الفهرس Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The Holy City of Makkah is honored by God to be most dear to the hearts of Muslims. All over the world, they should pray five times per day facing the direction of ”AI-Ka’abah” in the sacred mosque in Makkah centre. Every Muslim visits it at least once in life as a pilgrim (for Hajj), and also as a visitor (for Umrah). Due to its numerous religious functions, Makkah with about I.S million inhabitants has different travel patterns. At specific periods in the year, the daily number of Makkah visitors ITom out side of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exceeds 2.5 Million. They go to together to cretin places at precise times. The main places of interest are the sacred mosque in the central area of the city and the sacred shrines in its region (Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat). One of the main challenges is the lack of sufficient transport capacities (roads, public transport, and pedestrian facilities) which can face the enormous travel demands. The transport system is mainly a motorcar-based system. The results are traffic congestion, travel delays, noise, stressed nerves and pollution. The geographic and mountainous nature of Makkah makes widening roads difficult and expensive. The objectives of this thesis are: (1) analyzing the urban structure and the transportation infrastructure of Makkah, as well as the travel behavior in normal working day and during the different religious occasions, (2) identifying the current specific traffic and transportation problems of Makkah and the sacred shrines, and (3) preparing a methodology for the sustainable mobility in Makkah. The goal of this methodology is to pave the way to prepare a master plan for Makkah that represents its religious and community values. The philosophy of the master plan is based on the optimum use of existing roads by the introduction of fast and reliable public transport systems and the creation of m~re spaces for the pedestrians. Then, the car can get only the remaining area after the satisfaction of the higher priority road users. As an application of the suggested methodology, three different scenarios are prepared, each of which presents a vision of Makkah mobility in the year 2020 (scenario A: business-as-usual progress, scenario B: do-maximum solution, and scenario C: sustainable development). The three scenarios are compared with each other and their sustainability is analysed using sustainable indicators that measure various technical, economic, environmental and social impacts. The application confirms that a sustainable transport system in Makkah can provide
more mobility with less traffic.