Identification and Prioritization of Traffic Difficulties in Barakat Terminal of Mehran City on Arbaeen Annual Pilgrimage

Passenger terminals are among the vital infrastructures of cities and the intersection of suburban and interurban transportation and have an inalienable role in modulating the traffic pulse of cities and creating concentration and organization in providing intercity travel services. the city of Mehran and the terminal has a special position in terms of the entry and exit of more than 50% of the pilgrims to Atbat-e-Aliat during the Arbaeen Hosseini.

This research is exploratory in terms of purpose and applied in terms of type, which has a qualitative and quantitative approach based on content analysis method, confirmatory factor and hierarchical analysis process. The statistical population of the study for semi-structured interviews included 15 heads and managers of traffic police, the Highways and Road Transport Organization of the country and Ilam province who were selected by purposive sampling method. Problems identified by analyzing the content of the interviews resulted in the preparation of a researcher-made questionnaire to obtain the opinion of the community of police experts, Traffic Police and the Road Transport Organization of Terminals who had at least one year of service and participation in the Arbaeen Hosseini and Barakat terminals. The reliability of the questionnaire was high due to Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.827.

Three index problems; Infrastructure (general and technical-traffic), managerial (organizational and extra-organizational), partnership and cross-sectoral coordination (organizational and extra-organizational) were identified and confirmatory factor analysis by structural equation modeling showed that the indicators identified by content analysis, case expert approval as well. And based on the opinions of experts and specialists in the field of transportation, traffic and driving, in terms of traffic, 65% believe that the current location of the Barakat terminal is appropriate in the event of an increase in infrastructure.

The results of applying the hierarchical analysis process showed that management problems with a weight of 0.594 are in the first priority, infrastructure problems with a weight of 0.249 and participatory problems with a weight of 0.157 are in the next priorities. Among management problems, management within the organization is more important than others.