JEDDAH, 16 September 2003 — The Jeddah Traffic Police have divided the city into six districts into which all heavy goods vehicles, including water tankers, are barred from 5:30 a.m. until after school hours. Patrols have been placed at major entrances to the districts to prevent large trucks from entering or moving freely about as was allowed before.
Gen. Mohammed Al-Qahtani of the traffic police said in an interview that this plan was decided upon last week and its partial implementation began at book and school supply stores.
“This plan has shown that it works. Traffic at previously known congestion points, or bottlenecks, has improved greatly,” he told Arab News. In addition, the traffic police has increased foot and vehicle patrols near schools to prevent the gridlock that the city experiences at certain points during the early morning hours and also at the end of the school day.
Ahmad Karkadan, 15, a student, told Arab News: “This sounds like a good idea. Sometimes because of all the traffic outside my school, I can’t find my driver or my car. The driver has to park far away. Sometimes when I find him, it takes us over 20 minutes to drive away from the school. People get angry, curse one another and sometimes fights even break out.
“This plan will be put into effect throughout the Kingdom. A similar plan is already in place in several other countries. What we are planning for the future is improved segmentation of the city. The Ministry of Transportation also has plans for the future,” Al-Qahtani said.
Minister of Transportation Dr. Jebara Al-Saresari said, “There are plans to improve the flow of traffic around and through our major cities.
“There are plans to route heavy goods vehicles ‘around’ the cities as opposed to ‘through’ them, as is the case now.”
