He has produced a mobile application and an online website to update drivers on traffic conditions in real time to help them avoid hot spots.
The application, called 6areegak ("Your Way" in Arabizi script), is a personal effort of Attar, who came up with the idea while he was doing what many of Jeddah's denizens spend an inordinate amount of time doing: being stranded and helpless in a sea of vehicular gridlock.
“I have been stuck in traffic countless times, and sometimes I’m stuck for hours. Many of us blame the overpopulation of Jeddah, and sometimes we blame the streets and how the city is designed,” he said.
The online and mobile application collects feedback from drivers, who can report by mobile phone traffic conditions as they see them
“Drivers submit reports about the traffic flow in the area they are in,” said Attar.
“Other users can check on a scale from red to green on how the traffic environment is at different places.”
The application is designed to be easy to use and relies on colors so that users can quickly ascertain traffic conditions with a blink of the eye.
A similar system has been implemented by a developer in Egypt, according to Attar.
“I felt it would be very useful in Jeddah, too,” he said. “I started with Jeddah because I live here and there is an endless series of stories from my friends who always complain about the traffic,” he said.
Attar said that an application like this would also be useful during the seemingly annual phenomenon of wadi flooding that turns many of Jeddah's streets into rivers and leaves behind enormous pools of stagnant water for weeks, thanks to the city's inadequate drainage network.
“In the last two years, Jeddah has witnessed three disastrous flash floods, and people were calling radio stations to get updates about the status of the streets. This is when I started brainstorming to come up with a way to help people,” he added.
