Effect of Median Application on Section Road Performance Based on Degree of Saturation and Speed at Road of Small Town in Lombok, Indonesia

Abstract

Road traffic safety is a global concern for people and governments. This is because unsafe roads are among the major causes of traffic accidents, which can result in severe injury and even death. One of the significant ways to minimize traffic movement problems, especially those related to road safety and comfort, is to build a median. Therefore, this research was carried out to determine the performance of roads with and without the median application using the TGH Ibrahim Kholidi road segment, West Lombok Regency, Indonesia. The road section is located in a small town with characteristics such as pedestrians, light and heavy vehicles, as well as traders who use the available inadequate parking spaces, thereby causing high side friction. A quantitative research with data collected by surveying the road section was subsequently employed to determine the traffic volume, speed, side friction, road geometric, and population from the 1997 Indonesian Road Capacity Manual (MKJI-1997) guidelines. The collected data were analyzed using the Separation Planning Procedure. The results showed that using the median increased performance by 45.7% compared to no median. This is in addition to a decrease in the Degree of saturation (DS) from 0.7 to 0.38 or from LOS C to B. Furthermore, the average speed increased from 32.4 km/h (without median) to 33.92 km/h (with median).