Qmic report highlights Qatar’s road network resilience

The great resilience of Qatar’s road network during the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been highlighted in the 8th edition of the Qatar Traffic Report (QTR) in addition to the steady decrease in traffic congestion.
Released Tuesday by the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (Qmic), the report analysed traffic data from 2022, compared it against that from past years, while focusing on the traffic behaviour during the World Cup in November-December.
Improvements in infrastructure and increased public transportation options have contributed to a decrease in traffic congestion in most of 2022 compared to 2021, particularly during peak travel times, it was pointed out. This decrease in traffic congestion was realised despite the fact that user mobility has increased in 2022 as all Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.
Dr. Fethi Filali, Director of Technology & Research at QMIC and who led the QTR team commented by saying, "QMIC’s expanding and unique multi-source data collection network, which gathered over 8bn records of data throughout 2022, a 13% increase from the previous year, is used to generate the annual QTR.
"This rich data bank, coupled with our proprietary algorithms and data processing capabilities, allows us to draw significant insights and conclusions about the behaviour of the road network in Qatar and its impact on the average driver. This also enabled us to provide daily dashboards and insights about road network performance to key stakeholders during the 2022 FIFA World Cup”.
According to the report, January-November 2022 saw a small (2-3% points) decrease in congestion compared to 2021.The World Cup led to a slight (1.5% points) increase in congestion during December compared to 2021, with the traffic congestion index varying between 9.3% to 11.1% during November-December.
The average number of extra hours spent due to congestion is 30 hours per commuter in 2022 (36% increase compared to 2021). The increase was primarily attributed to commuters driving significantly more in 2022 compared to 2021, as there were no Covid-19 restrictions.
The economic cost (lost productivity) of congestion in 2022 is estimated to be 0.3% of GDP (compared to 0.26% 2021). This is significantly below global averages which are on the order of 1% of GDP.
February 2022 remained the most congested month in the year with a Congestion Index of 11.9% (3% points less than February 2021), while July was the least congested with an 8.1% Congestion Index.
The highest congestion period during the workdays is the evening peak (around 6-7pm) during which the average congestion index is around 10.6%. It is noticeable that Friday and Saturday have different traffic trends, while Thursday during the workdays has a slightly different trend.
Omar Mohamad al-Jaber, director, Strategic Partnerships and Outreach, Qmic commented: “QTR is becoming an important indicator of traffic trends, progress towards reducing congestion, and a score card for traffic management during mega events. It aids in the measurement and alignment of the road network and assists stakeholders and decision makers in determining optimal traffic policies and procedures. This, in turn, facilitates better urban planning and enhances traffic conditions, particularly as the population continues to expand.”
The QTR is a crucial component of Qmic's locally developed and comprehensive mobility data platform, which offers an integrated suite of services encompassing Intelligent Transport, Road Safety, and Smart Logistics/Telematics. Along with its analytics platform, advanced GIS layers, and proprietary technologies, the platform includes a sophisticated multi-source data collection network. This network comprises a large, fixed sensing network that employs Qmic's WaveTraf road traffic sensors, Telematics devices installed in fleet vehicles, and crowd-sourced data from thousands of Wain mobile application users.