Jamal Banoon
Perhaps you put your hands on your head in frustration when you see the heavy rush of people and cars on the road while driving to reach a destination on-time. It could be a mind-boggling experience when you get stuck on a street and take an hour or more to travel about three kilometers. This causes many road users to lose their temper and patience, and even jump signals or pass through sidewalks, causing accidents. Needless to say, the case of low income people and their families who travel in old cars without air conditioners could be worse.
Making matters worse, many road users are reckless and do not abide by traffic rules and regulations. Some roads have detours due to maintenance works while others have potholes.
All these factors are contributing to making our roads a mess and creating a negative image in many respects, especially social and health concerns. There are over 13 million vehicles on our roads and more than 1,500 new ones joining the fleet daily. The roads and streets in major cities like Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Makkah and Madinah are witnessing heavy road rush these days. Ongoing massive construction and development works in these cities are contributing to this. The availability of cheap benzene or gas is one of the factors that prompts both Saudis and expatriates alike to buy more cars. The attractive offers from car companies have created a trend to buy new models. Some people say that the public transport system would help ease traffic jams in our cities. But I don’t think that this would bring about any positive change, especially when we consider the fact that there has been an annual increase of 20 percent in the sale of cars.
Once a reader asked me how is it possible to bring down the number of vehicles on our roads. I replied: “This is possible if there is an effective cooperation between the concerned government agencies and civil-society institutions.” Then, I added: “Initially, there should be a fee for using all public parking lots, in addition to the road levy for vehicles.
Malls and commercial centers shall impose fee for parking more than three hours, and there should be an entry ban for small vehicles to the Haram central area but there should be an exception for buses in this respect.
The current practice of public cabs moving around the streets shall be stopped and they shall be brought under a system where in they will deliver services by calls from customers. There should be no more government subsidy for benzene and bus services should be provided for government and private employees. It is illogical for a company to arrange parking facilities for 2,000 employees or even for 300 staffers, aside from those who go to offices to get things done. A private company should be assigned to collect the fee for public parking areas. There shall be an awareness campaign through print and electronic media about rationalization in the use of vehicles. I also told the reader that the concerned government departments shall be serious in taking such steps.
According to statistics, Saudi Arabia’s consumption of petroleum makes up 40 percent of its total production. In other words the Kingdom consumes four million barrels per day. This makes some people think that the Kingdom might start importing oil by 2030 to meet its requirements.
In the past, there were heavy traffic jams in most Chinese cities, especially in Beijing. Subsequently, the concerned authorities swung into action to put an end to the situation by launching a massive awareness campaign. As a result, 67 percent of people stopped driving their vehicles to travel between their workplace and home, and use the public transport and bicycle instead .
But here in the Kingdom, each household has two or more cars. Due to a driving ban for women, there are 1.5 million household drivers too. All of them are contributing their share to the traffic jams on our roads and streets.
