(Re)Construction or Optimization of Tirana Transportation System? Which comes first? A case study of an Isolated Intersection in Tirana

Transportation system of Tirana Municipality has significantly evolved over the last twodecades. Besides the huge number of constructions, Tirana Municipality has invested a lot inconstruction and reconstruction of new roads resulting in a large transportation system. Thissystem has been expanded in order to meet the continuously increasing traffic demand.However, this situation has led to higher traffic congestion level since the other parts of theTransportation System such as intersection signalization, parking capacities and masstransportationfacilities, are neglected and not adapted to these changes. This researchanalyses an isolated signalized intersection by giving quantitative results of economical andenvironmental impacts. Analysis and simulation of an isolated intersection for the existingconditions is evaluated via SIGNAL2000 and Synchro6 software (microscopic simulation)under Highway Capacity Manual (HCM 2000). The same intersection is redesigned andoptimized to increase the capacity and decrease the delays. The optimization of the trafficsignal system is an important step towards successful traffic control, since delays in urbannetworks largely depend on the performance of the signal system. Comparison of existing andoptimized conditions emphasizes the importance of optimization of the transportation systemas the first and cheapest step to improve efficiency of the transportation system