Despite a significant increase in the number of vehicles and population in Qatar, the road fatalities dropped gradually since 2015 until last year according to the General Directorate of Traffic statistics. In five years from 2015 to 2019, traffic deaths decreased by more than 70 cases.
In 2015, the total number of traffic deaths was 227 while in 2019 the number decreased to 154 death cases. “The statistics also indicates that the total number of road fatalities in 2016 was 178, while in 2017 the number was 177 and in 2018 it stood at 168,” said the General Directorate of Traffic on its official Twitter account.
It also said that General Directorate aspires and working hard to reduce traffic deaths to least in the coming years. The biggest challenge at present for the Traffic Department is to reduce the number of run-over accidents, which constitute 28.6 percent, from the statistics of 2019 which were separately released recently.
In its 4th annual Qatar Traffic Report (QTR) for year 2019, recently released by the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC), the average number of extra hours spent due to congestion is 92 hours per commuter in 2019.
The data also shows that the traffic conditions in Q4 2019 were about 12 percent better than those in Q4 2018. This indicates that road projects completed by Ashghal in 2019 had a positive impact on traffic flow.
The report further indicates that the opening of the Doha Metro has contributed positively to the traffic conditions late in the year by reducing the number of car trips, expecting traffic behaviour to keep improving as key ongoing road projects are completed later in 2020 and the full impact of Qatar Metro as a major and reliable public transport option is felt throughout the year.
According to the report; January, February, March 2019 were the most congested months in the year with a Congestion Index of 27.7%. The highest congestion period during the workdays is the morning peak (around 7-8am) during which the average congestion index is 30.1%.
Despite all efforts by the General Directorate of Traffic and authorities concerned, the Department said there are many challenges like running traffic awareness campaigns in different languages for expatriates of different nationalities.
Also, increase in the number of new vehicles and the increase in the number of drivers and population as a result of comprehensive renaissance projects.