ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC AND POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS

The main factors reducing the traffic in Byala municipality are the unstable demographic development, the problematic age structure of the population on the territory of Byala municipality and the poor physical condition of the street network. This may be good for road maintenance and road safety, but it is a strong negative factor for the already volatile local economy. The traffic with cars and trucks has the largest relative share among the registered vehicles. The trend of increasing traffic in these vehicles is provided by the intensified construction of road infrastructure in the period 2007-2013 through EU funding and implementing transport policy to ensure connectivity and accessibility of regions within the EU on major transport corridors of the TEN-T network . The accessibility and connectivity of Byala Municipality is ensured through the road transport network, railway transport and the Danube River. Traffic data are changing to strengthen the role and relative weight of cars and trucks, namely the ability to provide connectivity through the newly built sections of road sections and junctions in the country during the programming period 2007 – 2013. Some of these transport links and junctions are on the territory of the North Central Planning Region – ferry connections, railway nodes, bridges and others. This justifies the role and place of road transport as important for the municipality of Byala. The place and role of road, inland waterway and rail transport in the new EU transport policy as a priority in the case of Byala Municipality will be a new catalyst for economic development combined with the completion of the TEN-T road network in the country, which will allow development. of modal transport in ferry connections. The data show that there is untapped potential in this regard at the expense of depleting the capacity of the road network of class III in the municipality.

The poor condition of the streets creates serious difficulties for their users. Travel becomes significantly longer, which increases people’s costs due to loss of time, and also significantly increases their direct material transport and operational costs – fuel and lubricants, costs for repair and maintenance of vehicles and more. This leads to a decrease in the mobility of the population and a limitation of the opportunities for business development of the regions. In poor road conditions, available detours prolong travel and costs. The lack of sustainable road safety solutions leads to an increase in accidents and trauma in these areas, which is reflected in an increase in the number of road accidents, fatalities and injuries. The poor condition of the streets deprives the municipality and the region of accessibility and connectivity to the main connections, nodes and corridors of the TEN-T network.

In the case of Byala municipality, the available transport network combines rail and road transport and to some extent compensates for accessibility, but does not save on travel and maintenance costs. The financing of municipal roads and streets is also an obstacle to realizing the benefits of the traffic on the existing road network. The construction, rehabilitation, repair and maintenance of the street network shall be financed from: (1) the state budget; (2) municipal budgets; (3) grants from European funds; and (4) loans.

For the purposes of this project, the road sections subject to rehabilitation and the main road corridors in the municipality of Byala were visited and direct observations were made on the intensity of traffic by counting certain time intervals and interpolations, taking into account fluctuations in its intensity due to periodic round-the-clock and weekly fluctuations in the number of vehicles passed. Where possible, data from automatic counting points were used.

It is no surprise to anyone who deals with these problems that the traffic on the main transit corridors through the municipality of Byala follows the national and world trends and every year increases by over 10% compared to the previous one. The first-class road I-5 generates the main load on the road network, which is partially distributed at Byala station (road II-54) and through the town of Byala (road II-51). On the territory of Byala municipality these are the only three road sections on which the traffic has parameters that have a significant impact on the condition of the road surface and the costs for its maintenance, as well as on the health and life of the people. Other points or sections with more intensive traffic (such as the intersection of Stefan Sambolov Street and road 501, for example) have far lower indicators, which cannot have a significant impact and have only temporary increases in traffic in the morning, evening and around some public holidays.

But the number of cars passing per hour / day has a direct and immediate connection with the frequency of road accidents. The traffic and especially the transit traffic on I-5, II-51 and II-54 have different structure and dynamics over time. This traffic has a much higher percentage of heavy trucks with more than two axles, it is high risk when passing through the city and is greatly influenced by climatic conditions and temporary (planned or incidental) changes in road conditions. Add to this the growing percentage of international traffic to / from Romania (with drivers who have different and riskier road behavior due to ignorance of the road conditions and the local characteristics of these sections), and well-defined areas with much more high frequency of the background of accidents with severe material damage and sometimes even casualties.

The tables below compare the dynamics of traffic by hours per day, by months and by years for the automatic counting points 2046, 2047, 3041 and 3048 of the Road Infrastructure Agency for the period 2015-2018 (data for 2019). at the time of preparation of this document have not yet been published by RIA), which operate in the municipality of Byala.

The data are indicative of the way in which the flows of Road Vehicles (VTS) are formed. The data are published by items, consecutively:

Map 1. Location of the Automatic Traffic Counting Points of Byala

Data on the course of traffic for the Automatic Counting Points on the territory of Byala Municipality

Average annual traffic flow for 2015 – 2019 at point 2046

Average annual traffic flow for 2014 – 2018 at point 2047

Average annual traffic flow for 2014 – 2016 in item 3041

Average annual traffic flow for 2014 – 2018 at point 3048

These data provide valuable information about traffic and its dynamics in the municipality. The dependencies can be traced not only in time, but also in the tendency of change of the percentage share of the different types of transport, especially the freight transportations and their absolute and percentage share of the total traffic.

In order to cover the traffic that deviates on the road II-54 in the direction Pleven – Ruse, in the municipality of Byala there is a situation in which 300 meters from each other there are two automatic counting points, and another 350 meters from the crossroads I-5 I road II-54, in the direction of Svishtov there is another point – 3048. This creates a situation in which as many as three points the number of traffic at a very short distance from each other.

Point 2046 road I-5 White

This is a point that registers the transit traffic in the direction Veliko Tarnovo – Ruse. Apart from being a first-class road on the national road network, it is also an international route, with a large percentage of freight traffic and cars of foreign citizens. This point, unlike 2047, registers only vehicles with a route on road I-5 or II-54, but not those that deviate on II-51 to Svishtov.

The typical trends for this point are the following:

There is an interesting trend for a gradual decrease in the total number of vehicles passed in the period 2014-2018. The maximum value was in 2016, when the total number of PPPs per hour was 522, and then gradually decreased by about 30-40 per year to reach 362 PPPs per hour. This is most likely related to the circumstances surrounding transit traffic and the way Romanian tourists and goods pass to and from Bucharest. The curve is also characteristic of the monthly course – the summer traffic of tourists who travel and return from a summer vacation in Greece is clearly expressed there. While freight traffic is constant, cars are definitely growing during the summer months. The picture is similar in the day – in the light hours of the day the traffic exceeds many times that in the dark, it is without pronounced peaks and is not affected from the beginning and end of the working day, but marks stable high values ​​of about 550-600 PPP per hour. in the interval of 10-16 hours. This means that the local traffic through this point is insignificant and cannot have a significant impact on the total traffic.

Point 2047 road I-5 Byala Station

The traffic through point 2047 is similar to point 2046 parameters, which is normal, considering that the two points are very close to each other. It has the same annual, seasonal, monthly and round-the-clock traffic flow, but still makes an impression that the traffic here is weaker, which is explained by the deviation of traffic on road II-51 (observed at point 3048) and on such , which comes from the south – on road II-51. However, the trend for the period 2015-2018 at this point is reversed and in 2018 it is growing, although only by 30 vehicles per hour.

Item 3048 Road II-54 Byala Station

Through this point, as well as in 2046, the traffic of trucks from Turkey to Central and Western Europe passes, due to which it is of high intensity. Of all the data reported in this report, this point has the highest intensity traffic and reports values ​​of around 500 PPP per hour during most of its operation. The reason is that this point collects the traffic from two important transit directions through the municipality of Byala – the first direction is Svilengrad-Haskovo-Stara Zagora-Veliko Tarnovo-Byala-Svishtov, and the other is Burgas-Targovishte-Byala-Svishtov. Here we can definitely see an equalization of the daily values ​​of the traffic, which takes into account the migration traffic to and from work at the hours around 9 and around 17. In this way the “plateau” is obtained during the day hours. As the share of freight transport is higher and because in a direction through which there is no direct connection with the Danube bridge cars avoid moving, in this case there is a slight seasonal change and activity is the same almost all year round. This, of course, also affects the round-the-clock flow of traffic, in which the curve is trapezoidal rather than a parabola. An important element of this point are the low levels of traffic in the hours from 23 to 6, but this is normal, because then the ferry Svishtov does not work and the vehicles have to wait in the parking lot, so they do not try to reach during these time intervals. .

Item 3041 Road II-51 White

This is the only point for counting the traffic, which is located in the outlines of the Town of Byala and it can be said that it also reports local traffic generated by traffic in the city (although not more than 7-8% of the total readings). . Since there is a tendency to reduce the traffic through the checkpoint in a multi-annual plan, it should be concluded that the traffic reflects a more global trend of decreasing economic activity, and not only temporary local reasons. It reports significantly lower levels of traffic than other points. The total levels of the average number of vehicles per hour remain around 0.450-500 vehicles for the period 2015-2018. There is also the typical daily peak around 5 pm, which reflects local traffic due to travel to and from work.