Evaluation of Congestion Relief Proposals in a Capital City

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing three different solutions suggested for traffic congestion relief in Port Louis, the busiest city of Mauritius. It evaluates the impact of the three alternatives which are the use of Light Rail Transit (LRT) as an alternative mode of transport, the construction of a Ring road around Port Louis, and the upgrading of the current bus network into a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The impact of these three solutions has been evaluated by performing Traffic Cellular Automata (TCA) simulations. Our studies reveal that the Ring road will lead to more congestion while introducing the LRT or upgrading the current bus network will reduce congestion significantly.