Showing papers by "Lina Kattan published in 2014"

Evacuation behaviour of households and drivers during a tornado

Abstract: With increasing concerns over the possibility of tornadoes in highly populated areas in Canada, emergency managers are looking into ways to mitigate the impacts of tornadoes. Given that tornadoes can cause enormous destruction, early warnings and proper evacuation actions are critically important in helping save lives. In this paper, a survey was conducted to analyse the evacuation behaviour of households and drivers during a hypothetical tornado warning situation in the city of Calgary, Alberta. Nearly 500 Calgarians took part in the online survey and provided information on how they would respond to tornado warnings after receiving them. This paper presents the results of the survey. Using probit models, the factors influencing these evacuation decisions are identified and discussed in detail. The results of the household evacuation model show the importance of improving awareness about the safest locations during a tornado. It further highlights the need for targeting the population under the age of 30, who are more likely to take unsafe evacuation actions. The model for evacuation of drivers shows that several factors, such as knowing the difference between a watch and a warning, awareness of safe cover, receipt of warnings through natural environmental cues and the level of education, trigger evacuation actions in avoiding a tornado threat.

Modeling Nonmotorized Travel Demand at Intersections in Calgary, Canada: Use of Traffic Counts and Geographic Information System Data

Abstract: In September 2009, the City Council of Calgary, Canada, approved Plan It Calgary, which proposed policies that focused on the development of resilient neighborhoods through the intensification and diversification of urban activities around transit stations and routes. More intensive development and mixed land use encourage nonmotorized trips and reinforce comfortable, safe, and walkable streets. The development of high-density, mixed-use, and transit- and pedestrian-oriented communities has the potential to generate shorter trips to destinations; these trips are expected to result in a higher share of active travel modes, such as biking and walking. Thus, there is a growing need to estimate the impact of land use development scenarios and transportation policies on bicycle and pedestrian demand to predict nonmotorized trip volumes and design the related infrastructure adequately. In this study, on the basis of multiple linear and Poisson regression models were calibrated to estimate nonmotorized travel de...

Modeling Riders' Behavioral Responses to Real-Time Information at Light Rail Transit Stations

Abstract: An advanced passenger information system (APIS) can play a significant role in improving the satisfaction of transit riders in the short term and increasing ridership in the long term. This research focuses on investigating riders' behavioral responses to en route real-time information on light rail transit (LRT). A survey was designed and conducted to collect LRT riders' behavioral responses by presenting hypothetical scenarios in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Two scenarios were examined: an estimated arrival time of 10 min for the next LRT and an LRT service interruption attributable to an incident or weather with no information on expected recovery time. The survey collected 505 responses. Four multinomial logit models were developed and calibrated to explore the factors affecting trip decision making for the described scenarios for commuter and noncommuter trips. The results led to the conclusion that various socioeconomic attributes (e.g., age, gender, and number of autos per household), experience with ...

Rail Transit Exploration with Emphasis on Networks with Ring Lines

Abstract: Regression analyses were performed to study the relationship between rail transit network parameters (e.g., length of line, age of the system, network topology) with city parameters (e.g., populati...

Factors Contributing to Police Attendance at Motor Vehicle Crash Scenes

Abstract: Police attendance at a motor vehicle crash scene is important for investigating the causes of crashes, reducing secondary crashes, managing traffic, and reducing congestion. However, very little research has been conducted to examine the factors contributing to the likelihood of police attendance. This study hypothesizes that the policies of the police services concerned, convenience and comfort, and expectations of injuries or driver violations will increase the likelihood of police attendance at a crash scene. This conceptual framework is supported by the results from fitting a logistic regression model to crash data from the City of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Dynamic Real-Time Ridesharing: A Literature Review and Early Findings from a Market Demand Study of a Dynamic Transportation Trading Platform for the University of Calgary's Main Campus

Abstract: The objective of this paper is twofold. The first part provides a comprehensive literature review on the state of the art and the state of practice of dynamic real-time ridesharing systems. The second part presents early findings from a survey on a social-network enabled dynamic peer-to peer dynamic ridesharing system called “FacePorter” at the University of Calgary, Alberta. A survey with a combination of revealed and stated preferences was conducted in order to evaluate the propensity among university employees and students towards participation in the FacePorting program. The survey‟s results confirmed some of the previous findings pointing to the influential factors in the success of peer-to-peer dynamic ridesharing, such as socio-demographic characteristics, attitudinal and behavioral factors, weather condition, ridesharing contribution fee, riders‟ profile and required incremental driving time. Furthermore, the survey‟s outcomes confirm that students are more willing to partake as ride-seekers in real-time ridesharing programs compared to university academic staff and employees. On the contrary, academic staff and employees seem to be more interested in offering rides.