Evaluation of Store Closing Policy for the City of Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[1]
Alaa Sindi, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
[2]
Abd El Halim Abd El Halim, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
[3]
Said Easa, Department of Civil Engineering, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.
The city of Makkah has many unique characteristics. One of its distinguishing features is that the city has a strict policy with respect to religious activity. All work places are closed during the five prayer times, and failure to comply with these regulations results in violation fines for business owners and operators. During prayer times, residents commute to the central area (Al-Haram), the closest mosques, or stay at home to pray. This paper aims to evaluate the difference in time expenditures between residents who perform rituals in Al-Haram and those who do not in order to help establish guidelines for the city’s store closure policies. A full-day travel diary for the residents of Makkah (which was collected in 2010 by the city’s municipality) is used to model activity duration using Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value model. Two models were estimated: the first considers seven out-of-home activity types (not including religious activity) and the second model considers eight out-of-home activity types (including religious activity). The outcomes of the paper are a set of guidelines for the city’s store closure policy that takes into account various activities and their respective durations, as well as a basis for improved public transportation.
MDCEV Model, Activity Duration Model, Store Closing Policy, City of Makkah
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