Traffic Congestion in a Hill City of North East India and Its Consequences

Abstract

The complexity of traffic congestion in a hill city is more than in a plain city in its nature and dimensions. The congestion adverselyaffects the speed, travel time, fuel expenditure, business and many other activities. This paper examines incidence of traffic congestion at some major traffic intersections in a hill city of North Eastern region of India, Shillong through which majority of the traffic movements occur. Further, major factors behind regular traffic congestion in the city have been analysed. Traffic volume in peak hours has been measured by using Volume-Capacity Ratio and major factors responsible for traffic congestion is explained by Principal Component Analysis. Results show that locational misdistribution of various government offices and institutions, badly located filling stations, driving behaviour are some important factors leading to severe congestion. Results also show that there are significantadverse effects on the individual performances including a decline in productivity and earning opportunity of the taxi drivers due to traffic congestion.