Development of a Pavement Management System to be Used in Highway Pavement Evaluation in Jordan

Since year 2000, the main road network in Jordan has witnessed large developments in the fields of design, construction, evaluation and maintenance. This development aimed at keeping up with the socio-economical and social development and to accommodate the large increase in the number of vehicles of heavy loads and to contribute in reducing traffic accidents through constructing more corridors around the capital city of Amman. In addition, to rehabilitate and develop the present main roads and construct more new roads that link isolated areas with industrial centers and residential communities.The road network length in Jordan has increased to reach up to 8200km of major and minor roads. During the last ten years, expenditure on roads rose up to 547 million JD. This means that 76% of the allocated budget for roads was spent on road construction.The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MPW&H) has paid a particular attention to road maintenance with the purpose of conserving this national wealth in spite of the limited allocated amounts for maintenance and rapid increase in maintenance costs. MPW&H took the initiative and awarded maintenance of some of the major roads to Private Sector so that they could contribute in improving this sector. This helped in opening up the opportunity to exchange experiences and to be aware of the sate- of –the- art in road maintenance. The total expenditures on road maintenance for the same period rose up to 173 million JD representing 24% of the road financial budget. Road maintenance includes periodical maintenance, rehabilitation, improvement and reconstruction. This study aims at introducing the presently adopted pavement management system by MPW&H, showing its positive and negative points, along with suggestions for development. Keywords: Pavement management, Road maintenance, Pavement evaluation, Roughness, Serviceability, Crack

Traffic Safety in Sudan: Magnitude and Future Challenges

The performance of road safety in Sudan has generally deteriorated over the last few years as accident rates have witnessed a tremendous increase. The number of road accidents was 23850 in 2001 rising to a total of 38515 in 2005, then to 61428 accidents in 2010. The 2010 fatality rate of 38 per 10,000 registered vehicles is very high compared to Arab, developing and developed countries. This paper reviews the magnitude, trends and characteristics of road traffic accidents in Sudan in order to provide a better understanding of the road safety trauma. It discusses the future trends and challenges which are expected to have significant bearing on both short and long-term traffic safety development. Finally short term remedial measures and long term National Road Safety Strategy are presented and recommended for implementation

Traffic signal optimisation in disrupted networks

Transport has a critical role in economic development; an efficient transport system can enable economic growth and enhance social well-being. Road networks, as a part of a transport system, are among the most important lifeline systems. Urban road networks experience serious congestion because of infrequent major disruptions. Due to these disruptions the traffic system performance is reduced and the travel time and emissions in a road network are increased. This thesis describes a method for optimising traffic signal settings (i.e. green times and offsets) to assist drivers to avoid partial or complete blockages, to minimise the travel time or carbon dioxide emissions in the case of disruptions in road networks. This involves different capacity degradations (i.e. 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) with various durations (4 minutes, 20 minutes, 36 minutes, and 60 minutes). The Cross-Entropy optimisation method is applied, along with a static then a semi-dynamic approach, to optimise traffic signal control in disrupted road networks. This includes investigating two objective functions: minimising the travel time or minimising carbon dioxide emissions. The results for minimising the travel time, on the Cambridge (UK) network, show that applying the proposed method reduces the travel time by almost 6% in the case of a complete capacity reduction at the most congested node in that network, compared to not applying this approach. In terms of minimising carbon dioxide emissions, applying the proposed approach can result in almost an 8% reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions, in the case of a complete capacity reduction compared to not applying the proposed approach. An implication of these findings is that signal optimisation could be used as a means of reducing the travel time and CO2 emissions in disrupted networks. This thesis comprises two main parts divided into seven chapters. Part one provides an introduction chapter and literature review of the resilience of urban road networks, modelling disrupted road networks, traffic signals optimisation, and emissions modelling. Part two presents the formulation of the problem and solution methods, to optimise traffic signal control in disrupted road network

Examining the Determinants of Electric Vehicle Acceptance in Jordan: A PLS-SEM Approach

Recently, technologies for electric mobility have developed rapidly. Since the introduction and spread of Electric Vehicles (EVs), several studies have attempted to investigate the benefits and risks that impact on the growth of the EV market by evaluating data gathered from various drivers. However, some variables were disregarded such as: Public Involvement, Knowledge of EVs, Perceived Risk, Behavioural Intention, and EV acceptance. These variables are considered vital when analysing the intention to use EVs. Therefore, this study compiles the above mentioned variables to evaluate their effect on the intention to use EVs in Jordan. 501 collected responses were examined using the Smart PLS-Structural Equation Model algorithm. In general, the analysis revealed high levels of EV acceptance. The study proposed twelve direct relationship hypotheses. Out of these hypotheses, ten hypotheses were supported and two were rejected. The final conclusions are that an increase in public involvement is associated with an increase in knowledge of EVs, and an increase in their perceived risk. Moreover, the knowledge of EVs has positively and significantly influenced the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, along with EV acceptance. However, no relationships were found between the following: 1. the knowledge of EVs and perceived risk; and 2. perceived risk and behavioural intention