Researcher Profile
Mohammad NASER
Senior Transportation Specialist
SETS Intl.
IRF: What has your research revealed about the apparent disconnect between traffic growth and land use planning in large cities across the region?
Dr. Naser: The research and literature review showed that there are some serious efforts to develop and maintain a systematic planning process in most of the major cities across the region. However, due to the nature of the decision-making model adopted in those cities which is in most cases central and highly dynamic, there are many issues facing the ability to fully implement the strategies that were adopted on the ground. This is added to the unconventional urban growth challenges and changes (extreme shifts in the financial markets, mega projects being approved, and changes in regulations) which resulted in drastic changes to the traffic growth and patterns with the need in many cases to quickly address traffic problems which are not necessarily in line with the strategic plans that were developed for those large cities in the region.
IRF: What are Synchronized Split Phase Intersections, and what practical benefits do they bring to traffic engineers in Riyadh?
Dr. Naser: The synchronized split phase intersection is an unconventional geometric design that is used for surface intersections and could be applied under certain conditions with relative success when compared to the conventional geometric designs under the same conditions. The main concept from the design is to allow the through and left-turn movements on the mainline to cross over before the main intersection. For the main intersection traffic, the through and the opposing lefts can move concurrently during the same signal phase. This intersection can then operate with two phases. This unconventional design is perceived to be most beneficial in improving the level of service in locations where high left-turn and through volumes lead to high delays. The design enables the signal phases to be reduced by allowing movements from the ramps to proceed concurrently with the through movements on the crossroad. The result of this will be that signalized crossovers operate with two-phase signal control. As for Riyadh, there are many locations with very similar conditions to the case study and there are some serious efforts to apply such unconventional solutions there.
IRF: As a researcher, what are the main advantages of presenting your work at an IRF Congress?
Dr. Naser: The IRF conference represents a great opportunity to present the work to professionals and experts in the field alike. With the IRF’s unique focus on the practical development of professionals in the field, it provides an excellent platform for practical and innovative knowledge exchange. This is added to the fact that the work presented here is in line with the IRF philosophy of promoting better roads through development of new and innovative solutions and with the IRF presence in many countries and regions this work will reach a large audience in different parts of the World.
About Dr. Naser
Dr. Naser has gained more than 12 years of experience and research in the field of traffic engineering and transportation planning. He has a M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering with transportation engineering emphasis from North Dakota State University in the USA. He has been teaching transportation related courses at the civil engineering department for both the graduate and undergraduate levels at the University of Jordan since 2009. In addition, Dr. Naser worked on a wide variety of transportation studies and projects throughout his career assuming different roles and duties where he worked as a project manager and transportation planning specialist on many projects with different well-established engineering firms. His experience includes building and developing regional travel demand models, participating in developing and updating regional master plans, land use and development alternatives transportation analysis, multimodal transportation system analysis, and transportation user cost analysis.