Predicting the effect of İzmir Ring Road on traffic flow at Altınyol

The importance of Altınyol as being the unique joint of Konak and Karşıyaka leads to solve the problems effectively which occur at this area. One of the purposes of constructing İzmir Ring Road is to share the traffic load on Altınyol. In this study, basic characteristics of traffic are estimated by using observation values from 1999, 2004 and 2007. According to these results, the changes of traffic on Altınyol and the effects of İzmir Ring Road is discussed. Due to the estimated values it?s seen that after the opening İzmir Ring Road, lane borrowing application is abrogated so vehicles are able to move on their own direction with no interaction with other cars from the opposite direction. This information is supported to the free flow speed estimated by the flow-density curves. On the other hand, although lane-usage demands do not change in time, it?s found that the excess volume on the borrowed lane is vanished. Keywords : İzmir Ring Road, Altınyol, lane borrowing, speed, flow, density, lane-usage, excess volume v