Statement of traffic problems and proposals for a congested area within Baghdad city

Today, traffic congestion is one of the dominant issues of the cities. Traffic congestion effects life quality in addition to economic losses. Baghdad is one of the cities having heavy congested traffic. Delays and stopping's in the traffic have been rising due to increasing ownership of automobiles, lack of public transport infrastructure and disorganized or missing signal systems. This study includes research of potential capacity of intersections due to the inadequacies of the signal system and geometry instead of new infrastructure investments. An intense segment of the road network in Baghdad was selected and traffic counted for the study. The surveys for the selected segment were used for modeling of the study region in PTV-VISSIM along peak-hour period. The new signals phases were developed for non-signalized intersections and new signal timings were calculated for existing intersection after the software calibrated for an acceptable statistical meaning. SIDRA was used for signal optimizations. The calculated signal timings were entered in the VISSIM and selected performance variables of the network were compared with current state. The results of this study showed that delays and stops can be reduced by new signal systems and optimizing existence systems.