Developing trafficengineering guidelinesLessons learned developingguidelines for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

ITE – Santa BarbaraJune 26, 2012

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Project scope

● Develop recommendations based on industry best practices for:– Organization of municipal traffic engineering departments

– Traffic engineering policies

– Traffic engineering processes

– Traffic engineering guidelines

Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs Technical Agency

Project team

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Project ManagerEng. Andrew Berry

Traffic Engineering Experts

Prof. Al-Gadhi

Prof. Al-Ahmadi

Prof. Taylor

International Consultant ATKINS North America

Traffic Safety Expert Eng. David Sprague

Traffic Operation Expert Eng. James Hanson

Organisational Design Expert Mr. Ibraheem Asiri

Deputy Project Manager Eng. Mahmoud Sarhan

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Identified needs

● Conducted discussions with stakeholders (January 2010)– MOMRA

– Ministry of Transport (MOT)

– Riyadh Municipality

– Riyadh Traffic Police

– Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA)

– Dammam Municipality

– Jeddah Municipality

– Makkah Municipality

– Madinah Municipality

– Taif Municipality

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Summary of findings

● Some guidelines for traffic engineering do exist within the Kingdom

● Application of the guidelines is inconsistent

● Municipalities have an interest in improving safety and operations

● Municipalities want to know how to structure and operate their organizations

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Recommendations prepared

1. Organizational Design– Structure of the new departments of Traffic Engineering

and the ways that they can be organized and delivered.

2. Traffic Engineering Definition

3. Planning & Policy– Long term Planning

– Short Term Planning& Implementation

– Development Control

– Public Transport

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Recommendations prepared

4. Engineering Services– Intersection & Roadway Design

– ITS Design

– Operational Analysis & Engineering Studies

– Traffic Management & ITS

– Enforcement & Safety

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Recommendations prepared

5. Construction & Asset Management– Managing & Maintaining Assets

– Work Zones

– Diversions & Incidents

– Construction Management

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Definition of traffic engineering

● Traffic engineering is the art and science of planning, engineering and design, and operations and maintenance of roads, streets and highways, their networks, terminals, adjacent lands, and relationships with each other in order to safely and efficiently move people and goods.

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Process for developing recommendations

● Identified needs during our conversations with municipalities

● Performed evaluation of current state of the practice– KSA MUTCD, MOMRA, MOT, Riyadh

– USA MUTCD, AASHTO, HCM, ITE, APA, FHWA, TRB, NCHRP

– UK TSRGD, DMRB, LTN

– Other International resources

• Recommended guidelines torepresent industry bestpractices and to reflect needsin Saudi Arabia

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Lessons learned – traffic signal design

● Near side vs. far-side traffic signals– Benefits

● Reduce encroachment into pedestrian crossing

● Focus on traffic in intersection

● Lower speed through intersection

– Far-side● Signal visible in

intersection

● Permissive left-turnphasing

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Lessons learned – traffic signal operations

● Split phasing

● Traffic police run signals

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Lessons learned – all-way stop control

● All-way stop control ispredominantly only used inNorth America

● Recommended a hierarchy forevaluating/implementingtraffic control

1. Minor street approach yield

2. Minor street stop control

3. Roundabout

4. Traffic signal

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Lessons learned – trip generation

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Conclusion

● Question approach

● Research often

● Make informationapplicable andavailable

● Be willing to be wrong