Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

THE EXTENT OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN GUWAHATI, INDIA:A MULTI INDEX ANALYSIS

Masum Ahmed and Daisy Das

Abstract

Daily commute is a part and parcel of the human life but traffic congestion is a perpetual urban problemacross the world. This paper measures the extent of traffic congestion in Guwahati, the largest city ofAssam, India. Shifting commuters from the private vehicles to the public transport is often cited as thepolicy prerogative of transportation planning authorities across the world. The cited benefits are less trafficcongestion, lesser environmental and energy issues. To achieve this end measurement of the extent oftraffic congestion as well as understanding the modal choice of the commuters need are prerequisites andshould be at the centre of policy making. Based on a sample of 400 daily commuters across the Guwahaticity and with the help of a structured bi-lingual questionnaire we collected the responses on five pointLikert scale. We found that traffic congestion is prevalent in all the three zones of Guwahati as per theTravel Time Index criteria but its of “mild traffic congestion” category in all the three zones of “traditionalareas”, “newly established areas” and the “commercial areas” of Guwahati as per the Speed PerformanceIndex.