Citizen-led traffic study · Western Province, Sri Lanka
Headline Finding
A citizen traveling this corridor loses around 5 minutes per trip to traffic — and that cost doubles in the evening peak.
One commuter, driving both ways daily, loses almost 10 minutes every day — about 40 hours a year. Multiplied across thousands of road users, this is a significant economic cost to the Western Province.
Time lost per trip (avg)
~5min
Worst time of day
19:00–21:00
Worst segment (K→M)
Kiribathgoda → Commercial Bank Makola
Readings collected
54+ growing
The Corridor
Where on the road the problem lives
This is a map-style diagram of the road between Mawaramandiya and Kiribathgoda. Each coloured bar is a short stretch of road between two landmarks. Longer or redder bars mean that short stretch is eating up more of your journey time than it should.
i
How to read this diagram: The top row shows the journey from Mawaramandiya to Kiribathgoda (M → K). The bottom row shows the same road going the other way, from Kiribathgoda back to Mawaramandiya (K → M). Each coloured bar is one measured stretch. The number above it shows how much of the total journey is spent on that stretch — for example, 25% means a quarter of your total trip is spent on that small piece of road. Green means that stretch is fine; amber means slow; red means a major delay.
Showing data for:Averaged across all readings collected so far.
◇Schematic · real map to be added
Share of journey time:Low (< 20%)Moderate (20–35%)High (> 35%)
Corridor Performance
How the corridor is performing, by direction
Average journey time, speed, and two engineering indicators (Travel Time Index and Level of Service) — in each direction. Plain-English summaries are shown beneath each number.
i
Data period:April 14–15, 2026 (23-hour reference sample). Live collection restarted April 16, 2026. This page will show continuous live data once the web server on the monitoring VM is active.
M → K
Mawaramandiya to Kiribathgoda towards the city
Avg Journey Time
12.1min
Best 10.5 · Worst 14.4
Avg Travel Speed
31.8km/h
Free-flow reference: 50 km/h
Travel Time Index (TTI)
1.58
58% longer than a free road
Level of Service (LOS)
C
Stable flow with delays · 88% of readings
K → M
Kiribathgoda to Mawaramandiya returning from the city
Avg Journey Time
14.8min
Best 13.2 · Worst 17.1
Avg Travel Speed
31.0km/h
Free-flow reference: 50 km/h
Travel Time Index (TTI)
1.62
62% longer than a free road
Level of Service (LOS)
C
Stable flow with delays · 95.6% of readings
!
Key finding — one direction is structurally slower. K→M is consistently 2.7 minutes slower than M→K across all hours — a 22% gap. The gap persists even at night (2.1 min), when the road is nearly empty. This points to a structural issue — road geometry, one-way sections, or signal timing — not just demand.
Live Readings
Journey time, every 15 minutes
Each point is one automated reading from Google's live traffic data. The higher the line, the slower the road. The evening peak (19:00–21:00) is clearly visible as the largest spike.
Travel Time · 15-Minute Readings
Each point = one 15-min reading. Evening peak (19–21:00) highlighted.
Showing: latest reading
M → K (Mawaramandiya)
K → M (Kiribathgoda)
Time-of-Day Patterns
When the road is worst
Hourly averages reveal the rush-hour profile. The evening peak is sharper than the morning peak, and both directions slow down — but not equally.
Hourly Average Journey Time
Peak vs Off-Peak Profile
Night (00–05)
Off-Peak
M→K: 11.2 min
K→M: 13.5 min
Morning (06–09)
Peak
M→K: 11.0 min
K→M: 15.0 min
Midday (10–14)
Shoulder
M→K: 12.6 min
K→M: 15.4 min
Evening (19–21)
Peak
M→K: 14.0 min
K→M: 16.2 min
LOS Distribution by Direction
Bottleneck Detection
Which specific stretches of road are slowest
Each direction of the road is divided into seven short stretches between named landmarks. The chart below shows how many minutes are spent on each stretch. The bar at the top of each chart is the slowest point — a likely candidate for road-engineering action.
i
Reading the charts below: Each bar = one short stretch of road named after a landmark. A longer bar = more time spent on that stretch. Two identical bars with different colours tell you which direction is worse at that same piece of road. These numbers use the same date and time-slot filter you selected above — change the filter to see how different times of day compare.
▲
The slowest stretches right now: K→M: Kiribathgoda → Commercial Bank Makola takes the largest share of journey time. M→K: Galwala Handiya has the slowest pace rate (2.36 min/km).
M → K · Segment Travel Times
Mawaramandiya → Kiribathgoda
K → M · Segment Travel Times
Kiribathgoda → Mawaramandiya
Segment Detail
Segment speeds, travel time and service grade
A table view of each stretch. Speed is the average speed vehicles are moving at. Time is the average minutes spent on that stretch. LOS is a quality grade for the road (A = free, F = gridlock). Congestion shows how much of the total journey that one stretch is consuming.
i
Note: These values are averages across all readings in the date and time slot you selected above. For example, if you chose Evening (16:00–21:00), each number is the average across every 15-minute reading taken during evening hours on that date. Change the filter to see how these numbers change by time of day.
M → K · Segment Speeds & LOS
#
Segment
Speed
Time
LOS
Congestion
K → M · Segment Speeds & LOS
#
Segment
Speed
Time
LOS
Congestion
Environmental Conditions
Weather and its effect on the journey
Each reading is recorded alongside the current weather from OpenWeatherMap. The monsoon season (May–June) will provide significantly more rain data.
☁
89
Cloudy readings
☂
2
Rain readings
°
26.4°
Avg temperature
◐
87%
Avg humidity
Rain Impact on Journey Time
Direction
Cloudy Avg
Rain Avg
Impact
M → K
12.0 min
13.2 min
+1.2 min (+10%)
K → M
14.7 min
16.1 min
+1.4 min (+9.5%)
Based on 2 rain readings only. Statistically inconclusive at this stage. Southwest Monsoon (May–June) will provide more rain data.
Data Source
Google Routes APISame traffic data used by Google Maps