IRJET- Study on Effect of Mixed Traffic in Highways
Expert Profile Updated
1. Rajiv Dinesh - Co Founder and Chief Technocrat, Medulla Soft Technologies Pvt Ltd
Rajiv is a Computer Scientist from IIT Delhi, who is passionate about the application of technology as a key
enabler in the transformation of Urban mobility. His work is primarily focused on research, development of
new products & service lines and advocacy of technology adoption by government agencies and Urban Local
Bodies for improving Indian cities.
Rajiv and his company Medulla Soft Technologies Pvt Ltd have worked with multiple city governments to demonstrate how simulation models can help objectively evaluate and optimize
interventions in Urban Mobility, including new infrastructure, Mass Rapid Transit Systems, traffic management techniques and disaster management. These optimizations, supported by
a wealth of quantitative traffic performance data (unavailable through conventional techniques), performed at the design stage can ensure mitigation of errors and ensure maximum
return (in terms of traffic performance) of investments made in this domain while minimizing collateral damage such as pollution and loss of productive time. In the context of a
developing country like India with heavily congested cities and limited funds, simulations can help enhance the social and economic value of urban interventions.
MST uses Hybrid simulations to achieve this objective, which can analyze traffic movement and vehicle-to-vehicle interactions at a micro level for local networks, while anticipating the
impact of local changes over the entire city at a mesoscopic level. This ensures that traffic problems are solved at a holistic level, and not by addressing the problems in local pockets
only which can result in merely shifting the problem elsewhere. The Company has been awarded and endorsed for its pioneering efforts by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad and the Department of
Science and Technology, Govt of India.
Rajiv's work with government agencies on policy matters includes introduction of mandatory simulation based analysis as a basis for impact assessment of specific infrastructure and
real estate proposals with various municipalities. Rajiv has conducted sophisticated research work with the University of New South Wales, Australia and TSS Transport Simulation
Systems, SL of Spain to model Indian traffic behaiour. This research has been based on extensive data collection in Indian conditions, followed by development of software models to
accurately capture non lane based heterogeneous traffic movement, which can be used for further insight into traffic behaviour. The research paper has been published by the Australian
Transport Research Forum (2015).
The simulation models developed based on this research have been utilized to develop a city wide base model for the city of Thane in Maharashtra, covering 300 intersections and over
280 kms of road. This city wide simulation model is not only helping to optimize upcoming infrastructure investment decisions for enhanced mobility, but will also act as a long term
asset on which changes in the city can be modelled and policies and development can be evolved to meet the needs of the emergent traffic conditions. Key stakeholders in the Ministry
of Road Transport & Highways and the Ministry of Urban Development are working with Rajiv to replicate the Thane model across other urban centres in India.
Rajiv's current research interests in this area include replication of emissions from various vehicle classes prevalent in India under varying speed and acceleration conditions, to enable
assessment of emission based environmental impact of different development alternatives using simulation models; optimized scheduling of construction and municipal work to
minimize traffic impact; and crowd management & evacuation planning for mega aggregations of people such as the Kumbh Mela. Rajiv is also working on policy level adoption of Long
Term Structural Health Monitoring using Fibre Optic Sensors for controlled lifetime extension, reduce maintenance cost and disaster mitigation for critical infrastructure.
Expert Profile