Putrajaya is a new federal administrative capital of Malaysia which has been set to achieve a 70% share of all travels by public transport in the city area. However, the current modal split between the public transport and private transport is 15:85. In order to understand travelers' willingness to use the public transport, a conceptual model has been developed to determine the factors that affect them to use the public transport instead of travelling in their own cars. Various variables such as service quality, environmental impact, attitude, and behavior intention were analyzed and tested using structural equation model (SEM). Results indicate that the service quality and attitude are found to have positive effects on the behavioral intention of taking the public transport. Other than this, this study also shows that the service quality and environmental impact have some positive influences on the attitude to using the public transport. However, environmental impact has no significant, positive, and direct effect on behavioral intention. The results of this study demonstrate that the model that was developed is useful in predicting the public transport and it could provide a more complete understanding of behavioral intention towards public transport use.
The main cause of problematic soil failure under a certain load is due to low bearing capacity and excessive settlement. With a growing interest in employing shallow foundation to support heavy structures, it is important to study the soil improvement techniques. The technique of using geosynthetic reinforcement is commonly applied over the last few decades. This paper aims to determine the effect of using geogrid Tensar BX1500 on the bearing capacity and settlement of strip footing for different types of soils, namely Al-Hamedat, Ba'shiqah, and Al-Rashidia in Mosul, Iraq. The analysis of reinforced and unreinforced soil foundations was conducted numerically and analytically. A series of conditions were tested by varying the number (N) and the width (b) of the geogrid layers. The results showed that the geogrid could improve the footing's bearing capacity and reduce settlement. The soil of the Al-Rashidia site was sandy and indicated better improvement than the other two sites' soils (clayey soils). The optimum geogrid width (b) was five times the footing width (B), while no optimum geogrid number (N) was obtained. Finally, the numerical results of the ultimate bearing capacity were compared with the analytical results, and the comparison showed good agreement between both the analyses and the optimum range published in the literature. The significant findings reveal that the geogrid reinforcement may induce improvement to the soil foundation, however, not directly subject to the width and number of the geogrid alone. The varying soil properties and footing size also contribute to both BCR and SRR values supported by the improvement factor calculations. Hence, the output complemented the benefit of applying reinforced soil foundations effectively.