The crowds in Jeddah are no longer limited to weekends, all days are similar, so the measurement of distances on the roads in the Bride of the Red Sea has changed from kilometers to hours, here choking and there is unbearable traffic!
A street or street in Jeddah is not free from traffic congestion and confusion, and cars of all sizes and types are lined up over long distances and the boredom of waiting is only interrupted by the horns. In previous periods, the traffic confusion remained as if it were made for the summer. As soon as the vacationers leave Jeddah, the bride returns to her condition and the streets open their sails to the people.
Those days are over, as all or most of the roads are in a choking state and the highway between Jeddah and Makkah turns into a slow track and the color turns red on the road map.
Bridge projects have failed to facilitate vehicle movement, and Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Road has become the focus of a traffic jam, as vehicle queues extend from the east of the governorate to Madinah Road to the west, and not all solutions are you manage to deal with it despite the implementation of a number of tunnels.
Movement is slower than in the neighborhoods of Al-Tayseer, Al-Samer and Al-Hamdaniya, east of Jeddah, Prince Majid Road, Palestine, King Road, Corniche, Al-Sitteen and Saud Al-Faisal Road, up to the entrances and exits of Obhur Al-Shamaliya. It takes from a few minutes to hours.
One of the road partners, Saud Al-Mawlid, says that Jeddah governorate should now bear the name of the city of the crowd, because walking on it has become an adventure: “We spend long hours on the roads hoping to reach schools and our places. work We live under the weight of noise and noise pollution.
Bandar Al-Dakhil agrees with him, adding that the Bride of the Red Sea has turned into a traffic-choked city, and traffic solutions are absent. The specifics … We suffer during the daily commute, as the “journey” that took me back or forward less than 30 minutes has now exceeded an hour and a half that I spend inside my vehicle. “
Al-Dakhil attributes some of the causes of traffic congestion in Jeddah to the removal of the southern slums and the displacement of its residents to new neighborhoods, as well as the fact that roads in the governorate have remained unchanged without finding alternative routes. Why not assign positions for taxis instead of letting them run on already congested streets? Why are trucks not assigned far from the city center?
Naim Al-Juhani hopes for radical solutions to end the traffic jams east of the highway and put an end to the great congestion that plagues all roads in the governorate, with a planning review of all Jeddah’s entrances and exits, especially the east of the highway, as its streets suffer from traffic paralysis and many of its residents have preferred to move to other suburbs.
Al-Juhani explained that the current situation of congestion and traffic jams on the streets of Jeddah has reached an unbearable extent, and moving from one side to the other in Jeddah has become a real pain, despite the presence of security men on many roads. , so closing a path or stopping a security patrol to close an exit is not the solution.The Traffic Department and relevant authorities should study what is happening in Jeddah and find immediate and long-term solutions that take into account the movement of traffic from the south of Jeddah to the east and north.
Change of working hours..Does confusion cure?
Security expert, retired Major General Misfir Al-Juaid, confirmed that the tunnel and bridge projects failed to dissolve traffic jams, as well as the fact that the geography of the population has shifted from the south and center of Jeddah to its north and east, which was home to thousands of families, causing the streets to witness endless congestion. Al-Juaid added: I do not believe that any traffic solution will be able to facilitate vehicle traffic, and I suggest adopting the modification of the daily working hours in Jeddah for companies and government departments, so that they become eight o’clock. half past or nine o’clock, have time to deliver school students and thus reduce the pressure of vehicles on the roads. Al-Juaid expressed the hope of adopting distance learning as one of the current solutions, especially in the eastern and northern neighborhoods whose residents suffer greatly in their daily movements. The safety expert pointed out other causes of overcrowding, such as wrong parking, slow walking, closing of right-hand entrance lanes next to traffic lights or concern of vehicle drivers with cell phones.
Public transport and taxi applications .. suggested solutions
Retired Major General Salem Al-Matrafi confirmed that the number of cars is on the rise and that the roads within the governorate have not changed in years in light of the actual absence of alternatives such as public transport by buses and others. noting that finding radical solutions is not an easy thing currently in light of the displacement of hundreds of residents from south and central Jeddah to the east, therefore it is necessary to rapidly implement the public transport network, reduce the use of private cars, prevent the movement of trucks within the city, reduce the size of taxis and rely on applications.
This must also be accompanied by the widening of roads, the construction of new roads, the treatment of intersections and bridges, the speed to keep up with the increase in the number of cars and vehicles, and the diversion of truck tracks and heavy vehicles in the city, or the assignment of alternative roads.
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