Developing traffic engineering guidelines Lessons learned developing guidelines for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ITE – Santa Barbara June 26, 2012

Project scope 2 ● 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 3 Project Manager Eng. Andrew Berry Traffic Engineering Experts Prof. Al-GadhiProf. Al-AhmadiProf. 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

Identified needs 4 ● 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

Summary of findings 5 ● 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

Recommendations prepared 6 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

Recommendations prepared 7 4. Engineering Services – Intersection & Roadway Design – ITS Design – Operational Analysis & Engineering Studies – Traffic Management & ITS – Enforcement & Safety

Recommendations prepared 8 5. Construction & Asset Management – Managing & Maintaining Assets – Work Zones – Diversions & Incidents – Construction Management

Definition of traffic engineering 9 ● 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.

Process for developing recommendations 10 ● 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 to represent industry best practices and to reflect needs in Saudi Arabia

Lessons learned – traffic signal design 11 ● 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-turn phasing

Lessons learned – traffic signal operations 12 ● Split phasing ● Traffic police run signals

Lessons learned – all-way stop control 13 ● All-way stop control is predominantly only used in North America ● Recommended a hierarchy for evaluating/implementing traffic control 1. Minor street approach yield 2. Minor street stop control 3. Roundabout 4. Traffic signal

Lessons learned – trip generation 14

Conclusion 15 ● Question approach ● Research often ● Make information applicable and available ● Be willing to be wrong