Abstract
Many urban areas in developing countries are experiencing serious traffic congestion. There are several obstacles to overcome in order to implement a travel speed survey (TSS) in these areas such as budget and time, lack of information on road segments, flexible operation of traffic control and relatively high deviation of travel speeds. Taking these obstacles into consideration, the methodology of an affordable and precise TSS with simple procedure can be developed. The methodology is tested with the field observation of the eight month TSS in the Colombo Metropolitan Area. Based on this, guidelines on the sample size of TSS as well as an appropriate method are proposed and discussed. It is understood that the development in methodology and findings can contribute to the practice of transportation planning in urban areas in developing countries.
