Analyzing the spatial aspect of reversible lane applications in urban transportation systems

In metropolitan cities such as Izmir, where there is a high dependence on the traditional city center that trade and business areas are concentrated, traffic volumes are relying on capacity limits in the main transportation corridors that provide connection to the downtown. Especially during peak hours of traffic, it can be said that this situation has a general impact on the city in terms of environmental, economic and time, as well as causing negative psychological effects on users. In order to prevent problems in the traffic flow, local authorities are looking for instant solutions in addition to preparations such as transportation master plan in the medium and long term. Particularly in the main transportation corridors where the directional distribution of traffic is not proportionally balanced during peak hours of traffic, reversible lane applications are preferred which do not require significant physical regulation and investment costs. In this context, reversible lanes were applied in 1997 on Altınyol route in İzmir. In this study, firstly the effect of reversible lane applications on the road network (Altınyol) was analyzed using various performance criteria via SIDRA software. According to the model results, it was needed that another method should be considered for reducing the traffic volumes of Altınyol. In the next stage it was tried to be reduced by changing the area size of land uses. The effect of reducing the traffic volumes of Altınyol in the motorway network and the effectiveness of sub-center formation (increasing the spatial size of the land use type to be determined) on the main transportation corridors where the trip demands exceed the existing capacity were discussed. It is emphasized that there is a direct interaction between transportation and land uses and the findings that will guide the city planning studies are obtained.