Author(s): Said Ali El-Quliti and Seraj Yousef Abed
Article publication date: 2013-12-01
Vol. 31 No. 4 (yearly), pp. 223-237.
291

Keywords

Traffic problems, King Abdulaziz University, University gates, University roads and parks and parking areas.

Abstract

There is no doubt that the traffic problem is one of the problems faced by universities in general، and in different intensities for roads، intersections and parklands. The negative effects of traffic congestion and bottlenecks are clear; they include extension of long waiting lines and increasing the time of transport with the consequences of ill effects. The effective solutions placed to resolve these problems need specialized studies relying on scientific methods for collecting and analyzing relevant data, and drawing effective conclusions, recommendations, and solutions. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the problems of traffic congestion in universities, with realistic application to King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah as a case study and to provide the best solutions to achieve fluent flow of traffic in the future. Due to the complexity of the problem and its huge data، and to facilitate the analysis process, the problem has been divided into three main sections: main gates، Interior roads and intersections، and car parking. The data is collected by four different ways: the use of automatic counting equipment which records the number of vehicles that pass in each hour during the period of counting manual method of counting through registration in a prepared form so as to record the number of vehicles located in the parking place during the each hour، interviewing and a survey of a random sample of students, faculty members, administrative employees, and university passers-by and visitors, as well as observing and recording traffic problems in some places of the university. It has been possible to reach a wide range of recommendations for gates، roads، and parking areas, to achieve the desired goals of ease flow of traffic now and in the future. The proposed solutions takes into account the simplicity, low cost, and non-recourse to destructive changes such as complete changing the place of the university، or demolition of all buildings and re-planning. The study gives also a set of conclusions that can be followed as an approach to study، analyze and solve the general traffic problems in other universities.