Master of Science in Transportation

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/45

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item: Thesis-Abstract
Systems approach to develop high mobility road network plan for Sri Lanka
(2023) Weththasinghe, WASS; Bandara, JMSJ
A high mobility road network is crucial for Sri Lanka's economy, enabling efficient transportation of goods, services, and people. These roads facilitate domestic and international trade, support tourism, enhance regional connectivity, contribute to economic growth, promote rural development, industrial growth, and urban mobility, ensuring sustainable economic development and improving the quality of life for the people of Sri Lanka. However, the construction of the current road network was a result of natural and historical behavior. The construction of the expressways gave little thought to overall connection. Therefore, a methodical methodology of assigning priority for the network's future developments is urgently needed. The primary objective of this study is a systematic approach to a high-mobility road network at interdistrict level, including upgrades for current links. To facilitate efficient connectivity, 25 District Capitals have been designated as primary nodes. It is assumed that other nodes within each district already possess adequate secondary-level road networks to connect to the primary nodes. These assumptions are the limitations of this study. In defining the original network, places with significant traffic attractions, intersections of the A-class roads and expressway interchanges were included as nodes. This approach aims to ensure seamless connectivity between essential locations and enable smooth traffic flow across the network. To address the particular difficulties and needs related to strategic choices, we limit our analysis to the inter-district level. During analyzing stage, in order to find bottlenecks, critical nodes and links, minimum spanning trees and least distance paths were developed with respect to trip time and distance during the peak time. To find the optimum network, aspects like reducing the total network length, optimizing the average network speed, and achieving reasonable average speed levels were considered. In order to increase the country's overall mobility, a methodology was created to identify the links that require improvement and have a higher gravity level and slower average speed. This study identified links with high demand and low service, particularly in Sri Lanka’s central and west regions, with population density as a key factor. A combined system approach using minimum spanning tree, gravity level, and mobility level, was used to rank the links for improvement, mainly requiring roadway infrastructure improvements to address geographical issues. These findings provide valuable insights into the specific areas that need attention to improve the transportation system's efficiency and effectiveness. The next step can be conducting a detailed evaluation and creating a targeted improvement plan considering their unique needs, road conditions, and surrounding land use. Keywords: High Mobility Road Network, Minimum Distance Path, Minimum Spanning Tree, Systems Approach
item: Thesis-Abstract
Building explanatory models for road crash analysis using data science and machine learning technologies
(2022) De Silva HWIU; Perera L
Over three thousand people die annually on the roads of Sri Lanka due to traffic crashes. This is a massive socio and economic problem faced by the country. Road crashes globally cause more than 1.3 million fatalities every year and are the eighth leading cause of death worldwide. Traditionally, road traffic crash analysis and accident modeling resorted to regression models and discrete choice models based on past data. Many countermeasures have been identified and implemented addressing the issues highlighted through such models. Since road traffic crashes occur across space and time, the conventional numerical approaches have failed to provide alerts and insights in relation to geospatial regions. Also, having to handcraft these models limits the explainability that can be leveraged with the help of advanced tools and techniques available in modern data science and machine learning disciplines. Further, the disjointed efforts in building analytical models or geospatial models on available crash data (e.g., crash hotspot identification) limit road agencies’ abilities in prioritizing funds allocation for more impactful improvements. Due to the difficulty in identifying patterns in causal factors of accident risks using conventional or isolated methods, the authorities also find it difficult to prioritize their staff strength in high-risk areas. The combination of exploratory data analysis (EDA), machine learning models, and modern geospatial visualization tools offer a unique opportunity to fill these gaps cost-effectively. This study presents an application of the latest data science and machine learning technologies to build explanatory models that help analyze road crashes. Popular packages written in Python and Javascript programming languages were used. Pandas and SweetViz libraries provided simple, yet powerful EDA. GeoPandas library provided the ability to process GPS locations (latitude and longitude) while Matplotlib was used to generate static maps. Folium library and the underlying Leaflet.js library were applied to generate interactive maps to help visualize crash hot spots. Two leading gradient boosting techniques, namely LightGBM and Catboost were applied to build models that highlight causal factors via feature importance estimation methods. The study developed algorithms, methods, and charts to generate attribute correlation and gradient boosted decision tree models to relate accident severity with recorded data sets and interactions of certain aggregate features (e.g., weather, and light condition). The visualization efforts produced road crash density maps by administrative region size and population Interactive maps that allow authorities to drill down (or zoom in) to hot spots were also developed. The programmatic approach developed in this study enables the repeatable application of the explanatory analysis and visualizations to new and old datasets with minimal effort. The findings from the study lay the foundation for a digital system that can be easily converted to an online platform for road and enforcement agencies to obtain reports and alerts on road crash risks and hot spots. The application was tested using crash data in Sri Lanka and the outcomes are presented in this study. Future work on the fusion of multiple data sources such as real-time weather data and traffic congestion levels onto the same platform can enhance these outcomes to even near real-time crash prediction to further assist proactive accident prevention measures.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Development of a personal vehicle type choice model for western province of Sri Lanka
(2022) Perera KR; De Silva D
Vehicle ownership is a chief determining factor in many country’s economy. In the Sri Lankancontext, the vehicle ownership rate is expressively increased, over the last decade. The roadcongestion in urban and suburban areas also has increased significantly. The predominantobjective of the research was to examine how new vehicle choice may vary in the context ofhousehold socioeconomics characteristics. Besides, the management of new pricing reformations for annual and variable charging on vehicle price itself, fuel, insurance and otheroperational aspects and change of user requirements such as enhancing vehicle seatingcapacity, shifting vehicle operating method etc. This paper examines the development of a type of personal vehicle ownership model using asample of people living in Western Province Sri Lanka. A sample survey is being conductedin the Western Region to collect household data in 2013. ALOGIT software is used to obtainthe results of this research. This research considers several potential determinants of vehiclechoice, including socio-demographic status. This study initially attempts to identify how to recognize the family's monthly income, age,occupation, social status, and the number of licensed drivers in the family's influence on theownership of the car and their criticality for the utilities of the vehicle ownership modelsInitial assessment on those factors identified that most influential factors are averagehousehold income, number of driving license holders in a household and number o householdmembers. Besides, the result of this research is to assist the GoSL in imposing the requiredtaxes and providing as much funding as possible to maximize a sustainable andenvironmentally friendly transportation system in Sri Lanka. It was envisaged that three models would be developed separately for single vehicle only, twovehicles only, and at least three personal use vehicles owning HHs. Also, it was expected tohave a nested structure of two and three or more vehicles own HHs, but the model results reveal that there is no nested structure where the entire variant is rooted and that it appeared as a single-level logit structure.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Study of the performance of passing and climbing lanes along Colombo - Rathnapura - Wellawaya - Batticolo road
(2020) Ekneligoda DM; De Silve D
Due to increase of population and rapid economic growth, percentage of heavy and recreational vehicles in the traffic stream from Colombo Capital to Central hills have increased causing severe traffic congestions. Specially all essential supplying services including fuel, food, export goods transport using major highways. Applying climbing lane concept on two-lane highways can be a good recommendation to reduce 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”. However, application of Passing Climbing Lanes (PCL) are not a common practice in Sri Lanka. Most of steep upgrades on the major trans mountain highways do not have climbing lanes that cause traffic congestion on major highways. Due to the increasing vehicular traffic along the route, there exists an ongoing construction of Passing climbing lane on Colombo- Rathnapura-Wellawaya- Batticolo (CRWB) road near to Rathnapura. This study evaluates the Impact of Passing and Climbing lane on traffic flow on the particular section at CRWB road considering both travel time and delay time using the existing available data from RDA and new traffic survey data. The collected data at 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 was developed for this study. PCL is low cost improvement method rather than replacing extra lane or providing bypass lane, hence study discusses the economic advantages also.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Estimation of a mode choice model for boat passenger transport for work trips in Colombo
(2020) Kaushalya SMD; De Silva D
Public transportation service in Colombo canal network is an applicable alternative in addition to roads and railway network on Colombo Metropolitan Region (CMR) corridors. Though it is an environmentally friendly and one of 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, Taxis play vital roles in passenger movements within the country. But with the increasing population & the land scarcity in Colombo Municipal Council (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 choice model on the basis of discrete choice modelling technique. Nested logit modelling is an improved version to Multinomial logit models due to its ability of modelling alternatives which have correlation among them. 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 estimated results of nested logit model indicated that Alternative Specific Constants (ASCs) and considered travel time attribute had significant effects on the choice of proposed public boat transport service in CMR. The coefficient value of travel time was -0.006835. Compared to the travel time attribute, the travel cost attribute coefficient value was less, -0.0003279. the estimated ASC values showed the preference of public for given alternatives as ASC2 (0.8978, Alternative 3) > ASC3 (0.8516, Alternative 4) > ASC 5 (0.8324, alternative 6) > ASC 6 (0.7385, alternative 7) > ASC 4 (0, alternative 5) from highest to lowest. According to the estimated nested logit model results people choose to use available bus mode option though it introduced new passenger boat service to the public transport system.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Development of a choice model for railway ticket class selection
(2020) Chandrasena PDSB; De Silva D
Sri Lanka Railway is a significant component of the public transport sector in the country with the passengers varying from office workers to tourists. The ability of the railway system to provide accessibility to rural areas and mobility in urban congested areas has resulted in railway system that was earlier established for goods transportation to be a more passenger centric transportation mode in the present. The railway system consists of three classes namely 1st,2nd & 3rd class with the latter two being considered as non-reservation based or reservations at the counter being based on the availability and hence the focus area of the research. Currently due to the non-availability of class wise passenger demand calculations has resulted in overcrowding in compartments with passenger complaints of no value for money paid which ultimately will result in passengers shifting to other modes. The research addresses the issue by identifying the behaviour of passengers in choosing the class. Passenger data related to 333 railway station combinations was used to develop the choice model. Data preparation included calculating the passenger proportions for the two classes for each observed station combinations as the data was treated as aggregate.7 utility forms were considered based on various combinations of distance, price, connectivity strength & travel time attributes. Based on the estimation results the utility function form with the best fit included price, connectivity strength and travel time as attributes. Travel time influences most towards 2nd class selection whereas connectivity strength or availability of directly connected trains with 3rd class compartments contributes most towards the 3rd class selection. The developed class wise choice model has the ability to identify passenger behaviour with respect to selecting 2nd class or 3rd class. The model can be further developed by considering more attributes related to facilities of the compartments and also the choices can be expanded to incorporate 1st class also by extending towards reservation based data.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Possibilities of reducing train delays between Colombo Fort and Maradana
Jayasekara, VCD; Bandara, JMSJ
Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) is operating around 300 passenger train movements daily across its 1400 Km rail network. About 90% of train movements out of this have Maradana or Colombo as the destination or the starting point. It further leads to a figure that around 50 trains which amount to more than 30% of the inbound train service to Colombo is reaching either Colombo Fort or Maradana daily within the morning peak time. All these train movements are using the Colombo - Maradana block section which comprises of only four rail tracks, hence causing a reasonable delay for the morning peak hour train service. Delay in this particular section is commonly identified as caused by the lack ofinfrastructure which includes less number of Platforms, inappropriately arranged sendee feeders (depots) and low flexibility in the signaling system. In addition to this the overlap operation between Colombo and Maradana, which is resulted by always keeping the furthermost station as the destination or starting point. Overlap operation has created additional train movements which leads the situation to an even worse. Objective of this research is to find out the root cause for the delay in the Colombo Fort - Maradana section and explore the possibilities of reducing train delays. In this view, the delay portion pertaining to this section is quantified through a survey and it confirms the worthiness of the research. It was then continued to check the actual requirement of continuing the overlap operation and in results, sufficient evidence found for a service restriction. Actual line and platform utilization at present were calculated to find out whether any alterations are required to the systems and operational practices. Train feeding arrangements are also studied for suggesting modifications for the practices in order to catch up the delays. Mainly the issues in reducing the number of train movements in the section and reshuffling the feeding arrangements to achieve this target are addressed in this research.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Assessment of service quality perceived by passengers at Bandaranayake International Airport, Katunayake
Wendakoon, IS; Pasindu, HR
Service quality at airports as perceived by air passengers is a comparison between their expectations and airport’s actual performance which is measured by the performance ofservice delivery ofthe airport. Delivering high quality service to passengers by airports is vital for their market competitiveness and ultimately for promoting the image ofthe country. Since, service quality is an important factor in customer satisfaction, the study aims to assess the current service quality level which is being perceived by air passengers and theirsatisfaction levels for Airport Facilities at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake comparing other Airports in other geographical regions (Indian Subcontinent, East Asia & Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe). The main objective of the study was to understand importance of customer expectations and level of satisfaction perceived by passengers concerning the facilities, sendees and service quality of BIA, Katunayake. For data collection, an online questionnaire (created based on Google® forms) was provided and the population of the study was comprised of those who have experienced the services offered by BIA, specifically frequent air travelers of national origin. The questionnaire was developed using the SKYTRAX questionnaire as a benchmark. The questionnaire was distributed online to the target population who have travelled using BIA during last three years of time. The Likert survey was the selected questionnaire type as this enabled the respondents to answer the survey easily based on their evaluation levels. A total of 147 completed questionnaires were selected out of 163 due to incompleteness ofsome answers. Results shows that, responders (almost 50%) who have travelled within last three yearsthrough more than 05 airports in more geographical areas have less satisfaction level for most of questions than other responders who have visited five or less than five airports. Further responders (almost 20%) who have travelled through many airports (more than 10 airports within last three years) in more than two geographical areas have neutral or dissatisfied responses for most of questions than other responders who have visited ten or less than ten airports those were in one or two geographical areas. This indicates that service quality at BIA for some areas does not match the satisfaction level ofpassengers who have experienced many airports in several geographical areas. Moreover the study also concludes that the satisfaction level of passengers on service quality was significantly different based on number of airports which passengers have visited and geographical areas where those airports are located, especially passengers who have travelled only in Indian subcontinent had more satisfied responses on BIA comparing others. There were no significant difference in observations on satisfaction levels based on passenger’s gender, age group and reasons for travel, since 90% of passengers had travelled on business / employment purposes. In conclusion, the study suggests that policy makers as well as airport management need to comprehensive survey on passenger’s satisfaction level on their services offered and take workable measures to improve upon airport sendee quality.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Framework for selecting centre median opening locations
(2019) Prasanga HN; Pasindu HR
Currently, many urban roadways in Sri Lanka are being rehabilitated and improved to multi-lane facilities with introducing raised road centre medians. Therefore, the provision of centre median openings for right turns, cross traffic movement & “U” turns is essential. The study attempts to give a broad framework to adopt in making decisions with regarding to provision of centre median openings by identifying the relevant parameters that should be incorporated and evaluating the impact on traffic operations due to various configurations of centre median openings. Road network connectivity, road safety, right turning traffic volume density, positioning of road side developments are some of the factors which influence the decision for selecting a proper location for median opening. A microscopic traffic simulation model developed with PTV VISSIM was used to optimize the selected median opening locations with respect to travel time and total delay of the road network. A major urban road corridor was modelled in VISSIM as a case study. The study found that the median opening spacings are site specific and recommending a general spacing value may not be practical with regard to Sri Lankan Road network. Median opening closure will result to increase the delay to local traffic largely and cannot expect a significant travel time reduction in the main road corridor in the absence of turning/storage areas. It is envisaged that this study would provide a more logical framework for practitioners to adopt in making decisions with regard to centre median opening in urban highway planning
item: Thesis-Full-text
Develop a sustainable model for implementing driver improvement points (DIPs) in Sri Lanka
Bandara, ALKMMP; Bandara, JMSJ
This research mainly focuses to come up with a suitable model which will support the sustainable implementation of “Driver Improvement Points System (DIPS)” for Sri Lankans- as per the regulations published under the Motor Traffic Act from the extra ordinary gazette numbered 1726/12 and dated 05.10.2011. It has declared 22 offences that could be counted for DIPs. The design of DIPs was done with the main objective of identifying high risk motorists and habitual offenders and to suspend them from driving for a specified period of time. Correcting the attitude and improving the discipline of drivers in order to ensure that they will be more responsible and courteous on the roads and reducing the high number of road accidents which has brought great loss to the country over the years are the two main objectives of a DIPS. DIPs are a mechanism already adopted in limited number of countries, mainly by the developed countries such as USA, Canada and Australia, and as well as by some developing countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. The implementation of DIPs within Sri Lanka is still doubtful due to some practical issues, though the legal mechanism is already available. A fully integrated and wellequipped monitoring system will be required in order to ensure the effectiveness and the transparency of the system. The infrastructure facility requirement of the system is very high and eventually it requires a fairly large initial capital investment. On the other hand, the high possibility of corruptions in the current Sri Lankan system is one of the major issues to be addressed in the implementation process as it will drastically affect the credibility of the system.In developing a sustainable model, a comprehensive literature review was carried out on the DIPs systems implemented worldwide including the factors affecting the driver behavior. Further an opinion survey was carried out to get the public opinion and ideas of the proposed system. The sample group comprising of Private Vehicle Users,Professional Drivers and Passengers/Road users were addressed. Two different ways;Google forms and the printed version of survey form. The online questionnaire using Google forms mainly targeted the private vehicle users. The printed version of the form was used to get the opinion of the people who do driving as a profession and the other road users.The results clearly show ensuring the effectiveness and transparency is a must for a credible system. Provision of valid evidence of the offence before giving any points is expected by almost all the parties involved. This report carries out a comparison between the existing model and the new model proposed. Further, the new model points out the draw backs of the existing system and focuses on low cost methods such as body worn cameras, in capturing reasonable evidence of the offence.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Factors Affeting To The Public Acceptance
Liyanagunawardena, G; Bandara, JMSJ
Colombo, the Capital of Sri Lanka, being the hub of commercial activities with the Port and other key business establishments, the vehicle fleet entering the city has increased steadily over the past decade. As a result the traffic congestion in Colombo has increased now to a higher level that is too intense within the city limits causing uneasy in travelling and inconvenience to road users. Further it was revealed that new registrations of the motor vehicles have been on the significant rise during the recent past and many of them added to the Colombo traffic fleet. On the other hand traveling speed has reduced during peak hours and thus travelers wasting time on the roads, burning more fuel, as the number of vehicles on the roads keep increasing. Park and Ride is a concept used in developed countries in which the car travelers who enter the city center (or congestion area) park the cars in the designated peripheral zone and then reach the destination by using public transport. This model believed to be helpful to reduce the car traffic flow into the city center, relieve the traffic density and perfect the urban traffic structure. “City Liner” was the first Park and Ride operation in Sri Lankan context implemented in 2009. It was proved to be unsuccessful due to various reasons. The operation was then reviewed and shortcomings were analyzed through a series of research and development and the idea had emerged with Park and Ride operation integrated with a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system for Colombo city. The aim of this research paper is to analyze the major causes that contribute to a sustainable Park and Ride operation with integrated Mass Rapid Transit for the Colombo metropolitan region. In order to analyze the relationship between the public perceptive factors and the Park and Ride behavior intent, it is necessary to understand the perception levels of the related influencing factors of travelers through surveys. The study consists with distribution of a questionnaire to travelers and the feed-back from them, who travel to the Colombo city at least once a week. The survey was conducted both online and manual basis. The Park & Ride system will operate along with a MRT concept but that would not solely address the car commuters. Hence over the phone interviews and questionnaires were focused on all categories of commuters who travel to Colombo. In addition the questionnaire focused on user preferences, drawbacks issues of existing system and expectations of proposed system. In the analysis stage, acceptability of Park and Ride Scheme and expectations on improvements and characteristics were studied through frequencies, percentages, and other basic statistical methods to outline a generalized profile of daily travelers to Colombo city based on daily travelers personal travel behaviour. Meanwhile Chi-square tests were also performed to obtain a deeper understanding of peoples’ personal background, Traveling behaviour and Park and Ride acceptability. However, if the assumption of Chi-squared test was found not to be satisfied the Fisher’s exact test was used. According to the survey results, for all modes of transport, daily travelers were highly concerned about the travel time to Colombo city. Meanwhile public vehicle users were unhappy with the safety, comfort and reliability of their service whilst private vehicle users were struggling to find suitable parking slots in the City. Daily traveler’s income level, vehicle ownership, age, and education level play a vital role to the acceptability of new Park and Ride Scheme. But present transport conditions (mode of transport, travel time, travel distance and entering tome to Colombo city) do not affect much to the user perception for the Park & Ride. New scheme must be designed to cater these major factors. As per the survey results, it is evident that the daily travelers are expecting high assurance of passenger safety, parking vehicle safety and reliability of service to accept new scheme. Further, it is revealed that they are much concerned about the cleanness, operating frequency and availability of cross-city transit but not the seating facilities, terminals/parking sites facilities, cost of service and disable access. Findings of this research about the user’s perceptions can be helpful to design a successful and sustainable Park and Ride scheme to the suburb of Colombo city.validat
item: Thesis-Full-text
Identification of possible reasons that affect departure flight punctuality
Sarojanie, SAN; Bandara, JMSJ
A flight is said to be delayed when an airline flight takes off and/or lands later than its scheduled time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers a flight to be delayed when it is 15 minutes later than its scheduled time. Punctuality is one of the key performance indicators in the airline industry and an important service differentiator especially for valuable high-yield customers. In addition, improved on-time performance can help achieve significant cost savings. This is a critical issue in the air transportation industry since it generates lot of problems to the operation and the inconvenience for the passengers. Once a delay is occurred it is totally affected to the entire airline network and it will totally effect to the passengers. Flight delays are an inconvenience to passengers. A delayed flight can be costly to passengers by making them late to their personal scheduled events. A passenger who is delayed on a multi-plane trip could miss a connecting flight. Anger and frustration can occur in delayed passengers. This publishes a postgraduate thesis carried out under the topic “Identification of possible reasons that affect departure flight punctuality” and this is carried out as a case study on the National Carrier of Sri Lanka. This mainly focuses on identification of departure flight delays, identifying critical delay types and finding their reasons and finally identifying areas to develop policies and regulations which can be optimize the departure flight punctuality. The findings of the preliminary analysis represents that out of average total departures per day there are 6% of Technical delays, 9% of Unavoidable delays, and 8% of Airport delays and 5% of Air Traffic Control delays. The average delay times per departure flight are 1.22 hrs if Technical delays, 0.34hrs if Unavoidable delays, 0.16hrs if Airport delays and 0.10hrs if Air Traffic Control delays. During the secondary data analysis, some areas were identified as the areas that can be regularized using new policy and regulations or change and develop existing policy and regulations to increase the departure flight punctuality. Some of them are new policy or policy development on A/C rotation, regular and periodic maintenance that can reduce technical errors and failures, scheduled maintenance that will help to manage operation time. Further it is identified that unscheduled maintenance will increase the delay, internal QC and QA on safety and security is a must, policy on recruit maintenance professionals will help to manage emergencies, additional maintenance will reduce engine start up time delays, increasing maintenance will avoid equipment failures, new policy or policy development on intoxicated passengers will reduces delays, new policy on intoxicated passengers will reduces delays, internal organizational policy and regulations can mitigate late reporting and new policy for transfer passenger and baggage timings. Under this study, only the delay data were considered to identify the areas that reduces the departure flight punctuality and any culture, society and the environment of the country were not taken into account. But the factors such as economic, social, environmental and political situation of the country, management changes, joint agreements, code share agreements, aircraft fleet changes, and new governmental policy and regulations also should be considered for the development and the implementation of new policy statements regarding the flight departure delays.
item: Thesis-Abstract
A Study of vehicle fleet management in government institutions in Sri Lanka
(2016-05-30) Weerawansa, PAA; Kumarage, AS
There are 322 government institutions under Sri Lankan government. More than 95% out of them have their own vehicle fleet. In their institutions, the vehicle fleets has been managed by one of commissioners, by a director or a transport officer appointed by the head of the department. Though there are large vehicle fleets belong to the government institutions, there are no proper fleet management policies required in an efficient fleet management. There are about 60% - 70% of vehicles aged over lOyears or 300,000km are used in active vehicle fleet without any proper replacement policy. This causes unnecessary repair costs and low reliability which leads to poor transport supply against demand. Due to lack of proper preventive maintenance policies, vehicle repair and maintenance costs as well as downtime costs are increased. In addition; frequent occurrence of unnecessary repairs, low fleet reliability and low usage will prevail. In recent times, the government has engaged in large scale development programs implemented through government institutions. This has increased the transport demand significantly. In order to fulfill this higher transport demand a proper vehicle fleet replacement policy, a timely preventive maintenance schedule, proper vehicle fleet data recording system and regular use of information technology should be applied to reduce the repairs and maintenance cost excessive fuel cost and the downtime. Further to above, absence of a proper vehicle fleet replacement policy, a proper preventive maintenance plan, accurate data recording system and lack of staff training facilities may cause a deficient and poor vehicle fleet management in government institutions. If immediate solutions are not found for above deficiencies in fleet management, the entire government fleet management will be in jeopardy.
item: Thesis-Abstract
Study of airport curbside roadway and parking area operations at Bandaranaike International Airport
(2015-09-17) Galagedera, SDB; Bandara, JMSJ; Pasindu, HR
Airport Curbside, where travelers and their baggage enter exit the terminal, and parking area are important components in airport land-side facilities. Passengers expect safe and efficient roadway operations even as volumes increase, but the design and capacity of the curbside are often constrained by the terminal building and the proximity of on-airport land-side infrastructure. The operating characteristics of airport terminal curbside differ significantly from those of most other roadways due to several reasons such as vehicle dwell time, maneuvering of vehicles to and from adjacent lane, variation in demand etc. The capacity of a curbside roadway is defined both by the number of vehicles that can be accommodated while stopping to pick up or drop off passengers and the number that can be accommodated while traveling past the curbside in the through lanes. Therefore a study of operations at curbside and parking area is important to identify issues that will occur based to existing and future demand levels. The main focus of the research is on the evaluation of vehicle operations and passenger behavior at the airport terminal access roadway, weaving segment, arrival and departure curbside roadways and terminal car park. Analysis of vehicular traffic, travel mode choices, and curbside roadway vehicle queues, vehicle dwelling times, passenger occupancy time at curbs and passenger processing and walking times will provide useful information for developing plans for operational improvements as well as for future expansions. Using the available data, the demand and capacity at these facilities are evaluated to estimate the existing level of service. In addition, measures were identified to improve the operational efficiency of these facilities and design improvements are proposed to ensure good operational efficiency for the forecast future demand.
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Study of bus crew behavior and user complaints
(2015-09-16) Pathirana, MPPS; Bandara, JMSJ
Efficiency, public acceptance and user satisfaction of bus service is largely dependent on the behavior of bus crew. Hence, it is the responsibility of the authorities to identify deficiencies and take necessary action to improve the situation. This study focus on analyzing data collected by National Transport Commission on bus crew behavior by Monitoring and Enforcement, Investigation and public complaint handling units. Information available was divided into two categories as violations and complaints. Violations are the detection taken by the flying squads of National transport Commission and provincial authorities. Complaints are made by the general public about the crew behavior and bus operation. It is identified violations can be categorized into 31 different offences and there are 08 different categories of complaints. It is found that on average long distance buses (route lengths over 50 km) are more responsible for violations as well as complaints as compared to short distance (route length less than 50 km). Employing unregistered crew is the most frequent violation that amount to nearly 30% of the total. Discourtesy towards passengers and charging higher fair are the two main complaints received that contribute to nearly 86% of the complaints. It is also found that majority of the detected buses have less than 2 violations during a given year but there are few buses that have received over 5 violations during a given year. Violations and complaints are also analyses according to the service type, bus route and corridor of operation. It is found that highest numbers of both permit condition violations and public complaints are reported from bus route nO.02 of Colombo - Galle, Matara.
item: Thesis-Full-text
The Cement stabilized soil as a road base material for Sri Lankan roads
(2015-07-08) Bandara, WW; Mampearachchi, WK
Soils that can be stabilized are Granular, Sandy, Salty and Clayey materials. In Sri Lanka, lower quality coarse–grained and sandy materials are available which give higher elastic modulus than fine–grained material (Salty and Clayed materials). In order to control shrinkage cracks, Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) at seven days should be limited. According to the findings, it was revealed that the most practical thickness of the cement stabilized base is 200mm and the most practical UCS at seven days is 3-4MPa to achieve compaction and the decided life with economical pavement thickness. When the strength is measured in terms of CBR (California Bearing Ratio) and UCS, different cement contents arise from these two measuring methods. Therefore this study was performed to identify correct strength measure. The correct strength measure is UCS only and no relationship was found between UCS and CBR. For road pavements with stabilized base, critical tensile stress or strain is located at the bottom of the stabilized layer. To control the fatigue cracking for required number of axial load repetitions, this tensile stress should be limited. Above mentioned limitations cannot be analyzed using the conventional pavement design based on Structural Number principle. Hence a Mechanistic–Empirical Method is used to analyze pavements with a stabilized base which is difficult to carryout in general practice. Therefore, through this study, pavement design charts for pavements having 200mm thickness of a Cement Stabilized soil Base (CSB) were developed by a Mechanistic– Empirical Method for various sub grade and traffic classes. According to the developed pavement design chart, it was revealed that CSB can be used for roads with traffic less than 1.5x106 standard axial load repetitions.
item: Thesis-Abstract
A Model for evacuation risk assessment on transportation networks
(2015-06-30) Warusavitharana, EJ; Bandara, JMSJ
Cities are areas where hazards are more likely to escalate into disasters due to the large and highly concentrated populations and infrastructure that are likely to be affected. The complex layout of urban transportation networks and multi-story buildings make it even more challenging for rescuers to reach victims, which leads to greater vulnerability of cities and the potential increase of casualties as the hazardous consequences would be exacerbated (Kwan & Lee, 2005). Traditional transportation demand analysis focuses on analyzing peak travel demands on weekday morning journey to work and evening journey from work trips and providing solutions to have acceptable level of service. However, it is important to give special consideration on analyzing demand and assessing transportation system capabilities during the special events or circumstances as well. One of these special event circumstances involves emergency evacuation. Emergency evacuation can be a life or death situation, where the lack of safe exit routes and the time that it might take to safely exit can be directly related to lives lost. The main objective of this research is to identify spatial distribution of transportation difficulties that might arise during an urgent evacuation. The research has used Geographical Information System based Network based approaches to model the evacuation risk of road segments in small areas or neighborhoods under the pre-disaster conditions. Using the network based approaches it is possible to model risk scenarios by considering pre-disaster factors, rather than largely depending on post-disaster factors which sometimes unreliable to collect. However the evacuation risk assessment model presented in this research is not applicable for certain events like seasonal floods, in which the evacuation paths of the road network cannot be justified when the roads get flooded and when the community takes adaptation measures to live with the flood. The spatial distribution of transportation difficulties was assessed by taking Galle city as the case study area and the uncertain event as the Tsunami disaster.
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Franchising of long distance bus services in Sri Lanka in order to improve quality of the service
(2015-06-26) Karunarathne, PGC; Kumarage, AS
The main objective of this study is to propose a suitable franchising system for long distance bus services. Introduction chapter explains features and structure of bus industry and background of franchising system. Literature review mainly discussed on quality of the service, theoretical approach of public transport management models and studies on franchising of public transport services. This study reached to conclusion through three surveys, and hypothesis system. Conclusions were done by using mean value. Based on a passenger interview survey quality attributes were ranked, and selected the most powerful five quality factors to be considered for the one of experts’ opinion survey which was done to get experts’ opinion on effectiveness of each management model to solve problems of the passenger. The other survey was done to identify effective level of each management model to solve problems of the regulator. These two experts’ opinion surveys helped to make conclusion on the most effective management model to improve the quality of the service of long distance bus service in Sri Lanka. It concluded that creating omnibus management companies is the best option and suggestion of experts were supplemented to enrich the proposed franchising system. The study concluded that the NTC should make appropriate policies to establish proper institutional mechanism, and the regulator will have to play its role by improving its capabilities with administrative, managerial and technical knowledge. Independency and strengthening of the NTC are basic requirements for the successfulness of the selected franchising system.
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Evaluating "Gamisariya" rural bus service programme
(2015-02-28) Fernando, PAN; Kumarage, AS
“Public Passenger Transport (PPT) is very often associated with subsidies in almost all countries in the world”. When consider Sri Lanka, as a developing country, this statement is true with the PPT for Rural communities. Rural Passenger Services are making loss due to different reasons. As a result of this fact private bus owners are reluctant to operate bus services in uneconomic rural routes. But as an agricultural base country, over 70% of Sri Lanka’s population lives in rural areas. Therefore rural passenger transport services are very important for the commercial, industrial, social and educational activities in rural communities and such services can provide several benefits to the rural societies. The National Transport Commission (NTC) is implementing the project called “Gamisariya” to subsidize the identified uneconomic rural routes. Under this project transport services are provided for more than 1014 rural villages and for more than 77000 rural passengers. The objective of the study was “To find out social & economical benefits created by “Gamisariya” project to the rural communities and to find out whether operators get sufficient subsidy amount to provide a reliable service to the villages.” To achieve the objective following methods were used to collect data;  Interview with bus passengers/villagers and operators in selected routes  Interview with village committees who investigate the service.  Discussion with the officers in NTC who are involving with Gamisariya Project. According to the results of analysis, the Gamisariya Rural Bus service (GRBS) Programme has increased the number of social and economical trips of the rural people. Further, the villagers are gaining more income for their production due to less transportation cost and higher volume of production. The project has higher economic benefit level to the society and road development and increasing land value are some indirect benefits that have been taken place due to the project. Although several advantages are gained through this project the operators are not provided subsidies on time and some operators are not provided enough subsidy amounts to maintain their services. G.R.B.S has a significant impact on school trips of the children in selected villages and employment trips of the people. Further, to provide more useful service the time table of GRBS is needed to be coordinated with the timetables of buses, trains which have a grater demand from the passengers.
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Compensation system for road traffic accident victims
(2015-02-28) Piyasekara, ARR; Kumarage, AS
Worldwide over 1.3 million Persons killed, 50 millions injured in 2007 due to road traffic accidents. In 2004,Road Traffic injuries was the ninth leading cause of death.By,2030 it is estimated the fifth leading cause of death, beating the rank of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. It is the number one leading cause of death among vulnerable age group 15-29 years old.700, 000people were killed due to road accidents occurred in Asia and the Pacific Region in 2007. In Asia and Pacific region 98% of traffic deaths are estimated to occur in low and middle income countries. Sri Lanka experiences an increasing trend in road accidents during the last few decades. The cost of road accidents is estimated to be over 10 billion rupees per year, which include vehicle and road furniture damages, medical costs and police and other administrative costs. Ignoring safety hazards may lead to increase in the number of serious accidents. On the other hand having no positive measures towards reducing road accidents may lead to loss of confidence of road users. Traffic accident victims may suffer a great amount of damages. They are not only susceptible to bodily injuries but they may also succumb to financial problems arising from the hospital bills, medical treatment or rehabilitation. However, the trauma from such accidents seems to be immeasurable. As this trauma is often accompanied by pain, suffering and emotional distress, victims may not be expected to get on their feet as quickly as possible. Often times, after a traffic accident, most victims are simply overwhelmed by the barrage of telephone calls, insurance paperwork, accident reports, treatment costs, medical bills, paperwork and other correspondence. These may be too hard to handle for a victim who may want to rest and take a time off from distractions. Actually due to existing compensation system for road traffic accident victims in Sri Lanka, vulnerable road users are doubly vulnerable. Hence it is very important that the compensation systems and legal procedures should be simple and accessible to the victims of road traffic accidents. This thesis discusses the features of the post accident process, its impact on the road traffic accident victims and systems practicing worldwide to compensate road traffic accident victims. Key words: road safety, road traffic accidents, injuries, compensation, victims