Modelling Motorcycle Ownership In Malaysia.

High composition of motorcycles in a mixed traffic situation is common in most Asian countries. In Malaysia, there are approximately 5.8 million motorcycles on the roads and on the same note, accidents rate involving motorcycles are almost half of the total road fatalities recorded

Field study on the behavior of right-turning vehicles in Malaysia and their contribution on the safety of unsignalized intersections

AbstractBehavior of right turning vehicles in the context of safety is characterized by their use of turning indicators and compliance with the stop rule. They are influence by the width of the carriageway and the variation in volume on the major road with respect to the traffic moving in the near and far side direction. Other factors affecting the behavior are the speed and spacing between vehicles moving on the major road. Lack of adequate past knowledge on the effect of geometric variation in terms of road width and directional variation in volume on the safety of unsignalized intersections have provided the motivation for this study. This paper focuses on the many factors that affect the behavior of right-turning vehicles resulting into conflicts. A brief account of the unique indigenous maneuver termed as the “Weaving Merging Right Turn” (WMRT) is provided and its effectiveness with respect to conventional right turn is evaluated. Data of 39,016 vehicles collected on 10 sites between January and June 2014 was analyzed. Multiple accidents were observed only on sites which had near side traffic volume greater than far side traffic volume. This result remains consistent with sites having single as well as multiple lanes per direction on the major roads. The number of conflicts for vehicles performing the WMRT was 2.5 times less as compared to the conventional right turn. Moreover WMRT was found to be the maneuver of choice for right turning motorcyclists with 60% of them opting for it over the conventional right turn on intersections having major road width less than 9m. None of the motorcyclists, which were involved in a traffic conflict, were observed to use their turning indicator. Moreover none of the motorcyclists, which experienced a traffic conflict, were found to comply with the stopping rule at sites with major road width less than 9m. On sites with major road width greater than 9m, 45% of motorcyclists, involved in a traffic conflict, complied with the stopping rule as compared to 79% by vehicles other than motorcycles

Criteria influencing pedestrian-friendliness of first/last mile transit journey using Analytical Network Process (ANP) group judgement

The pedestrian-friendliness of the first/last mile (FLM) transit journey is one of the keys in influencing the quality of transit services. The demands of transit riders are increasing as they have started to ask for more than just accessibility which includes a good walking environment to access the service. Most local governments are aware of this as many of them have the guidelines in planning for a walkable transit services. However, they need to prioritise the criteria influencing pedestrian-friendliness accordingly. This paper proposes a framework for evaluating the priorities of criteria influencing pedestrian-friendliness by using Analytical Network Process (ANP) which relies on group judgement from experts who have wide knowledge and experience within the scope of the study. It can be conducted in six stages which are (1) determining criteria influencing pedestrian-friendliness (2) developing ANP model of the criteria and their dependencies, (3) obtaining experts judgement, (4) aggregating the criteria’s priorities, (5) deriving group judgement of the criteria’s priorities, and (6) ranking the criteria accordingly. In the end, this study will suggest the priorities for criteria influencing pedestrian-friendliness which can be used as reference in planning for walking environment to access transit services. This study highlighted nineteen criteria that could be used in representing the pedestrian-friendliness of FLM. Based on the analysis, it is suggested that from the nineteen criteria, the presence of signage showing direction is the most important criterion followed by roofed walkway, convenience in term of walking time, access to public parks and presence of traffic lights

Establishing Speed-Flow-Density relationships for exclusive motorcycle lanes.

The motorcycle is a popular mode of transport in Malaysia and developing Asian countries, but its significant representation in the traffic mix results in high rates of motorcycle accidents. As a result, the Malaysian Government decided to segregate motorcycle traffic along its new federal roads as an engineering approach to reduce accidents. However, traffic engineers needed to know the maximum traffic a motorcycle lane could accommodate. Despite substantial literature related to speed–flow–density relationships and capacities of various transport facilities, there is a knowledge gap regarding motorcycle lanes. This paper establishes motorcycle speed–flow–density relationships and capacities of exclusive motorcycle lanes in Malaysia. Observations of motorcycle flows and speeds were conducted along existing and experimental motorcycle lanes. Motorcycle speed–density data were aggregated and plotted for two types of observable motorcycle riding behaviour patterns that were influenced by the widths of a motorcycle lane: the headway pattern (lane width ≤ 1.7 m) and the space pattern (lane width > 1.7 m). For both riding patterns, regression analysis of motorcycle speed–density data best fits the logarithmic model and consequently the motorcycle flow–density and speed–flow models are derived. Motorcycle lane capacities for headway and space riding patterns are estimated as 3300 mc/hr/lane and 2200 mc/hr/m, respectively

Preference Of Travellers For Sustainable Transportation Planning Objectives In Klang Valley, Malaysia.

Achieving sustainable transportation is a global aim today. However, the actual implementation of sustainable principles is severely challenging the decision-makers.Various efforts attempted to reduce the ownership of private vehicles have not been fruitful. The failures may be attributed to the fact that public transport services are unable to provide effective travel needs as offered by cars

Assessing Travellers’ Perceptions For Achieving Sustainable Transportation: A Case Study In Klang Valley.

In Malaysia, alleviating traffic congestion in major cities has always been given the top priority. Despite various remedial measures and efforts to improve public transport in Kuala Lumpur, there are nearly 2.2 million private vehicles moving into the city centre daily

Identification of hazardous road sections: crash data versus composite index method

In current road safety practices, the identification of hazardous road sections are normally based on crash data. However, the information provided by crash data may not be adequate to explain the causal factors that lead to a crash. Therefore, a different kind of road safety indicator that can extensively describe the actual road environment problems of a road section is considered essential. This paper considered fourteen road environment indicators based on their abilities to portray current road environment conditions and their potential towards road crash incidence. These indicators were collected using naturalistic driving technique within the 80-km road length connecting Kuantan and Maran town in the state of Pahang, Malaysia in which the composite road environment risk index was finally developed. This composite road environment risk index is found to be a useful proactive method to identify the potential problematic road sections that require urgent road improvement works as compared to the reactive crash data analysis method

Development of composite road environment safety index

This study aims to develop a road safety index that combines selected road environmental characteristics in Malaysia. Firstly, 14 indicators that generally portray the Malaysian road environments were selected. Then, the final list of specific indicators for each road network was developed. The indicators were derived based on the specific criteria such as the objectives, method of measurement, quality, and expected outcomes of the indicators that may improve the overall road safety of the Malaysian trunk roads. The Malaysian Federal Road 12 was selected as the study area to assess the applicability of the theory. By employing the principal component analysis, four components were obtained and from the statistical weightage of the indicator in each component, the composite indexes were calculated. The results showed that the sections with low number of reported crashes were not necessarily safe for road users. Instead, poor road environment conditions may be highly hazardous to road users. The presence of heavy vehicles and motorcycles was found to be the main risk factor of crash occurrences on this road. Overall, the crash data may be supplemented with another proactive method in order to get a broader picture of the poor road sections

Passenger Car Equivalents And Saturation Flow Rates For Through Vehicles At Signalized Intersections In Malaysia.

Passenger car equivalents are used to represent the varying effects of mixed vehicle types on saturation flows by converting a traffic stream comprising of various vehicle types into an equivalent traffic stream comprising entirely of passenger cars

Carbon Monoxide Concentration Forecasting Using' Hybrid Radial Basis Function Network.

Neural network has been renown for its applications in many fields of research especially related to pattern recognition. In this paper, Hybrid Radial Basis Function (HRBF) Neural Network will be exploited to carry out the Carbon Monoxide forecasting