The Effects of Roadside Friction on the Performance of Roads in Africa and South East Asia – A Review

Abstract

This paper is a review on the connection between socioeconomic activities and road networks. An important aspect of this is roadside friction which is simply defined as interaction of different activities on road carriageways and by the roadsides. It includes pedestrians crossing roads, pedestrians passing by the roadsides, on street parking of cars or buses, movement of slow moving vehicles like bicycle or non-motorized moving vehicles and commercialisation of the roadsides through hawking. This problem is more pronounced in the developing countries of Africa and South East Asia. The review evaluates the empirical studies on the effects of roadside friction on flow of vehicular traffic and road Loss Of Service (LOS) in the South East Asian countries of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia. In Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana were visited. The review revealed that vehicular speed is reduced, capacity and performance of road is reduced and pedestrians are disturbed whenever side frictional factors manifest. Some suggestions on the way forward are also presented.