Evaluating the Impact of a New Ring Road on Urban Traffic in a Mountainous City: Amasya, Turkey

Öz

The road network in the city center is a critical element, not only for ensuring a comfortable and healthy lifestyle but also for fostering economic development. Therefore, road networks must meet standards of effectiveness, speed, comfort, and safety. However, achieving these standards can be challenging for some cities, such as Amasya. Amasya, a historically small city in Turkey, faces limitations in expanding road capacity or constructing new roads due to its geographical conditions. Instead, a ring road has been constructed around Amasya's city center to alleviate traffic congestion. This study investigates the impact of the newly opened ring road on urban traffic in Amasya. Manual traffic data for 26 links in Amasya's city center were collected over 11 hours (from 7 AM to 6 PM) before and after the ring road was opened. Under three different assumptions, 1-hour traffic flows for these links were estimated, and subsequent comparisons were made between traffic data obtained at two different times. The findings indicate a decrease in traffic for 92% of the links after the ring road's opening, with more than a 20% reduction observed in 35% of the roads. Statistical support for this decrease is provided by the paired t-test at a 95% confidence level. Additionally, taking into account seven pollutants, including Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbons (HC), Nitric Oxide (NOx), Particulate Matter (PM), and Sulfur Oxide (SOx), a 6.6% reduction in traffic-related air pollution was found following the opening of the ring road.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Ring road
• Traffic policy
• Transportation management
• Infrastructure design
• Traffic impact assessment

Destekleyen Kurum

No funding has been receieved.

Etik Beyan

Ethics committee approval is not required for the study.

Teşekkür

The author would like to thank the Amasya branch of the General Directorate of Highways, especially Mr. Ismet Tuzin, for allowing me to collect the data manually without causing any disruption to traffic or harm to the environment. In addition, special thanks are extended to Gizem Baş and Gökhan Baş for their valuable support in the data collection process.

Dağlık Bir Kentte Yeni Yapılan Bir çevre Yolunun Kentsel Trafik Üzerindeki Etkisinin Değerlendirilmesi: Amasya, Türkiye

Öz

Şehir merkezindeki yol ağı, yalnızca konforlu ve sağlıklı bir yaşam tarzı sağlamak için değil, aynı zamanda ekonomik kalkınmayı teşvik etmek için de kritik bir unsurdur. Bu nedenle yol ağlarının etkinlik, hız, konfor ve güvenlik standartlarını karşılaması gerekir. Ancak bu standartlara ulaşmak Amasya gibi bazı şehirler için zorlayıcı olabilir. Türkiye'de tarihsel olarak küçük bir şehir olan Amasya, coğrafi koşulları nedeniyle yol kapasitesini genişletme veya yeni yollar inşa etme konusunda sınırlamalarla karşı karşıyadır. Bunun yerine, trafik sıkışıklığını hafifletmek için Amasya'nın şehir merkezi etrafında bir çevre yolu inşa edilmiştir. Bu çalışma, yeni açılan çevre yolunun Amasya'daki şehir içi trafiği üzerindeki etkisini araştırmaktadır. Amasya şehir merkezindeki 26 yol için manuel trafik verileri, çevre yolu açılmadan önce ve açıldıktan sonra 11 saat boyunca (sabah 7'den akşam 6'ya kadar) toplanmıştır. Üç farklı varsayım altında, bu bağlantılar için 1 saatlik trafik akışları tahmin edilmiş ve ardından iki farklı zamanda elde edilen trafik verileri arasında karşılaştırmalar yapılmıştır. Bulgular, çevre yolunun açılmasından sonra bağlantıların %92'sinde trafikte bir azalma olduğunu ve yolların %35'inde %20'den fazla bir azalma gözlemlendiğini göstermektedir. Bu düşüş için istatistiksel destek, %95 güven düzeyinde eşleştirilmiş t-testi ile sağlanmıştır. Ayrıca, Karbon Monoksit (CO), Hidrokarbonlar (HC), Nitrik Oksit (NOx), Partikül Madde (PM) ve Sülfür Oksit (SOx) dâhil olmak üzere yedi kirletici dikkate alındığında, çevre yolunun açılmasının ardından trafik kaynaklı hava kirliliğinde %6,6'lık bir azalma tespit edilmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Çevre yolu
• Trafik politikası
• Trafik yönetimi
• Altyapi tasarimi
• Trafik etki değerlendirmesi

Kaynakça

1. Abdollahi, A., Pradhan, B., & Shukla, N. (2019). Extraction of road features from UAV images using a novel level set segmentation approach. International Journal of Urban Sciences, 23(3), 391–405.
2. Afrin, T., & Yodo, N. (2020). A survey of road traffic congestion measures towards a sustainable and resilient transportation system. Sustainability, 12(11), 4660.
3. Akyürek, D., Koç, Ö., Akbaba, E. M., & Sunar, F. (2018). Land use/land cover change detection using multi–temporal satellite dataset: A case study in Istanbul New Airport. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 42, 17-22.
4. Aylar, F., & Zeybek, H. İ. (2021). Coğrafi faktörlerin Amasya’da Kara ulaşımına etkileri. Doğu Coğrafya Dergisi, 26(46), 253–272.
5. Behçet, R., & Yakın, A. (2020). Malatya ili trafik kaynaklı hava kirleticilerinin emisyon envanteri. Journal of the Institute of Science and Technology, 10(4), 2783–2790.
6. Bhalla, K., Shotten, M., Cohen, A., Brauer, M., Shahraz, S., Burnett, R., …. Murray, C. J. L., (2014). Transport for Health: the Global Burden of Disease from Motorized Road Transport. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
7. Biçici, S., & Zeybek, M. (2021). An approach for the automated extraction of road surface distress from a uav-derived point cloud. Automation in Construction, 122, 103475.
8. Burnett, R., Chen, H., Szyszkowicz, M., Fann, N., Hubbell, B., Pope, A., … Spadora, V. (2018). Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(38), 9592–9597.

9. Cansaran, D. (2019). Gürültü kirliliği düzeyini belirlemeye yönelik bir çalışma: Amasya ili örneği. Ankara Üniversitesi SBF dergisi, 74(1), 89–108.
10. Coşar, A. K., & Demir, B. (2016). Domestic road infrastructure and international trade: Evidence from Turkey. Journal of Development Economics, 118, 232-244.
11. Cuci, Y., & Ergün Polat, E. (2015). Gaziantep’in Trafik Kaynaklı Hava Kirliliğinin Belirlenmesi. KSU Jornal of Engineering Science, 18(2), 1-11.
12. Efe, R., & Cürebal, I. (2010). Impacts of the “Marmaray” project (Bosphorus Tube crossing, tunnels and stations) on transportation and urban environment in Istanbul. In S. D. Brunn (Ed.), Engineering Earth (pp. 715-733). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.
13. Grote, M., Williams, I., Preston, J., & Kemp, S. (2018). A practical model for predicting road traffic carbon dioxide emissions using inductive loop detector data. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 63, 809–825.
14. Güremen, L. (2014). Amasya kent merkezi ana arter yollarinda trafik gürültüsünün trafik koşul ve standartlari yönüyle değerlendirilmesi. Engineering Sciences, 9(4), 26–47.
15. Kilic, B. & Sen, O. (2017). Analysis of air pollution caused by motor vehicles passing from bridges on the Bosphours over Istanbul. The 8th Atmospheric Sciences Symposium, 268-279.
16. Larue, G.S., & Wullems, C. (2019). A new method for evaluating driver behavior and interventions for passive railway level crossings with pneumatic tubes. Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, 11(2) 150–166.
17. Lemos, L. L., & Pasin, M. (2016). Intersection control in transportation networks: Opportunities to minimize air pollution emissions. In 2016 IEEE 19th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 1616-1621.
18. Leroutier, M., & Quirion, P. (2022). Air pollution and CO2 from daily mobility: Who emits and why? Evidence from Paris. Energy Economics, 109, 105941.
19. Mangones, S. C., Jaramillo, P., Fischbeck, P., & Rojas, N. Y. (2019). Development of a high-resolution traffic emission model: Lessons and key insights from the case of Bogotá, Colombia. Environmental Pollution, 253, 552-559.
20. Mutlu, A. (2019). Balıkesir şehir merkezi trafik kaynaklı hava kirliliği seviyelerinin analizi. Balıkesir Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Dergisi, 21(1), 152-168.
21. Onay, T. T., Copty, N. K., Gökçe, H. B., Aydın-Sarıkurt, D., Mumcu, M., & Arıoğlu, E. (2019). Air quality impact assessment for the Eurasia Tunnel in Istanbul, Turkey. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 191, 1-15.
22. Okur, C. (25 October 2020). Amasya Çevre yolu şehir trafiğini rahatlattı, şehirler arası seyahat süresini kısalttı. Anadolu Ajans. https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/turkiye/amasya-cevre-yolu-sehir-trafigini-rahatlatti-sehirler-arasi-seyahat-suresini-kisaltti-/2018687
23. Paľo, J., Caban, J., Kiktová, M., & Černický, Ľ. (2019, December). The comparison of automatic traffic counting and manual traffic counting. In IOP conference series: materials science and engineering (Vol. 710, No. 1, p. 012041). IOP Publishing.
24. Pu, Z., Guo, X., Li, Z., Jiang, Y., Wang, Y., & Zhang, C. (2019). Before-After Analysis of Safety Effects of Variable Speed Limit System Using Full Bayesian Models. In Proceedings of the transportation Researcj Board 98th Annual Meeting. Transportation Research Board
25. Rad, A. K., & Naghipour, A. (2022). Impacts of subway development on air pollution and vegetation in Tabriz and Shiraz, Iran. Journal of Air Pollution and Health, 7(2), 121-130.
26. Roess, R.P., Prassas, E.S., & McShane, W.R. (2011). Traffic Engineering. Marcia J. Horton (Ed.), Traffic Data Collection and Reduction Methodologies (pp. 148-165) Pearson/Prentice Hall, USA.
27. Shamsi, H., Munshed, M., Tran, M.-K., Lee, Y., Walker, S., The, J., Raahemifar, J., & Fowler, M. (2021). Health cost estimation of traffic-related air pollution and assessing the pollution reduction potential of zero-emission vehicles in Toronto, Canada. Energies, 14(16), 4956.
28. Tennøy, A., Tønnesen, A., & Gundersen, F. (2019). Effects of urban road capacity expansion–Experiences from two Norwegian cases. Transportation research part D: transport and environment, 69, 90-106.
29. TUIK. (2020). Turkish Statical Institute. Statics by Theme. Transportation and Communication. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Motorlu-Kara-Tasitlari-Aralik-2020-37410 (Access: 28.11.2023).
30. Turkish General Directorate of Highways. (2023). Highway Transportation Statistics/Motorway Inventory Data. https://www.kgm.gov.tr/SiteCollectionDocuments/KGMdocuments/Eng/Statistics/MotorwayInventoryData/LengthOfMotorwayByProvinces.pdf (Access: 20.10.2025).
31. Wang, H., Ouyang, M., Meng, Q., & Kong, Q. (2020). A traffic data collection and analysis method based on wireless sensor network. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2020(1), 1–8.
32. World Health Organization, (2016). Ambient air pollution: A global assessment of exposure and burden of disease. World Health Organization.
33. Yakın, A., & Behçet, R. (2019). Van ili trafik kaynaklı hava kirleticilerinin emisyon envanteri. Journal of the Institute of Science and Technology, 9(3), 1567–1573.
34. Zeybek, M., & Biçici, S. (2023). Road surface and inventory extraction from mobile lidar point cloud using iterative piecewise linear model. Measurement Science and Technology, 34(5), 055204.
35. Zhai, M., & Wolff, H. (2021). Air pollution and urban road transport: Evidence from the world’s largest low-emission zone in London. Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, 23, 721–748.
36. Zheng, P., & Mike, M. (2012). An investigation on the manual traffic count accuracy. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 43, 226–231.