Authors:
Hashem R. Al-Masaeid; Subhi M. Bazlamit; Audai E. Al-Zedaneen; Hazem M. Al-Mofleh;
Abstract:
In the Islamic religion, fasting is considered as one of the Islam’s cornerstones. In Jordan, there is a belief that traffic accidents are higher in the month of Ramadan compared with other months of the year. The major objectives of this study were to investigate the impact of fasting on traffic accidents and model traffic accidents in Ramadan. To achieve these objectives, twelve major urban multilane segments in Amman, the capital of Jordan, were selected. Data on hourly, daily and monthly traffic volumes and accidents from 2013 to 2017 were obtained from related sources.
Analysis results revealed that daily traffic volume values and hourly peak volume values in Ramadan as well as before and after Ramadan are approximately comparable. In contrast, results indicated that daily accident rate and number of accidents in Ramadan were found to be significantly larger than those before or after Ramadan. Using time-series analysis, ARIMA (9, 8) and ARIMA (7, 4) were found to be suitable to model daily accident rate and number of accidents in Ramadan, respectively. Finally, it was recommended to conduct
behavioral and medical studies in order to clarify the issue of accident increase in Ramadan.
Keywords:
Fasting, Ramadan, Traffic volume, Traffic accidents, Time-series analysis