Observed features of traffic flows in toll plaza of the Bosphoros Bridge

ABSTRACT Toll plazas were first utilized in 18th century to establish necessary funding for constructing and maintaining the roads. Studies that have been conducted in this area are dealt with reducing the lengths of queues and consequent delays in the plaza region through better management and geometric design. These studies have the aim of minimizing physical and psychological losses. For example, with the help of advanced technologies, drivers can pay the toll with the help of an electronic device. This improvement is proved to have positive effects on the total delay. In this thesis, the characteristics of traffic flow and queues in the plaza area were examined under the effects of different parameters (such as service times, the size of the queueing area etc.). In particular, the characteristics of traffic and queueing at the toll plaza of Istanbul Bosphorus Bridge and their effects on the overall performance of the toll plaza were analyzed. The issues like waiting time, queueing and congestion at the toll plaza of Istanbul Bosphorus Bridge, which serves nearly 94.000 vehicles (customers) per day, should be questioned in connection with operational efficiency. This research is aimed to analyze the efficiency of the Bridge's toll plaza under the light of previous applications. Analyzing the effectiveness of geometric and management features of toll plaza and examining the cause of problems like delay, queueing and congestion are within the scope of this research. With the help of geometric and operational features of the concerned toll plaza, we analyzed the current state and make some suggestions for amelioration. Keywords: Bosphorus Bridge, highway traffic flow, queueing, toll collection, toll plaza. xm