Analyzing the Traffic Operational Performance of School Pick-Up and Drop-Off Dynamics in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In seeking sustainable, safe, and efficient school commuting tours as non-recurring sources of congestion, it is essential to investigate the dynamic interaction between school students’ pick-up and drop-off (P&D) movements and the traffic operational performance of the surrounding area. This study investigates the traffic operational performance in the vicinity of schools at various P&D time intervals. The Travel and Planning Time indices (TTI, PTI), along with the Level of Service (LOS) are utilized as traffic operational performance indices in this article. A Python script was developed to employ the Google API for estimating the travel times from a real traffic dataset comprising 40 schools distributed across six cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results indicate that LOS varies from C to D for all cities except Riyadh, which exhibits the poorest traffic performance during P&D time intervals. This paper serves as a guideline for city planners and policymakers seeking to provide valuable insights to enhance traffic operational performance in Saudi Arabia.