While the country’s roads have adequate number of traffic boards and signs, like this one near the Post Office Roundabout in Doha, a section of residents feels that there should also be hoardings displaying traffic data. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam
By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
The traffic authorities should display the latest updates on road accidents and casualties on eye-catching hoardings and billboards near major intersections, a section of residents has urged.
This, it is believed, will warn people to be more careful while driving and act as an effective deterrent, helping prevent accidents on Qatar’s roads.
“Such information boards have gone a long way in drastically reducing road accidents in many parts of the world, including in the neighbourhood of Qatar, in recent years. More than the useful information, such boards also serve as an effective warning to road users to be more careful,” an expatriate has posted on a social networking site. He and his friends have also given mishap-related figures before and after such boards were put up in a Middle Eastern country.
A participant at a recent seminar, which was attended by senior traffic officials and held as part of a national road safety awareness campaign, had called upon the authorities to consider setting up well-lit hoardings with traffic statistics - including number of fatal road accidents - near all major intersections. He also suggested providing warning signs at places that have witnessed major accidents in recent years.
“Such warnings will help instil more discipline in the country’s road users,” he said, adding that there was also a need to have dedicated cycling tracks in some places, particularly the Industrial Area.
The participant lauded measures such as heavy fines and stringent punishment to curb road accidents. However, he added: “Qatar houses more than 100 nationalities, but it is doubtful if the campaigns to reduce accidents have produced the desired results.”
The country’s traffic authorities have reiterated in recent months that Qatar’s roads have more vehicles than they are capable of holding. “In spite of this, the roads are flooded with new vehicles,” a Western expatriate said in an online post a few days ago, narrating her bitter experience on Doha’s roads.
Some residents say though the traffic authorities have put up hoardings displaying the severity of accidents and exhibited badly-damaged vehicles involved in major mishaps, it is doubtful that reckless drivers have understood the message.
“Despite such warnings, people continue to violate traffic rules and cause a large number of accidents,” said a long-time city resident who has come across a number of accidents. One such mishap, he recalled, took place at the Al Waab intersection leading to Khalifa Stadium last year in which a couple of local youths lost their lives.
While welcoming the traffic awareness campaigns held at the country’s educational institutions, some residents have sought the regular display of vehicles damaged in major accidents at places such as shopping malls, which are visited by a large number of people.
“When people come across such vehicles at regular intervals, they tend to change their driving habits,” said a French national, recalling the success achieved in his country through exhibitions featuring vehicles destroyed in accidents.
An official at a sports club said while there were adequate traffic signs and proper destination boards along all major roads, the authorities should make traffic data available to residents. “As a first step, they can display figures pertaining to road accidents prominently at major locations in the city on a weekly basis, as is done in some major world capitals,” he suggested.