Site potentiality mapping for petrol filling station based on traffic counts

Abstract

Site potentiality is an important factor that influences business success of a petrol station which relies on customer visits. In absence of the exact information on the number of customer visits, traffic volume can be chosen as a proxy to it through traffic-counts observation technique. A 2½-D surface of traffic volumes rendered using a regression model and geographic information system (GIS) can then be used to identify suitable sites for petrol stations. The study area is located within the Central Johor Bahru Municipality, Malaysia, covering the Mukim of Pulai and a part of Mukim of Senai-Kulai. Based on the model developed, it was found that sites along expressways have the greatest influence on traffic volume followed by situs accessibility, road direction to commercial areas, and segment’s population density. Overall, the predictive ability of the model was quite satisfactory. A GIS map of predicted site potentiality was then generated to guide on the spatial choice for locating petrol stations in the study area