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Dr. A. Gowri
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil Engineering Phone: +91-9486640274
National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal Email: gowri_iitm@yahoo.co.in
Mangalore-575025, Karnataka, INDIA

Education


Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Civil Engineering
Specialising in Transportation Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, INDIA, 2011

Master of Engineering Degree in Civil Engineering
Specialising in Urban (Traffic) Engineering
Anna University, INDIA, 2004

Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Geo-Informatics Engineering
Anna University, INDIA, 2002

Specific Expertise and Skills

Professional: Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics /Traffic
Simulation Software Development/ Transportation Models
/Heterogeneous Traffic / Traffic Control and Management
Strategies

Computing: Transportation packages: QRS, VISSIM
GIS software: ArcView, Arc Info
Programming: C, C++, JAVA, MATLAB

Language: English, Tamil (native)

Professional Experience
Nov 29, 2013 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National
-Present Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore,
Karnataka, INDIA

May 16 2011 Senior Project Officer, Centre for Excellence in Urban Transport
-Nov 25, 2013 (project sponsored by Ministry of Urban Development), Department
of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, INDIA

Evaluation of Car Following Models: Evaluation of different vehicle following models (Gipps,
IDM, Krauss and Das and Asundi) to find the suitability of following models under mixed traffic
conditions was carried out. Key insights arising out of the study are:
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Gipps and IDM models represent the observed conditions reasonably for aggregate (one
hour data) and disaggregate level.
Capacity is higher when the percentage of smaller size vehicles is more in the traffic
stream. Critical density is observed higher for large proportion of cars and heavy vehicles
in the stream. Das and Asundi model gives higher density and lower critical speeds for all
compositions than other models.
For different compositions, speeds are varying when there is higher percentage of smaller
size vehicles in the stream for all models at moderate to high volume levels. In contrast,
speeds are not varying for all volume levels when there is higher proportion of larger size
vehicles.
There is a need to select appropriate vehicle following models under congested traffic
conditions.

Speed-Flow Models for Undivided Roads: Study of traffic flow in a three-lane two-way
undivided road in the city of Chennai through developing multi-class speed-flow relationships.
The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:
For undivided roads in this study, non-linear models performed better in terms of Mean
Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for 2-wheelers whereas linear models performed
better for all other modes such as auto, car, LCV, bus and stream.
Bus is also found to be influencing the speed of the entire traffic stream followed by
Light Commercial Vehicles. This may be due to the fact that these two modes have larger
dimensions in relation to others and operate relatively more slowly than other mode
under congested condition.
Two-wheelers were found to be most-influenced by themselves followed by cars.

Exclusive Storage Space for Motorcycles: The composition of motorcycles on urban roads
(particularly in Chennai city) is high. Due to its high manoeuverability, motorcycles will almost
always attempt to get in between queuing vehicles to get to the front of the queue and as a result
many motorcycles will depart together within a very short time once the traffic signal turns
green. Hence, an exclusive storage space for motorcycles is allocated near the stop line at
intersections. For this purpose, the existing model was used to simulate traffic flow on Exclusive
Stopping Space for Motorcycles (ESSM) near stop line. The key conclusions arising out of this
study are:
When the motorcycle composition is dominant (80% and 70%), ESSM yields beneficial
results at higher volume levels, i.e., lesser delays. This holds true for control delays of all
vehicles as well as only motorcycles considered.
When the proportion of car (45%) and motorcycle (44%) is equal, ESSM is beneficial at
medium volume levels for all lengths of ESSM.
When the proportion of cars is dominant (70%), ESSM yields disbenefits, in general, at
higher volume levels and longer ESSM.

Mixed Traffic Characteristics: The influence of lane discipline, intra-class variability and
composition on traffic flow characteristics under mixed traffic was studied. The outcomes of the
study are:
Stream speeds vary significantly depending on levels of lane discipline, composition and
intra-class variability, particularly under higher volumes.
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Capacity is higher when there are a larger proportion of two-wheelers in the mix and
lower when the stream contains a larger proportion of cars and heavy vehicles.
With predominant share, two-wheelers enjoy better performance in the absence of lane
discipline. However, when cars and heavy vehicles have significant presence, the impact
of lack of lane discipline is much smaller.
Traffic management measures such as exclusion of auto-rickshaws and auto-rickshaws +
heavy vehicles are promising in improving stream speed and class wise speeds, for the
given study stretch and composition.

Driver Behaviour Models: Developing driver behavior models (car following, lane changing)
for mixed traffic and try to implement these models in traffic simulation model

Network Level Simulation: The existing traffic simulation model is being extended to include
both mid-block and intersection to form a linear section, which would integrate the whole
network and provide a broader view of the traffic flow on an urban street.

August 15 2010 Project Officer, Centre for Excellence in Urban Transport (project
-May 15 2011 sponsored by Ministry of Urban Development), Department of Civil
Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, INDIA

Headway Modeling: Vehicle classwise analysis of time gaps and headways under heterogeneous
traffic were made in the study. The outcomes of the study are:
Classwise time gap distribution models were developed and analyzed for different lead-
lag vehicle pairs in mixed traffic
Classwise following headway distribution models were developed and analyzed for
different lead-lag vehicle pairs in mixed traffic
Variation in time gap distributions across 2 lane and 3 lane roads was investigated

Aug 2004 Half Time Teaching Research Assistant, Transportation Engineering
- July 2010 Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras, INDIA

Ph.D Research Topic: Evaluation of Turn Lanes at Signalized Intersections under
Heterogeneous Traffic Conditions using Microsimulation Models

Research Contributions:
A microscopic traffic simulation model was developed for heterogeneous traffic flow at
signalised intersections and implemented in C++ language using Object Oriented
Programming (OOP) concepts
The developed simulation model was applied to study the traffic flow using a case study
intersection with and without (a) Right Turn Lane (RTL) and (b) Channelised Left Turn
Lane (CLTL).
The efficacy of RTL and CLTL was evaluated through sensitivity analysis by varying the
approach
Optimal lengths of RTL and CLTL for various scenarios of influencing variables were
determined volumes, turn proportions and turn lane lengths
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July 2002 Master Thesis, Accident Analysis using GIS A case study of
May 2004 Tiruchirapalli District, INDI

Publications
I nternational J ournals (Published)

1. Gowri Asaithambi, Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Karthik K. Srinivasan and Sivanandan, R.
(2012) Mixed traffic characteristics on urban arterials with significant motorized two-wheeler
volumes: role of composition, intra-class variability, and lack of lane discipline, Transportation
Research Record No. 2317, pp. 51-59.

2. Gowri Asaithambi, Venkatesan Kanagaraj and Sivanandan, R. (2009) Object-oriented
methodology for intersection simulation model under heterogeneous traffic conditions,
Advances in Engineering Software (Elsevier), Vol. 40, No. 10, pp. 1000-1010.

3. Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Gowri Asaithambi and Sivanandan, R. (2008) Development of
microscopic simulation model for heterogeneous traffic using object oriented approach,
Transportmetrica (Taylor and Francis), Vol.4, No.3, pp. 227-247

4. Gowri Asaithambi and Sivanandan, R. (2008) Evaluation of left turn channelisation at a
signalized intersection under heterogeneous traffic conditions, Transport (Taylor and
Francis), Vol.23, No.3, 2008, pp. 221-229.

National J ournal (Published)
1. Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Gowri Asaithambi, Karthik K. Srinivasan and Sivanandan, R.
(2013) Vehicle Classwise Analysis of Time Gaps and Headways under Mixed Traffic condition
for Chennai city. J ournal of I nstitute of Road Transport, Vol. 11, July-September 2013, pp. 1-
31.

J ournals (Under Review)
1. Gowri Asaithambi and Sivanandan, R. Evaluation of Right Turn Lane at Signalized
Intersection in Non-Lane Based Heterogeneous Traffic using Microscopic Simulation
Model, J ournal of Transportation Letters.
2. Gowri Asaithambi and Sivanandan, R. Evaluation of Intersection Traffic Control
Measures through Simulation. I nstitution of Engineers (I ndia).

I nternational Conferences
1. Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Karthik K. Srinivasan, Sivanandan, R. and Gowri
Asaithambi. Modeling Unique Merging Behavior under Mixed Traffic Conditions. 93
rd
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014, January 2014, Washington D.C.,
USA
2. Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Gowri Asaithambi, Naveen Kumar, Karthik K. Srinivasan
and Sivanandan, R. Evaluation of Different Vehicle Following Models under Mixed
Traffic Conditions. 2
nd
Conference of Transportation Research Group of India (CTRG),
December 2013, Agra, India.
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3. Balaji Ponnu, Jomy Thomas, Kartikeya Jha, Gowri Asaithambi and Karthik K.
Srinivasan. Vehicle Class-wise Speed Volume model for Three-lane Undivided Urban
Roads. 2
nd
Conference of Transportation Research Group of India (CTRG), December
2013, Agra, India.
4. Gowri Asaithambi, Yogesh Kumar, R. V. and Sivanandan, R. Evaluation of
Exclusive Stopping Space for Motorcycles at Signalized Intersections under Mixed
Traffic Conditions using Simulation Model 92
nd
Transportation Research Board Annual
Meeting 2013, January 2013, Washington D.C., USA.
5. Gowri Asaithambi, and Sivanandan, R. Traffic data collection and processing for
calibration of simulation model. International Conference on Advances in Architecture
and Civil Engineering, June 2012, Bangalore, India.
6. Gowri Asaithambi, Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Karthik K. Srinivasan and Sivanandan,
R. Mixed traffic characteristics on urban arterials with significant motorized two-
wheeler volumes: role of composition, intra-class variability, and lack of lane discipline,
91
st
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012, January 2012, Washington
D.C., USA
7. Venkatesan Kanagaraj, Gowri Asaithambi, Karthik K. Srinivasan and Sivanandan,
R. Vehicle classwise quantification and headway analysis under heterogeneous traffic,
90
th
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011, January 2011, Washington
D.C., USA.
8. Gowri, A. and Sivanandan, R. Evaluating the efficacy of right turn pockets at
signalized intersections under heterogeneous traffic conditions, In Proceedings of the
10
th
International conference on Applications of Advanced Technologies in
Transportation (AATT 2008), May 2008, Athens, Greece.
9. Gowri, A. and Sivanandan, R. Efficacy of left and right turn lanes at signalized
intersections under heterogeneous traffic conditions, International Conference on Best
Practices to Relieve Congestion on Mixed-Traffic Urban Streets in Developing Countries
(BPRCM 2008), September 2008, Chennai, India.

National Conferences
1. G. Sarishka, A. Gowri and R. Sivanandan Flow Characteristics of Heterogeneous Traffic
with and without Adherence to Lane Following. Urban Mobility India Research
Symposium, December 2012, Delhi, India
2. R. V. Yogesh Kumar, Gowri, A. and R. Sivanandan. Influence of vehicular
composition and lane discipline on delays at signalised intersections under heterogeneous
traffic conditions. National Conference on Urban Mobility- Challenges, Solutions and ,
July 2012, Chennai, India
3. Gowri, A. and R. Sivanandan. Microsimulation modeling framework for evaluating turn
lanes at signalised intersections. Conference on Infrastructure, Sustainable
Transportation and Urban Planning, CD ROM, October 2010, Bangalore, India.
4. Gowri, A. and Sivanandan, R. Simulating heterogeneous traffic flow at urban
signalized intersections, National conference on Sustainable Urban Transportation
Issues and Management Strategies, December 2007, Surat, India.
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5. Gowri, A. and Subramanian, K. P. Accident analysis using GIS. National Conference
on GIS Development: prospects, Methodologies and Applications, March 2004, Chennai,
India.

Honours /Fellowships and Grants
C.T. Sriramalu Award for Scoring Highest Marks in Master Degree (2003) awarded by College
of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, India.
Gold Medal for First Rank (2004) in Master Degree awarded by Anna University, India
Qualified for the Half-time Teaching and Research Assistantship (HTRA) to pursue Doctoral
Programme at IIT Madras from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),
Government of India, August 2004-July 2009.
Received International Travel Grant from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, to present my
research work in Athens, Greece, 2008.
Received International Travel Grant from Department of Science and Technology, India to
present my research work in TRB Annual Meeting 2011, Washington D.C., USA.

Professional training/workshops/short term courses attended
Attended Faculty Development Programme for Newly Recruited Faculty at NITK,
Surathkal during 16
th
December-26
th
December, 2013.
Two days workshop on Sustainable Urban Freight Transport at IIT Madras, Chennai on June
2013.