Characteristics of e-rickshaw Dominated Mixed-Mode Traffic in Suburban Arterial Corridors

Abstract

Inadequate planning for public transport facilities in most suburban arterials often relegates commuters to locally available modes. For years, many regions witnessed e-rickshaws grow imposingly as an alternative for shorter trips and a preferred feeder service to nearby facilities. Suburban arterials provide frequent access to abutting land uses and allow e-rickshaws to share the same road space. Their presence in large proportion leads to a change in traffic, exhibiting a quite different characteristic. The study investigates the characteristics of such traffic, highlights changes from those that pass through urban and rural settings, and interprets them based on the parametric evaluation. The methodology proposed in this study considers field data on users’ perception of modes, local trips, and flow parameters and evaluates distributional characteristics, vehicle following behavior and traffic operations across flow levels. Empirical observations reveal that e-rickshaws cause a significant slowing of faster vehicles and often compel them to get entrapped inside platoons, reducing capacity and mobility, thus creating congestion and swift manoeuvering, disobeying lane discipline.