in Sri Lanka, most of the steep upgrades on the major trans mountain highways do not have climbing lanes that cause traffic congestion at major highways. Due to the increasing vehicular traffic along the route, there exists an ongoing construction of Passing climbing lane on Colombo- Ratnapura-Wellawaya- Batticaloa (CRWB) road near to Ratnapura. This study evaluates the Impact of Passing –Climbing lane on traffic flow on the particular section at CRWB road considering both safety and LOS using the existing available data from RDA and Police Station at Ratnapura. The collected data at a particular location before the construction of PCL and after is expected to show the importance of having PCLs at essential places along CRWB. Further, the impact of selected PCL has been analyzed for various traffic volume by a simulation model which developed for this study. In this research, it also investigates the operational experience of traffic flow at the upper end of the climbing lane through a driver interview. PCL is a low cost improvement method rather than replacing extra lane or providing bypass lane, hence study discusses the economic advantages also in this concept.
item: Conference-Abstract
Study on road surface noise of asphalt pavements
(Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, 2019-09) Thibbotuwawa, RMJR; De Silva, GLDI; Pasindu, HR
Traffic noise is an environmental and social problem in both urban and rual area transportation development. Meanwhile focussing on the sustainable development in transport sector, noise reduction measures play an major role. So far in the Sri Lankan context, noise reduction measures has not been considered rather than noise path control. In the near future in Sri Lanka, expansion of highways in urban area will cater for traffic conjestion reduction but may lead to social and environmental problems due to traffic noise. Since traffic noise lead to imbalance mind state of humans causing annoyance, difficulty to read and speach communication: there may be huge public objection for the incoming transport development projects. Traffic noise consists of four parts such as engine noise, exhaust noise, aerodynamic noise and tire/pavement interaction noise. Comparatevely, tire pavement interaction noise play a major role in higher speeds greater than 50km/h. As in major highways vehicle operating speed and during night time vehicle speed is more than 50km/h. Therefore, it is more valuable to study tire pavement interaction noise which may help to adopt noise control measures. Traffic noise will be measured in cloxe proximity method (CPM) for various pavement conditions. ISO standards will be used as guidance for both test methods. CPM method will be used to measure traffic noise due to tyre pavemant interaction against pavement conditions. Pavement conditions will be evaluated by pavement texture, type of mixture and age of pavement. Ambient temperature and humudity will be also recorded during test period. Traffic noise data collected will be analysed against pavement condition to derive best construction practices to control source traffic noise due to tyre pavement interaction and cost benefit of those construction methods against area land use pattern. The projected conclusion of this reasearch is to demarcate relationship between tyre pavement texture, type of mixture, pavement age and to recommend suitable measures for noise control by considering cost benefit.

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Browsing TRF - 2019 by Author "De Silva, GLDI"