Doha: The General Directorate of Traffic has urged motorists to take advantage of mobile phone apps to avoid congested roads and take alternate routes.
“Encouraging motorists to use mobile app was one of the recommendations made in a meeting between General Directorate of Traffic and Public Works Authority (Ashghal) held recently,” said Director of the Traffic Awareness Department of the General Directorate of Traffic, Colonel Muhammad Radi Al Hajri.
Speaking in a Qatar TV programme, he said the meeting was held to take stock of the traffic situation as schools have started opening with 100 capacity.
“We have many mobile apps including a 100 percent Qatari app which was launched recently. We urge road users to take advantage of these apps, which determine routes for them by specifying the access points to be reached and suggest more than one option to take,” said Al Hajri.
He said some roads are longer but faster to reach a destination. Taking alternate routes will also reduce traffic congestion.
“Traffic crowding is a natural phenomenon in any city experiencing business movement, whether in Qatar or any country in the world, but the problem is the traffic jams caused by accidents or other reasons in which cases the traffic patrols intervene to facilitate the traffic flow,” said Al Hajri.
Al Hajri advised road users, in the event of a traffic accident, not to hesitate to take a photograph of the two vehicles and upload it to the Metrash2 application to ensure the investigation of the traffic accident and resolution of the issue.
Al Hajri noted that new roads have been opened, which will reduce traffic congestion. He said some motorists are not familiar with new roads and as a result they use their old routes for going to their offices and schools.
He said that there is close coordination among the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Ashghal to address traffic issue. “A coordination meeting was held to monitor the traffic movement on the first two days of schools opening with 100 percent capacity,” said Al Hajri.
He said heavy traffic was witnessed on the first two days, which sometimes caused traffic jams at some intersections and diversions. “The meeting aimed at identifying the causes of traffic jams and finding ways to solve them as well as re-deploying traffic patrols in a way that increases the flow of traffic.” Al Hajri said steps were taken following the recommendation of the meeting, which led to ensure a smooth traffic flow.
