The Forecasting Model of the Impact of Shopping Centres in Urban Areas on the Generation of Traffic Demand

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

1. Were weather conditions, snow, rain taken into account? That is, when people can go to the shopping center and spend time there.

2. Were comparisons made with other cities? What decisions were made there?

3. What is the novelty of the model?

4. Is the model given in the article applicable to megacities where shopping centers and roads have already been built?

5. Is it possible to reduce congestion in the area of ​​shopping centers located in a megacity using this model?

6. Were weather conditions, snow, rain taken into account? That is, when people can go to the shopping center and spend time there. - Page 3, paragraph 125-137.

7. Were comparisons made with other cities? What decisions were made there? Page 3, paragraph 139-148. 

8. What is the novelty of the model? - Page 2, paragraph 69-80. 

9.  Is the model given in the article applicable to megacities where shopping centers and roads have already been built? Page 4, paragraph 149-157. 

10. Is it possible to reduce congestion in the area of shopping centers located in a megacity using this model? Page 5, paragraph 170-188. Comments on the Quality of English Language

1. 'Network' is not used in English in such sense.

Author Response

REVIEWER 1

1. Were weather conditions, snow, rain taken into account? That is, when people can go to the shopping center and spend time there.

Reply:

The influence of weather conditions on the generation of trips would have to take into account the level of precipitation, the time of rainfall, as well as other precisely defined factors that would have to be the subject of special research. We have added reference [5] Institute of Transportation Engineers, Trip Generation Handbook, 3rd Edition, September 2017 (page 3).

2. Were comparisons made with other cities? What decisions were made there?

Reply:

The proposed model is significant for the reason that it is the result of research that is rare in Europe and unique in the SEE region. For this reason, the research results could not be compared with other models formed for small and medium-sized cities in the region and Europe.

3. What is the novelty of the model?

Reply:

The proposed model is significant for the reason that it is the result of research that is rare in Europe and unique in the SEE region. For this reason, the research results could not be compared with other models formed for small and medium-sized cities in the region and Europe.

4. Is the model given in the article applicable to megacities where shopping centers and roads have already been built?

Reply:

The proposed model was developed and tested for small and medium-sized cities in the SEE region. Testing of models for large and mega cities was not carried out for the reason that no basic research was carried out on them.

5. Is it possible to reduce congestion in the area of ​​shopping centers located in a megacity using this model?

Reply:

The proposed model was developed and tested for small and medium-sized cities in the SEE region. Testing of models for large and mega cities was not carried out for the reason that no basic research was carried out on them.

6. Were weather conditions, snow, rain taken into account? That is, when people can go to the shopping center and spend time there. - Page 3, paragraph 125-137.

Reply:

The influence of weather conditions on the generation of trips would have to take into account the level of precipitation, the time of rainfall, as well as other precisely defined factors that would have to be the subject of special research. We have added reference [5] Institute of Transportation Engineers, Trip Generation Handbook, 3rd Edition, September 2017 (page 3).

 

7. Were comparisons made with other cities? What decisions were made there? Page 3, paragraph 139-148.

Reply:

The proposed model was developed and tested for small and medium-sized cities in the SEE region: Banja Luka, TUZLA, (Tuzla, Lukavac, Živinice), Bijeljina, Kragujevac, Šabac, Sombor, Sremska Mitrovica, LAZAREVAC.

The obtained model is applicable in the procedures of planning and operational analyses when selecting optimal locations for the construction of new shopping centres in medium-sized towns, i.e. locations with the least negative impact on the deterioration of traffic conditions. In The Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in other countries in the wider region, on daily basis there is an increasing number of shopping centres whose activities have a significant influence on travel patterns. Thus the model can be both applied in determining the rates of travel attractiveness for future shopping centres, and, indirectly, for a wider traffic system, channelization and control of the traffic nearby shopping centres, improvement of traffic infrastructure, and ultimately it plays an important part in everyday life as a support to future growth and development.

8. What is the novelty of the model? - Page 2, paragraph 69-80.

Reply:

The proposed model is significant for the reason that it is the result of research that is rare in Europe and unique in the SEE region. For this reason, the research results could not be compared with other models formed for small and medium-sized cities in the region and Europe.

9. Is the model given in the article applicable to megacities where shopping centers and roads have already been built? Page 4, paragraph 149-157.

Reply:

Please see reply to comment 4.

10. Is it possible to reduce congestion in the area of shopping centers located in a megacity using this model? Page 5, paragraph 170-188.

Reply:

For small-medium site cities, probably yes, but for megacities, it should be defined with new study and model.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

1. 'Network' is not used in English in such sense.

Reply
We are not sure which sentence you mean. Of course, in the end, the paper will be polished additionally.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper proposed to develop a model for objective assessment of the generated traffic demand for significant changes in land use, such as the construction of shopping centres in medium-sized towns. This paper focuses on the formulation of a model for determining the volume of traffic generated by shopping centres in medium-sized towns in two countries of the Southeast Europe region. The survey was conducted in 8 different locations (cities) where there are shopping centres with common facilities. The proposed model would be used in the process of traffic planning, which is essential for the planning of transport infrastructure, traffic and transport facilities and services, i.e. sustainable planning, investment and development.

Some considerations regarding the content of paper:

- The review of research on this topic is not bad, but there is only one publication of current year 2024. It will be good to show current researches on this topic.

- At the end of Introduction should be given information about the content of another sections of paper.

- The figures 1-2 and tables 1-17 are out of text borders.

- Table 1 was written instead of Table 2.

- The one term should be omitted after table 5.

-  The name of Table 8 should be on next page with table.

- Table 2 was written instead of Table 9.

- The name of Table 11 should not be italicized.

- The paper does not indicate which software tool was used to obtain the values of models in table 12.

- The finite equations on page 19 should be without a frame and have an explanation with “where” of what it is UPP.

- It would be good to indicate in paper which information technologies and frameworks can be used to determine the volume of traffic generated by shopping centres.

- References are not designed clearly according to the requirements of the journal, for example, references don’t have bold of year and should be without brackets.

- The text of paper should be carefully read and corrected errors in text formatting.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Authors should carefully examine and correct syntactic errors.

Author Response

REVIEWER 2

This paper proposed to develop a model for objective assessment of the generated traffic demand for significant changes in land use, such as the construction of shopping centres in medium-sized towns. This paper focuses on the formulation of a model for determining the volume of traffic generated by shopping centres in medium-sized towns in two countries of the Southeast Europe region. The survey was conducted in 8 different locations (cities) where there are shopping centres with common facilities. The proposed model would be used in the process of traffic planning, which is essential for the planning of transport infrastructure, traffic and transport facilities and services, i.e. sustainable planning, investment and development.

Some considerations regarding the content of paper:

- The review of research on this topic is not bad, but there is only one publication of current year 2024. It will be good to show current researches on this topic.

Reply: We have added three references through directions for future research.

1. Ristić, B., Bogdanović, V., Stević, Ž., Marinković, D., Papić, Z., & Gojković, P. (2024). Evaluation of Pedestrian Crossings Based on the Concept of Pedestrian Behavior Regarding Start-Up Time: Integrated Fuzzy MCDM Model. Tehnički vjesnik, 31(4), 1206-1214.
2. Na, Z., Stević, Ž., Subotić, M., Das, D. K., Kou, G., & Moslem, S. (2024). A novel interval rough model for optimizing road network performance and safety. Expert Systems with Applications, 255, 124844.
3. Kan, H. Y., Li, C., & Wang, Z. Q. (2024). An Integrated Convolutional Neural Network-Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory-Attention Mechanism Model for Enhanced Highway Traffic Flow Prediction. J. Urban Dev. Manag., 3(1), 18-33. https://doi.org/10.56578/judm030102
4. Kan, H. Y., Li, C., & Wang, Z. Q. (2024). Enhancing Urban Traffic Management through YOLOv5 and DeepSORT Algorithms within Digital Twin Frameworks. Mechatron. Intell Transp. Syst., 3(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.56578/mits030104

 

Also, directions for future research can be modeling and analysing similar traffic activities and processes using various methods like MCDM [52,53], neural networks [54], deep learning [55] etc.

1. At the end of Introduction should be given information about the content of another sections of paper.

Reply on comment 1: Thank you for your suggestion. We added it:

Besides the introduction section, the paper has been structured in the following five parts. The second section gives emphasis on the basic objectives, motivation, and purpose of the performed study, while the third section represents background in areas of exploration. The fourth part of the paper shows and explains the research methodology with a clear diagram of the research flow, performances of shopping centers, details related to data collection, performing experiment, etc. In the fifth section, results are shown in detail, and a discussion has been provided. The last section summarized main aspect of the paper with guidelines for future research.

2. The figures 1-2 and tables 1-17 are out of text borders.

Reply on comment 2:
Accepted and corrected.

 

3. Table 1 was written instead of Table 2.

Reply on comment 3:
Accepted and corrected.

4. The one term should be omitted after table 5.

Reply on comment 4
Corrected.

5. The name of Table 8 should be on next page with table.

Reply on comment 5:
Accepted and corrected.

6. Table 2 was written instead of Table 9.

Reply on comment 6:
Accepted and corrected.

7. The name of Table 11 should not be italicized.

Reply on comment 7:
Accepted and corrected.

8. The paper does not indicate which software tool was used to obtain the values of models in table 12.

Reply on comment 8:
Analysis was performed in IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software environment. This is mentioned on page 15.

9. The finite equations on page 19 should be without a frame and have an explanation with “where” of what it is UPP.

Reply on comment 9:
Accepted and corrected.

10. It would be good to indicate in paper which information technologies and frameworks can be used to determine the volume of traffic generated by shopping centres.

Reply on question 10:

The shopping centers that were the subject of research are not equipped with modern ITS systems for the detection of vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, so the traffic demand was determined by counting and recording in pre-prepared sheets. All surveys were conducted on a working day. Modern ITS technologies enable the formation of traffic demand databases for any period.

References are not designed clearly according to the requirements of the journal, for example, references don’t have bold of year and should be without brackets.

Reply on comment 11:
Accepted and corrected.

11. The text of paper should be carefully read and corrected errors in text formatting.

Reply on comment 12:
Accepted and corrected.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I think the authors have made a solid piece of work. I like the detailed description of the work, and in particular I like the way they show the data the research is based on.

So no real reason for criticism!

The literature review could be shortened down a bit, but that's not an important point.

New additions：

They have presented their data, clearly defined the limits of validity of their research, clearly described their methods. But then maybe, this could be more a consultancy task than a research report.

They have produced a model that seems to come out with good result within the range that they have investigated. But of course you could always ask questions like:

Does the model work in other parts of the world? They have partly answered this question.

There is a predicted increase in traffic, so what?

Does it lead to more air pollution, more noise, more traffic congestion, more accidents?

Maybe they should have asked the question. What will be next?

But all this is just speculation. They have defined a question, defines the range of validity, presented their data and their methods, presented their results. There is nothing wrong in this. Maybe they could have gone into the consequences of increased traffic.

I simply have no more comments.

Author Response

REVIEWER 3

I think the authors have made a solid piece of work. I like the detailed description of the work, and in particular I like the way they show the data the research is based on. So no real reason for criticism! The literature review could be shortened down a bit, but that's not an important point.

New additions：

They have presented their data, clearly defined the limits of validity of their research, clearly described their methods. But then maybe, this could be more a consultancy task than a research report. They have produced a model that seems to come out with good result within the range that they have investigated. But of course you could always ask questions like:

1. Does the model work in other parts of the world? They have partly answered this question.
2. There is a predicted increase in traffic, so what?

Reply on questions 1 and 2:

The proposed model was developed and tested for small and medium-sized cities in the SEE region. Testing of models for large and mega cities was not carried out for the reason that no basic research was carried out on them. The model was formed based on research conducted on a weekday in normal traffic conditions, including sunny weather, without heavy precipitation, wind, etc., and in accordance with the established practice in this area. [5].

Does it lead to more air pollution, more noise, more traffic congestion, more accidents?

Reply on questions 2 and 3:

By applying the model, based on the assessment of the increase in traffic demand, the effects of pollutant emissions can be analyzed, which can serve as an additional argument for decision-makers.

3. Maybe they should have asked the question. What will be next?

Reply on question 4:
Yes, we have answered on it through directions for further research:

The directions of further research should be aimed at improving the model for estimating the number of visitors and the number of vehicles visiting shopping centres analyzing other influential factors such as:

• the impact of public transport and cycling infrastructure,
• the location of the shopping centre in relation to the town centre due to the possibility of reaching the shopping centre on foot, micro-mobility means of transport or bicycle,
• the impact of the content and offer of the shopping centre,
• impact of previously built shopping centres in the area of impact, etc.

But all this is just speculation. They have defined a question, defines the range of validity, presented their data and their methods, presented their results. There is nothing wrong in this. Maybe they could have gone into the consequences of increased traffic.