The light traffic on nearly all major roads and highways, especially on Salwa, Doha Corniche, D Ring, C Ring and Old Airport roads, was in stark contrast to a usually busy Friday, especially in the afternoon.
Many motorists heeded to the earlier call of Qatar’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) on social media to drive at a slower pace to avoid skidding, which allows “the tyre’s tread to make more contact with the road and leads to better traction.”
“Make sure you reduce speed when the road is wet,” MoI said. Motorists were also advised to avoid overtaking and shifting lanes unnecessarily, clean their windshield and rear window repeatedly, and avoid driving through water-logged areas.
The rainfall also left water-logged roads in inner areas in Doha such as Abu Hamour, Mamoura, Matar Qadeem, east and west Al Hilal, Al Thumama, Najma, and Umm Ghuwalina, among others, in bad condition but remained passable to most vehicles.
Open spaces, normally used by some residents as their regular parking areas, have remained flooded, muddy, and inaccessible.
Apart from roads, the wholesale market also saw a slowdown in operations yesterday, which is considered a busy day for vendors, due to rains.
It is learnt that many regular customers opted for hypermarkets and supermarkets to buy their fish and vegetables to avoid the hassles of shopping in the rain.
Water-logged roads slowed down motorists at many places. PICTURE: Nasar T K
Scattered rainfall across Qatar on Friday, particularly in Doha, slowed down life, forcing motorists to drive in moderate speed on wet highways and arterial roads and sending many residents to malls and covered venues.
