AMMAN – Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum (TAG-KF), a member of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global), held a specialized meeting to discuss the traffic congestion problem in Amman. The meeting convened under the patronage of HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global), with the participation of a host of officials, specialists and representatives of private and public sectors. The Public Security Directorate, the Traffic Department, concerned ministries, professional associations, the Greater Amman Municipality and civil society representatives also participated.
The purpose of the meeting was to identify the causes of the unusual traffic problems in Amman, and to come up with ideas and recommendations for resolving the issue, to be submitted to the concerned executive and legislative authorities, and to compose a specialized follow-up committee.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stressed the fact that the traffic congestion constitutes a major burden for the Jordanian government structure and the economy in particular; in addition to its psychological, economic and environmental impact on the citizens and the society.
Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh urged the necessity for introducing solutions and proposals that could help solve the problem or at least alleviate its negative effects through the available tools of the Knowledge Revolution and Information and Communication Technology which proved successful in different cities around the world.
Further, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh highly praised the efforts of the Public Security Directorate and the traffic police in carrying out their duties under difficult circumstances, urging all those concerned to lend them all the cooperation, the appreciation and the support they need.
For his part, Senator Issa Murad, head of the Labor and Social Development Committee at the Jordanian Senate, stated that the business sector is negatively affected by the traffic problems which leads to raising the cost of transport and shipping, and ultimately reflects negatively on the consumers' cost of living.
Additionally, General Manager of Jordan Express Touristic Transport Company (JETT), Mr. Malik Haddad, said that some regulations and laws in the transport sector are frustrating and need comprehensive revision to attract investments. He advocated the activation of the Transportation Law for the year 2017 which was issued and published in the Official Gazette but has not been enforced yet.
Furthermore, Vice President of Jordan Engineers Association, Eng. Fawzi Masad, stressed the need to toughen penalties on citizens and vehicles that violate traffic laws, calling for establishing interconnected systems in cities, shifting to smart cities and paying more attention to the environment by encouraging the use of electric vehicles.
In the same context, Eng. Reyad Al-Kharabsheh, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project director at the Greater Amman Municipality, said the transport sector suffers numerous problems including bureaucracy and lack of interaction and coordination among government institutions, highlighting the need for more investments in the infrastructure and mass transport projects.
Colonel Raed Al-Assaf, Director of the Capital’s Traffic Department, representative of the Public Security Directorate, pointed out that the bad driving habits are the major cause of traffic congestion, referring to the Traffic Department 2019 report which indicated that human error accounted for 98.2% of auto accidents, not the roads or the vehicles.
In the meantime, Director of Transport Safety & Environment Directorate at the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Majdi Barakat, affirmed that the transport sector suffers from the lack of administrative and regulatory stability and overlapping jurisdictions, calling for the preparation of a traffic impact study before permitting and granting building permits to any enterprise.
On the other hand, Executive Director of Road Safety Directorate at the Minister of Public Works and Housing, Eng. Sana Rawashdeh, referred to the importance of introducing educational material into the school curriculum to educate and raise awareness of road ethics and code of conduct.
The President of the National Forum for Awareness and Development and the National Youth Conference, Dr. Mohammad Al Badour, emphasized the importance of involving the youth in traffic awareness issues so that they can contribute to promoting a culture of compliance with traffic laws and rules.
To sum up, TAG-KF Executive Director and TAG.Global Education and Youth Consultant, Mr. Fadi Daoud, drew attention to the statistics that have been recently published by Numbeo which showed that Jordan ranked 14th worldwide, 2nd in the Arab world in terms of traffic congestions out of 85 countries, while Amman was ranked 41st out of 250 world cities on the traffic index.
It is worth mentioning that Numbeo is the world’s largest database that provides current and timely information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution.