Nablus City is a vital city in Palestine, and the city has a real importance due its location as a center of the north sector of the west bank and its economic importance; it has a population of about 126,132 people (Palestinian, Book annual statistical Nablus, 2010). The existence of an education institute of An-Najah National University gives it another advantage
The traffic congestion along Rafidia Street gates is a big problem. This congestion has become a real problem since An-Najah National University has been developed and began to accept large number of students which reached estimated to be 19,116 students (ANU,2011) divided between Old and New Campuses. In addition to large number of passengers use this road to serve their needs. Moreover, the accidents are taking place in this city as till now 495 accidents happened from the beginning of this year 2012 according to PMOT.
What is Streetcar?
A streetcar is a passenger rail vehicle that runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between suburban area, and/or between parts inside the city.
The graduation project report consists of six chapters. First, introduction and general background about the project, the second chapter includes public transportation and case studies about streetcars. Chapter four will include the analysis and results. The design of signalized intersection inserted in chapter five. The summery of the project and conclusion, and discussion will be in chapter six.
Overview
One of the most effective ways of controlling traffic at an intersection is the use of traffic signals. Traffic signals can be used to eliminate many conflicts because different traffic streams can be assigned the use of the intersection at different times. Since this results in a delay to vehicles in all streams, it is important that traffic signals be used only when necessary. The most important factor that determines the need for traffic signals at a particular intersection is the intersection’s approach traffic volume, although other factors such as pedestrian volume and crash experience may also play a significant role.
Traffic signal timing plans are developed on the basis of turning movement traffic counts aggregated to 15-minute intervals. These data are used to identify the peak hour (PH) and to compute the peak hour turning movement traffic volumes. They may also be used to compute the peak hour factor (PHF). These values are then used as input to the analysis methods defined in the AASHTO and Webster method will be used in this project.
The design of streetcar to connect the new campus of An-Najah National University with Old Campus and CBD Area is expected to help students and public people to travel easily since there are about 5000 student travel between two Campuses of An-Najah University, about 11000 student travel from two campuses to CBD, and about 14000 passengers travel from CBD to proposed stations.
The new design expected to minimizes the number of private vehicles and taxis; on the one hand, traffic going to the CBD, and on the other hand, between traffic coming from CBD.
The main problem is a high delay time for passengers, especially students to travel along wanted destination on Rafidai road. Therefore, the solution includes construction of trackway for the streetcar on the right side of the road, which form mix traffic with streetcar and vehicles on the road.
The streetcar trackway is designed to be a one-lane track (one track in one direction).