Research Topic:

Creating Optimal Route Networks Related to Covid-19 Protocols

Review of Literature
A civil engineer designs and oversees the construction of public works including roads
and its route networks. Transportation networks affect the economic growth and development of
a community. Because of the growing concern in accident rate and traffic congestion, largely a
result of greater numbers of car ownership and use, transportation is considered as by far one of
the top developmental needs of the people. Also, the alarming cases of COVID-19 and its
implications lead to restrictions on human mobility and limitations on the use of public transport
(Tian et al, 2020). Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and the transition to a "new
normal" setting, local government units have had to enforce massive restrictions on public
transport in order to limit and reduce contact, transmission, and spread of the virus. These
transportation protocols and guidelines severely impacted the transport demand and passengers'
modal choices (Gutiérrez et al, 2020).
Under these circumstances, the importance of developing strategic networks enabling
sustainable transport paths can be highlighted. Identifying optimal networks of possible
alternative routes can be considered as one of those potential measures in improving the traffic
flows, alleviating the automobile congestion, providing the least cost path, and better utilization
of the network capacity and system performance of roads (Memon, 2005). It is important to
determine and identify alternative routes that will lessen traffic congestion and will allow cyclists
and drivers to ride at their preferred speed and with ease of mobility without the interference of
possible accidents between them and other motorists. By determining feasible loops for the
common modes of transportation during this pandemic, such as bicycle, pedicabs, motorcycle,
and tricycle, it can provide a range of practical travel choices that are interchangeable for
common roads and highways that are commonly congested with traffic and pedestrians.
Route assessment is always a fragment of route new planning requirements that involves
physical assessment of the proposed routes. This process helps in identifying and ensuring that
areas are appropriate alternate loop routes for particular vehicles. It also identifies if an area is a
high risk for drivers and passengers. The route assessment further determines safe stop areas,
road conditions, and applicable safety precautions which provides a better understanding of how
effective a route is. Therefore, destination is the factor to be considered because according to (S.
Wang et al, 2016), the existence of places of interest and the likelihood that large numbers will
wish to visit them are important factors to be considered by the civil engineers, urban planner
and transportation planner.
Indeed, it is vital that the routes are assigned in full consultation with all stakeholders
including engineers, consultants, and environmental experts among others. Transportation
planning is a complex process involving careful forecasting of future needs and study of existing
travel pattern in cities (Farooq, A et al, 2018).
References
Tian, H. , et al., 2020. An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days
of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Science , 368, 6491. doi:10.1126/science.abb6105
Aaron Gutiérrez , Daniel Miravet & Antoni Domènech (2020): COVID-19 and urban public
transport services: emerging challenges and research agenda, Cities & Health, DOI:
10.1080/23748834.2020.1804291
Memon, I. A., 2005. Application of geographic information system in transportation for road
network analysis (M.Sc). Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Civil Engineering.
S. Wang, L. Sun, J. Rong, S. Hao, and W. Luo, “Transit trip distribution model considering land
use differences between catchment areas,” Journal of Advanced Transportation, vol. 50, no. 8,
pp. 1820–1830, 2016.
Farooq, A., Xie, M., Stoilova, S., Ahmad, F., Guo, M., Williams, E. J., Mahamat Issa, A. (2018).
Transportation planning Through GIS And Multicriteria analysis: Case study of Beijing and
XiongAn. Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2018, 1-16. doi:10.1155/2018/2696037