Tidal flow operations (Reverse flow operation)
One of the familiar characteristics of traffic flow on any street leading to the city centre is the imbalance in directional distribution of traffic during the peak hours. For example, the moving peak results in a heavy flow toward the city centre, whereas the evening peak brings in heavy flow away from the city centre. In either case, the street space provided for the opposing traffic will be found to be in excess. This phenomenon is termed as ‘tidal flow’.
One method of dealing with this problem is to allot more than half the lanes for one direction during the peak hours. This system is known as ‘tidal flow operations’.
There are two methods for tidal flow operations :
1. To apportion a greater number of lanes in a multilane street to the in bound traffic during the morning peak and similarly a great number of lanes to the out bound traffic during the evening peak.
2. If two separate streets parallel to each other and close to each other are available, the wider street can be set apart heavier traffic both during morning peak and the evening peak. In this case, two streets will operate as one way streets.
