Evaluating and Improving the 14th of July Arterial Corridor

Lateef, Ishraq Mahdi; Abed, Alaa Hussein; Asmael, Noor Moutaz · 2026 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3311/pptr.39626

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study addresses severe traffic congestion on the 14th of July Arterial Road in western Baghdad, a critical urban corridor experiencing significant delays during the morning rush hour (7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.). The research aims to evaluate the current operational performance of the corridor and its intersections and to propose engineering improvements to enhance traffic flow, reduce travel times, and improve the Level of Service (LOS). The motivation stems from the road’s role as a primary route for trip distribution in western Baghdad and the negative impacts of congestion, including increased travel times, fuel consumption, and emissions. The methodology involved selecting a 3.1 km section of the arterial road comprising three links bounded by four major intersections: Aden, Sana’a, Tobji, and Al-Shaljiya. Field data collection included traffic volumes, geometric characteristics, and signal timing parameters gathered via manual counts and camera recordings on weekdays. This data was input into Synchro 11 software to simulate current conditions and evaluate performance metrics such as average delay, volume-to-capacity ratio (V/C), and LOS. To improve performance, the study proposed and simulated the construction of grade-separated overpasses at the intersections to eliminate traffic conflicts and increase capacity. Under existing conditions, the analysis revealed critical performance issues. Most intersections operated at LOS F with V/C ratios exceeding 1.0, indicating demand exceeded capacity. Specifically, the Aden intersection had a V/C of 1.98 and a delay of 302.8 seconds per vehicle. The arterial corridor exhibited high travel times, with northbound travel at 860.6 seconds and southbound at 989.9 seconds, both at LOS F. High fuel consumption (2,905 liters/hour) and CO emissions (54.02 kg/hour) were also recorded. After implementing the proposed overpasses, the simulation results showed significant improvements. Intersection delays decreased substantially, with LOS improving to B or D for all intersections. The northbound travel time on the corridor reduced to 372.5 seconds (LOS C), and the southbound travel time dropped to 249.6 seconds (LOS B). Individual link travel times saw reductions ranging from 47% to 89%. Additionally, fuel consumption and emissions decreased markedly due to reduced stop-and-go traffic. The study concludes that traditional signal timing adjustments are insufficient for addressing severe congestion on high-volume arterials, and geometric improvements like overpasses are necessary to separate traffic flows and increase capacity. The proposed engineering solutions effectively reduced delays, improved LOS, and lowered environmental impacts. The authors recommend future research incorporate economic feasibility analyses, explore intelligent traffic signal systems, and consider public transportation improvements as part of comprehensive traffic management strategies.

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• traffic density