Transportation Engineering
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- ItemRENEGING BEHAVIOR ON DRIVE-THRU QUEUES: A CASE STUDY-BASED APPLIED MATHEMATICAL INVESTIGATION(2023-03-02) Ayman Wasef Mohammad DbeisDrive-thru service was never exclusive for fast food restaurants only, but it is still more common for them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-thru services extended to the health sector as well, to maintain the physical distancing. Palestine barely includes fully-active integrated drive-thru services; however, an expansion for full infrastructure drive-thru services is expected in the near future. Whenever there is a need to obtain the service by queuing and waiting, queued customers show prominently their desire to be served as fast as possible. Impatient customers’ behaviors appear clearly in two main acts: reneging and balking. Reneging, as the main scope of this study, is one of ignored behaviors in queuing analysis, which makes analyzing and managing queues not reflecting the reality of queuing. This is due to the limited knowledge about such an event and factors leading to its occurrence. This research aims to reach a deeper understanding of the queuing theory and the queue’s characteristics, to make it more reflective and interpretive to real life queuing problems. This is done by analyzing the behavior of impatient reneging customers, and identifying how their decision is affected by the queue’s characteristics. Through non-participant observations, the required data were manually collected using surveillance camera recordings for Rio Café’s drive-thru service in Al-Bireh City. Given the purpose of this study, the data were mathematically analyzed to determine the probability distribution functions of the reneging behavior and the factors affecting waiting customers’ decision. In addition, linear and non-linear regression models were developed to predict the reneging rate and the relative frequency of reneging customers. The study showed that the exponential distribution is the probability distribution function of the time intervals between successive reneging events of at least one reneging customer per time interval. However, the reneging rate does not follow the Poisson distribution. It was concluded that the long waiting time is not the only factor causing impatient customers to renege on the queue, but other important factors affect this behavior. These factors are integrated and jointly distributed, leading to the customer's decision to leave the queue. Keywords: Reneging Behavior, Impatient Customers, Retention, Queuing Theory, Joint Probability Distribution, Spatial-Dynamic Modelling.
- ItemTRAFFIC SAFETY AT INTERSECTIONS: THE CASE OF TULKAREM, PALESTINE(2022-10-30) Mohammad Wael Abed Al-Fatah TeebiBackground: Research on traffic safety at intersections in Palestine urban areas is dearth. Data on traffic crashes between July 2016- 2021 for Tulkarem Governorate were obtained from the Traffic Police Department. Additional data were collected from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Ministry of Transportation. Aim: The aim of this research was to draw a comprehensive profile of road crashes at intersections in Tulkarem Governorate areas. Methodology: Two different approaches were used to identify the governorate's most critical sites: severity of injuries at intersections and crash rate per traffic volume. Analyses were performed on three levels: Tulkarem Governorate, Tulkarem city, and COVID-19 pandemic; examining trends, severity levels; and accident-causing factors, and spatial distribution. Results: Results revealed that Tulkarem city and the city’s Zone 6 were the most critical locations. Results also indicated that Thursday had the highest intersection crashes at all levels. The highest number of crashes at the governorate level occurred between 10:00-16:00, while for Tulkarem city the highest occurred between 12:00-20:00. During the pandemic, the highest were reported between 10:00-14:00. The spring season recorded the highest frequency at all levels, followed by summer, autumn, and winter. The percentage of males injured was higher than that of females at all levels. "Not giving right of way" was the highest cause in all intersection crashes in the governorate, while the ‘'over speeding" was the highest cause in the city. The number of crashes involving pedestrian injury was 15.88% of the total number of intersection crashes at the governorate level. Most injuries were for the 11-30 age group in the governorate and the city. Conclusions: The majority of crashes were caused by users’ behavior; therefore, it is strongly advised that nationwide awareness campaigns on traffic laws be launched targeting all road users (drivers, passengers, and pedestrians). The behavior of drivers and other road users should, therefore, be thoroughly studied. Another important and urgent need is the creation of a national traffic safety program. Keywords: Intersection safety; COVID-19; Tulkarem; crashes; pedestrians; Palestine.
- ItemSTUDY OF MOTORCYCLE SAFETY IN NABLUS CITY(2023-04-25) Mohammed Kamel Jalal Abdul HadiMotorcycle safety needs to be studied in the light of the increasing use of this mode in Palestine. Nablus Governorate witnessed high increase in the rate of licensed motorcycles during 2015-2021, and, therefore, it was selected to study motorcycle safety. The aim of this research is to highlight the motorcycle crashes characteristics, generate crash profile for Nablus City, and study the behavior of motorcyclists. This leads to propose countermeasures to improve motorcycle safety. Motorcycle crash data were obtained from Nablus Traffic Police Department covering the period from January 2019 to November 2021 for the city of Nablus. Additional data were collected from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Motorcycle crash profile is generated. Spatial analysis is conducted to generate motorcycle crash maps to identify the hazardous zones. Using footage from installed cameras at a representative intersection, the behavior of motorcyclists at the intersection is observed. Analysis-of-Variance Test is then used to determine if there are any significant differences between several aspects related to motorcyclists’ behaviors. The outcome of the research illustrates that May and September, Saturday, and the hour 15:00-16:00 were the most frequent and temporal during that period of time. The most frequent reason of motorcycle crashes was unsecured changing lanes. The most frequent motorcycle crashes zone is Al-Qirawan in Rafedia. Analysis of the behavior at a key intersection there shows that 70% of motorcyclists committed at least one behavioral violation. The study showed that the percentages of those with legal behavior and wearing helmets were only 12.7% and 5.1% of total, for the delivery and private use motorcyclists, respectively. Based on the analysis, there is lack of respect of traffic regulations by motorcyclists, and there is no effective enforcement to deter violators. More efforts need to be exerted by traffic police for strict enforcement of traffic regulations and motorcyclists’ violations. Proper education and awareness for the motorcyclists are needed. Keywords: Motorcycle crashes; crash profile; crash spatial analysis; motorcyclists’ behavior; Nablus; Palestine.
- ItemFEASIBILITY OF USING RECYCLED ASPHALT MATERIAL AS SUBBASE MATERIAL IN PALESTINE(2023-07-18) Ala’ Hejazi Suleiman GnuimatBackground: Road construction material is generally limited worldwide, including developing countries, in addition to their high prices and transportation cost. Previous studies on the use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) showed different percentages of the optimum RAP in the aggregate mix, which confirms the need for additional research in this field. Problem Definition & Objectives: The lack of natural resources significantly impacts the construction sector. The need for aggregates will grow as pavement development increases and the aggregate requirements need to be met. To produce better materials that are consistent with the requirements for subbase material, the study aims to determine whether it is possible to use RAP materials in the subbase by examining the viability of reusing milling material and combining RAP with natural materials in specific proportions. Methodology: The methodology included collecting three samples of milling material from each of three study streets in Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, then mixing them with subbase materials in specific proportions. A mixture of the two materials was made in varying proportions (10-60%) and the number of mixed samples was a total of 11 samples; each sample was lab tested three times. Results: The study's findings demonstrated that the quality of subbase materials can be improved by combining RAP materials with natural materials. It is also possible to improve these materials and address their deficiencies by blending them with RAP materials in proportions of (20–50%), resulting in a mixture with excellent properties and a cost reduction of more than a one third (33%). An optimum mixing ratio of 32.5% was attained in terms of the proctor test, sand equivalent, and California Bearing Ratio. Conclusions: At the optimum mix percentage, the mechanical properties of the mixture significantly improve. It was also possible to obtain materials with better properties so that its specifications are met up to 50% mix proportion. By using these materials, it is possible to save a one third of the cost as compared to the traditional cost when mixing by 30%, and to reduce the thickness of the subbase from 20 cm to 15 cm while maintaining the same efficiency. Keywords: RAP, subbase, mixture, Palestine.
- ItemDeveloping Trip Generation Models Using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System: Salfit City as a Case Study(An-Najah National University, 2019-12-23) Irshaid, MohammadIn Palestine, few studies that are concerned with the development of trip generation models have been conducted. The lack of specialized studies for this purpose may be related to several challenges that encounter the Palestinian situation, such as the restricted financial support and the lack of reliable data, which makes it difficult to perform such studies. These limited studies were developed using mainly the Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) approach, which sometimes would not result in appropriate models when dealing with interrelated and complex relationships among several socioeconomic variables. Therefore, this study was devoted to investigating the feasibility of using a relatively new method for data analysis called the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), as an alternative for the traditional MLR, and explore its application within the Palestinian context for the development of the home-based trip generation models. Through this study, four types of trip generation models were developed for the Palestinian city of Salfit; the ALLTRIP model for estimating the total number of daily home-based trips generated, and the other three models for estimating the number of trips generated based on trip purpose, which are the Home-Based Work (HBW), the Home-Based Education (HBE), and the Home-Based Other (HBO) trips generation models. These models were estimated and validated using a sample of 309 households, that was thoroughly collected for Salfit City in 2017. Each of these models was developed using the two competing approaches; MLR and ANFIS. The better performing and more suitable approach was then determined based on several evaluation criteria, such as the higher value of R-Squared, the lower RMSE, and the much closer outputs to the actual values. In this study, the ANFIS was able to outperform and develop more accurate models than the MLR when dealing with the ALLTRIP and the HBO, which were considered to be more complex than others, as they include wider data range, and constitute more percentage of daily trips generated. Whereas for the HBW and the HBE, both modeling approaches were performed nearly at the same level, the R-Squared values were large enough to capture most of the variations, and the differences between the performance measures were very small which could be neglected. On the other hand, there was a little advantage for the MLR in the validation process. For these two cases, the use of the MLR was considered to be sufficient. The robust comparison through this study reveals that the ANFIS represents a promising technique, that could be a good competitor for MLR approach, especially, when dealing with interrelated and complex relationships among several socioeconomic variables. The ANFIS was found to be a useful tool for modeling home-based trip generation for Salfit City, and its further applications in transportation planning studies were recommended.