Traffic – Part 2

There have been a couple of recent articles that tie in nicely to my discussion on traffic.

First is an article about which cities in North America have the worst traffic. The measure the study used was comparing travel times during peak periods to travel times during non-peak periods. The worst city in North America by this measure was Los Angeles, with an increase of 34%.

Now go back to my previous post. The difference in travel time for me between light traffic and rush-hour appears to be more around 50%+. Granted, we are using a low base here since in light traffic I can get to work in 10-15 minutes. But I know that for people living farther away, such as Al Waab, to get to West Bay in light traffic would probably be 20-25 minutes. At peak times it’s about an hour (150-200% increase). There is no way for your average commuter it would only be a 34% increase in time during peak hours, that would be the equivalent of a “light traffic” 30 minute drive taking 40 minutes. Not a chance that in Doha your delay is that short during rush hour if you are going to West Bay, C-ring road or Grand Hamad Street.

Los Angeles the worst at 34%? That would be wonderful to have here.

I hope the Government is developing some short-term solutions because anyone hoping on the Metro to relieve traffic congestion will be waiting a long time. A big announcement was made about breaking the ground on the building of one of the stations. The plan is for phase 1 to be operational by fourth quarter of 2019. And phase 1 is only from the new airport along the Corniche to Lusail so it won't do much to alleviate traffic in much of the city. That will need to wait until phases 2 and 3 are complete, probably in 2020 or 2021.

If anyone has some solutions let the Government know.