Babak Mirbaha

• PH.D in Highway and Transportation Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at Imam Khomeini International University

This study introduces a novel model aimed at identifying traffic congestion, accidents, and other irregularities within transportation networks by leveraging a combination of unsupervised machine learning techniques and statistical models applied to speed time series data. The detection of congestion and accidents is a critical aspect of traffic ma...

The presence of unexpected conditions on the road increases the risk of collisions for drivers. To effectively manage these risks, drivers must first accurately perceive hazards and then respond appropriately. The behavior of drivers and their responses to potential road hazards are investigated in this study. It is possible that one motorist may o...

In an era of intense competition and declining profits, airlines are increasingly focused on understanding and meeting customer needs to enhance service quality and attract more passengers. Previous studies have often treated airline choice as a function of observed variables alone. This research fills the gap by incorporating latent psychological...

There is limited information on the influence of environmental and behavioural factors on cyclists’ risk perception. This study gives insights into the factors shaping cyclists’ perception of risk. Twenty-six cyclists were assessed for their psychological distress and previous cycling experience, following which their heart rate was monitored while...

This paper employed a stated preference approach to examine the long-term parking preferences of passengers at Imam Khomeini International Airport, with a particular focus on their propensity to use public and paratransit modes. A total of 377 passengers were investigated with 4 price scenarios and 6 mode choice options to access the airport, and d...

Little is known about the importance of different variables in shaping cyclists' risk perception when cycling in urban areas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of environmental and demographic factors on cyclists' perception of risk in urban cycling. We conducted a study in the central area of a large city, Qazvin, Iran. A linear mi...

Road authorities need efficient tools to assign a limited budget to safety improvement projects. The process of prioritizing safety improvement projects needs to predict the benefits and costs of projects. In real-life situations and also because of variances of crash frequency, crash modification factor (CMF), and imposed expenses, the forecast of...

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in traffic accidents. This study aims to analyze the effective factors in choosing the type of crossing by pedestrians. The required data were collected through interviews based on PBS questionnaire and video images of crossing pedestrians in Qazvin city. The observed variables such as individual chara...

Road traffic accidents lead to a higher rate of death and injury, especially in vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Improving the safety of facilities for pedestrians is a major concern for policymakers because of the high number of pedestrian fatalities and direct and indirect costs which are imposed to the society. This study focuses on th...

Pedestrian safety has become a serious problem with the rapid growth of motorised vehicle in transportation system in developing counties. Pedestrians often respond differently to changes in surrounding and traffic conditions. A study was undertaken to investigate pedestrians’ gap acceptance and the parameters affecting their risk-taking behaviours...

The study of evacuation behavior in response to disaster is necessary for emergency traffic management. As decision-making is not exclusively dependent on observable variables, in this research, it is attempted to study the evacuation choice behavior pattern in emergency response to earthquake disaster by considering both physical and behavioral fa...

The use of fibers and polymers in asphalt mixtures leads to improved quality, higher lifespan, and lower maintenance costs by making mechanical, physical, and chemical changes. This results in eliminating or reducing the weaknesses of mixtures in the production, implementation, and service phases. In this study, the Stone mastic asphalt mixtures wi...

The study of decision-making in response to earthquake disaster including evacuation and destination choice behavior is necessary for emergency planners in order to provide emergency traffic management and solve evacuation problems in transportation network. In this research, it is attempted to study the pattern of choice behavior in Qazvin transpo...

1 2 Child pedestrian injuries have become a major health challenge which needs preventive action. 3 Children are vulnerable members of the society due to physical, emotional, and psychological 4 characteristics and their low perception from the environment. The present study aimed to analyze 5 the effect of the road environment, traffic conditions,...

Urban street lighting is one of the effective measures to reduce the road crash frequency. In this research, it was tried to determine the crash modification factor for urban street lighting by considering the effective factors in crashes such as lane width and number of lanes, and then, the relationship between this factor and the intensity of lig...

Driving above the speed limit is one of the factors that significantly affect safety. Many studies examined the factors affecting the speed of vehicles in the simulated environment. The present study aimed to analyze drivers’ characteristics, time and weather conditions, and geometric features’ effect on mean speed in simulated conditions simultane...

The high-occupancy lanes are one of the urban traffic management strategies which has been implemented by many developing countries in recent years. High-occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes have been implemented in United States and Europe, but never in developing countries. Thus, considering such a study is necessary in Iran. In Tehran, significant shar...

The color and brightness of pedestrian clothing are among the factors that could increase the severity of their accidents due to the lack of visibility, especially at night. Today, as most Iranian females tend to wear hijab or dark clothing, the necessity of investigating female pedestrian accidents influenced by clothing color is important. Many s...

This study set out to model the traffic noise level at intersections as a function of a set of variables from traffic characteristics, geometric features, pavement surface condition, and traffic management. A drone was used to take the video from traffic flow at the same time as measuring traffic noise level via a sound level meter. Regression mode...

Speed choice behavior varies between drivers, so it is difficult to analyze and study. However, it is important to know about drivers’ speed choice behavior in terms of enhancing safety. Furthermore, due to the fact that crashes occur at high speeds, analyzing the behavior of drivers who tend to choose higher speeds compared to other drivers has mo...

Iran is located on a seismic belt and it is always in danger of earthquakes. Therefore, focusing on the trip choice behavior in urban road network is essential to manage earthquake disaster and confront its destructive effects. Since choice behavior is a function of interaction between physical and behavioral factors, it is attempted to study the p...

The aim of this research was to predict operating speed by considering geometric and roadside factors. Although most previous studies have employed linear regression modelling (LRM) to predict operating speed, this study recommends structural equation modelling (SEM) for the prediction of operating speed on rural multi-lane highways. In addition to...

Asphalt mixtures are the ultimate layer of flexible pavements and are directly affected by the damaging effects of weather conditions and stresses caused by traffic loads. Therefore, using a reinforcing agent to improve mechanical and functional properties of asphalt mixtures seems reasonable. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect...

This paper discusses the conflicts between vehicle flows and crossing pedestrians at multi-lane roundabout. The conflicts between pedestrians and vehicle in recent years had been of great importance and attempts have been made for analyzing this conflict in different urban street segments such as midblock and signalized intersections. In addition,...

Drivers usually experience dilemmas in stopping or crossing at the end of a green phase or the first seconds of a red phase. These decisions could be the function of drivers’ behaviour. The severity of drivers’ behaviour while crossing intersections can be related to different factors such as traffic, environment and geometric conditions of the int...

‎Route guidance systems, due to recent advances in technology, are emerging as a low-cost and fast solution to the ‎congestion problem in urban areas. Route guidance with the aim of minimizing total travel time (system optimum) causes ‎longer paths, and consequently more unfairness between individual users. Moreover, more congestion is created when...

Unlike the conducted studies in the field of reinforcing the asphalt mixture, this research has used the multi-criteria decision-making method to determine the optimal percentage of the asphalt mix, which was reinforced with rubber powder and carbon fibers. After adding different percentages of two kinds of additives, i.e. rubber powder and carbon...

One of the first and most critical steps involved in transportation studies is to determine the traffic zoning scheme. A traffic analysis zone (TAZ) is the main unit of the transportation analysis. In most transportation planning studies, the focus is only on the modeling process, while ignoring aspects such as TAZ definition, configuration, and de...

Motorcycles in Iran, especially in metropolises such as Tehran, are used extensively for various reasons such as low maintenance costs, high maneuverability, and the possibility of entering congestion priced zones without paying a toll. Nevertheless, motorcycles are involved in 25% of accidents and produce almost 30% of air and 50% of noise polluti...

Road authorities have to prioritize safety improvement projects due to budget limitations. This process needs to estimate expected benefits (reduction in average crash frequency) and costs of projects. Due to variances of crash modification factor (CMF), crash frequency and cost of projects, prediction of costs and benefits would be accompanied by...

Operating speed is an index that represents drivers' speeding behaviors on different highways and shows the comfort and safety levels they experience. Many models had been proposed in previous studies to predict operating speed and most of these works had used geometric, with few of them conducted using roadside variables to predict operating speed...

Speed is one of the most important issues that affect rural highways’ safety. Many researchers have reported that an increase in vehicles’ speed is accompanied by the increase of accident severity and probability of accidents occurring. Many models had been presented in previous studies to predict operating speed in four-lane highways. Most of thes...

Because of high number of fatalities among Pedestrians and the direct and indirect costs that is imposed to the society, improving facilities which make the cities much more safer for pedestrians has become a main concern for policy makers. This study focus on measuring the idea of the studied sample by examining the willingness to pay for facilita...

This paper presents and evaluates an application of a robust data envelopment analysis (RDEA) multi-criteria model for prioritising safety improvement projects with limited budget and data uncertainty. RDEA can be seen as an extension of classic data envelopment analysis (CDEA) that supports a more flexible and robust project selection by enabling...

Foggy weather can reduce visibility for drivers and one of the main consequences of this condition can be the change in behaviour regarding choice of speed, which will vary from driver to driver owing to their varying personal and socio-economic characteristics and driving experience. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of adverse weathe...

Speed is one of the main functional factors that affect road safety in terms of both collision occurrence and collision severity. Previous studies have shown that several roadside and geometric features affect road safety and operating speed. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of roadside and geometric features on operating speed and collision...

This paper aims to evaluate and compare the effects of different methods of ramp metering on the operational conditions of traffic flow at three levels: the network level (including the freeway and its connected ramps), the entrance ramp, and the upstream segment of the entrance. To achieve this aim, one of the most important urban freeways in the...

Traffic oscillation, stop and go traffic, is created by different reasons such as: sudden speed drop of leader vehicle. Stop and go traffic commonly is observed in congested freeways results in traffic oscillation. Many theories had been presented to define congestion traffic based on laws of physics such as: thermodynamics and fluid. But, these th...

Walking is the basic way of movement and the most environmentally sound mode of urban transportation. However, pedestrians sometimes are subjected to danger by engaging themselves in risky and unsafe behaviour during road crossing. Accordingly, in order to reduce the rate of road crashes and improve pedestrians' safety, providing preventive counter...

Analysis of vehicle speed with different weather condition and traffic characteristics is very effective in traffic planning. Since the weather condition and traffic characteristics vary every day, the prediction of average speed can be useful in traffic management plans. In this study, traffic and weather data for a two-lane highway located in Nor...

The cost of road construction or its repair is among the most concerns for the pavements engineers. Cracking and degradation is common mode of failure in asphalt pavements that occurs due to increasing traffic loads or even environmental conditions. For facing with these damages, some solutions are proposed including correction, quality improvement...

A Sudden speed drop in the leader vehicle of vehicle platoon results in propagating the deceleration wave from downstream towards the upstream flow. Points of wave propagation of the leader vehicle towards the follower vehicle identification are done based on Newell’s theory in trajectory data. Deceleration wave propagates based on two parameters,...

A Sudden speed drop in the leader vehicle of vehicle platoon results in propagating the deceleration wave from downstream towards the upstream flow. Points of wave propagation of the leader vehicle towards the follower vehicle identification are done based on Newell's theory in trajectory data. Deceleration wave propagates based on two parameters,...

A Sudden speed drop in the leader vehicle of vehicle platoon results in propagating the deceleration wave from downstream towards the upstream flow. Points of wave propagation of the leader vehicle towards the follower vehicle identification are done based on Newell's theory in trajectory data. Deceleration wave propagates based on two parameters,...

Providing sufficient supply considering future demand is one of transportation management policies these days. Urban multilevel highways can positively affect congested streets by increasing network operational speed and decreasing delay time though it is costly. The current paper aims to present a methodology for comparing the multilevelization ca...

The aim of this study is to assess and predict the effects of on-street parking cost elasticity on the mode choice behaviour of motorists. The stated preference method was used for data collection in the central business district of Qazvin, Iran, and the mode choice behaviour of motorists was modelled through different pricing scenarios. Using a mu...

The collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian usually ends in injury or the death of the pedestrian. Sometimes pedestrians put themselves in danger by engaging in risky and unsafe behaviors. While crossing the streets, pedestrians may get into collisions through inaccurate judgments about the gap between themselves and an approaching vehicle. Th...

During last decades, the dramatic increase in a number of passenger vehicles causes congestion on roads, and ensuing, travel time and air pollution were increased. Thus, authorities are persuaded to focus on the development of public transportation. In so doing, to increase the desirability of public transportation, three general approaches; namely...

Congestion pricing is one of the major travel demand management policies to reduce traffic volumes in metropolitans. One of the main factors for effective implementation of this policy is to analyze users’ response to different toll rates. In this paper, the willingness of users to pay for using their personal cars is evaluated. The stated preferen...

Studying experiences of other countries in implementation of even-odd zone shown their scheme had short time effects. Also, most of these countries only used police presence for enforcement of their schemes although congestion pricing zones in other countries used ITS technologies for enforcement of their scheme and get some positive results. Tehra...

Studying experiences of other countries in implementation of even-odd zone shown their scheme had short time effects. Also, most of these countries only used police presence for enforcement of their schemes although congestion pricing zones in other countries used ITS technologies for enforcement of their scheme and get some positive results. Tehra...