Improving the road network of Baghdad City to increase the safety of motorcyclists

Abstract

The increasing of population in Baghdad city with limited choices of transportation enforces people to choose motorcycle mode. This mode is preferable due to its simplicity and economically comparing with other modes of transportation, especially for low-income societies. The problem of this mode is the high accidents percentages. Accordingly, the city of Baghdad faced a challenge with increasing the motorcyclists in recent years. This problem is magnifying due to users who are not following traffic instructions. Besides that, the current road network did not get any modifications to handle this type of transportation. The absence of data related to the number of users and their characteristics decreases the problem’s solution. This study is a trying to figure out this problem by discovering the motorcyclist characteristics through distributing a questionnaire to about 500 users with different levels of educations and ages. The study revealed that the accidents are relatively high for most motorcyclists regardless their characteristics. The study recommended that the improvement of roads network should be started in the east part of the city where people are concentrated. The assessment of adding a lane for motorcyclists on a multi-lane roadway should be made before improving the whole city network.