Using GPS for Determining Level of Service for major and minor collectors in Lattakia City Center

Lattakia City has faced many negative impacts of the extending crisis that Syria lives, such as defensive arrangements of most governmental facilities, and refuging millions of other Syrian cities citizens. This new situation was reflected on the traffic conditions on most streets and roads of city, especially on center streets. In addition it caused many traffic congestions, which led to investigate and analyze the current situation and finding traffic solutions for reducing these congestions on center streets. In this paper, the “moving observer” concept was used to measure travel time and average speed on major and minor collectors in Lattakia center. The vehicle was equipped with a GPS to collect necessary information, a number of trips was executed during daily peak period and free flow speed; then the data was processed and analyzed to generate max, min, and average speeds, constructing LOS for these streets. Study disclosed low values of LOS for some major collectors in the city, and expressed the need to take urgent arrangements to increase LOS on streets. The efficiency of “moving vehicle” concept was proved in implementing traffic studies.

Studying the saturation flow according to HCM2010 and comparing it with the field saturation flow on the signalized intersections (Case Study: Tartous City)

The evaluation of the capacity of signalized intersections is one of the most important parameter used in the planning, design, operation and management of urban street networks. The calculation of capacity depends on the estimation of the saturation flow of the signalized intersections. The highway Capacity Manual (HCM 2010) is used to estimate and analyze the saturation flow. This method is widely used in many countries around the world, including Syria. It reflects the local conditions in the United States of America; therefore it may not be suitable for use in our local conditions. This study includes estimation of the field saturation flow depending on the headways between the vehicles in the queues, and comparing the field results of the saturation flow with the values resulting from using the HCM. The study was conducted on three intersections in the Tartous city. The analysis was based on data collection using video. The final results confirmed that there is a clear difference between the field measurement of the saturation flow and computation value, Which confirms that it cannot be used for our local conditions.

Defining Levels of Service for Arterials Surrounding Lattakia City Center

This research offers assessment of the urban streets in Lattakia city center. These arterials form main traffic links between major regions. Therefore, Traffic improvement on these streets will have great effect on improving level of service (LOS), increasing speeds, decreasing delay time, decreasing the emissions and traffic accidents. This research was done on six streets surrounding Lattakia city center for defining LOS. Floating vehicle was used in this study. Many trips were executed during free flow and peak periods for measuring free flow speed, Travel time and average speed. Every street was divided into many sections. This study uses field method and computation method adopted by Highway Capacity Manual (HCM2000) for defining LOS on streets and comparing results. This study showed low values of LOS for most sections and it indicated deference between field method and computation method. Also, it expressed the necessary to take suitable procedures to increase LOS on these streets.