TITLE:
Characterizing Peak-Time Traffic Jam Incidents in Kampala Using Exploratory Data Analysis
AUTHORS:
Sekalema Hamza, Umar Yahya, Abdal Kasule, Kasagga Usama, Pembe Fahad, Kamoga Ibrahim
KEYWORDS:
Motorist Behavior, Traffic Jam, Traffic Congestion, Urban Road-Networks, Motorized Transport, Traffic Clusters
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Transportation Technologies,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
31,
2023
ABSTRACT: Traffic congestion is associated with increased environmental pollutions, as well as reduced
socio-economic productivity due to significant delays in travel times. The
consequences are worse in least developed countries where motorized road
transport networks are often inefficiently managed in addition to being largely
underdeveloped. Recent research on traffic congestion has mostly focused on
infrastructural aspects of road networks, with little or no emphasis at all on
motorists’ on-the-road behavior (MB). The current study thus aimed to bridge
this knowledge gap by characterizing traffic jam incidents (TJI) observed over
a period of 80 days in Uganda’s Capital City, Kampala. MB as well as road
network infrastructural factors such as road blockage (RB), were captured for
each of the observed TJI. A total of 483 peak-time TJI were recorded, and
exploratory data analysis (EDA) subsequently performed on the TJI dataset. EDA
involved Hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and K-means clustering of the
TJI dataset, as well as a detailed descriptive statistical analysis of both the
entire dataset and the emerging TJI clusters. A highlight finding of this study
is that 48.2% of the observed TJIs were as a result of on-the-road motorist
behavior. Furthermore, the intervention of traffic police officers in a bid to
regulate traffic flow was equally responsible for 25.9% of the TJIs observed in this
study. Overall, these results indicate that whereas road infrastructural
improvement is warranted in order to improve traffic flow, introducing
interventions to address inappropriate on-the-road motorists’ behavior could
alone improve traffic flow in Kampala, by
over 48%. Additionally, in-order to effectively regulate traffic flow in Kampala and other least
developed cities with similar traffic congestion management practices, motorists’ on-the-road behavior ought to be
factored into any data-driven mechanisms deployed to regulate traffic flow and
thus potentially significantly curbing traffic congestion.