Traffic Roundabouts in Doha
By Toyota2005 •
So, i visited Doha to attend the interview. The thing that most profoundly struck is the traffic roundabouts in Doha which is creating havoc for motorists. By the way, who designed all these? This is utterly wrong planning. Why don't they simply put traffic lights in the intersections?
Oh, then the road signs are not that many either. You reach the roundabout, then you don't know which exit takes you to which road.
Somehitng got to do about it. I know expats are designing all the roads and stuff.. but why they are screwing Qatar depsite the fat monies they are earning from Qatar?
Qatar govt should immediately should tranform all the roundabouts into intersections with controlled lights.
instructional roundabout signs before the roundabouts that show a red, car, a green car and a blue car.
The sign showed something like: The red car in the left hand lane and turning left, the blue car in the middle lane and travelling straight on and the green car in the right hand lane turning right. The sign showed which lanes these cars should use at the roundabout.
Someone once asked if all red cars had to turn left and what did you do if you had a white car?.........Doh!
The museum roundabout heading to the Corniche from RAA must have confused many. It showed the same cars in the same lanes but there is no right turn at that roundabout.
Confusing or what?
britexpat,
It should be easy, the have a 4 to 6 meters planted area between the two directions of the road, and 4 to 15 meters on either side, so it's between 12 and 27 meters "wasted space".
I can see at least an extra lane on most roads (both directions).
Wel said.. Round abouts are great if utilized properly.
The problem is increased traffic .. Now we need to look at flyovers, bypasses and wider roads.. Not easy in a city like Doha ..
"Never love a person you can live with,
Always Love a person you can never live without"
What we need is:
More fly-overs, tunnels, and roundabouts (Just like Al-asiri/Midmac interchange).
OH well, in some places the roundabouts are not good at all. Esp if traffic is flowing continuously in one direction, another just comes to a stand still and I've seen massive gridlocks at some roundabouts. Especially when the traffic from one round about extends back to the other roundabout.
Not long ago, I used to tell friends "I'll be there is 10 minutes", now that's extended to "45 minutes and I might not make it if there is a flipped truck on the road".
Also, I agree about the round-abouts. Have to admit, they were a major scare for me, until I was mentored by a master.
Salam
At least three roundabouts were demolished to my knowledge. The Ramada roundabout (even after it had been de-treed to foil snipers and was nicknamed Polygon roundabout because the resident parakeets had nowhere to roost), the roundabout at the "C" ring road/Wakra Road junction and the old Crazy Roundabout. I am sure that more have been removed.
you were able to tell so that's becoz... you only arrive this time... and this is the current situation fronted to you...
to tell you... there was no any trafficlights crossings in qatar before... later on the round about system were introduced... so there was round abouts...
but the traffic becomes bigger, so again traffic lights were introduced and that was the beginning were some of the round abouts were abolished in room for new traffic crossings as what Novita said above...
so today, some round abouts were installed with traffic lights too only... but there was no demolition of the round circles... and that was it...
truthfully i love the round abouts system... it's efficient... is just a matter on how you will familiarize yourself of using it...
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R/As are nice, it's just that some people don't know how to use them.
... I remember that Doha was a great driving experience, when the total population was around 500k people. Now it's full of these idiots who are so terrified to enter the R/A, terrified by a policeman's uniform, and just plain stupid.
And they added the idiotic signals in the R/As, so when there's nobody coming from your left, and you have an opportunity to get in, you can't, since the light is red.
yeah.. in many situations the traffic police may the reason to create a big traffic jam in round abouts. Before the traffic may very smooth going...
"Never love a person you can live with,
Always Love a person you can never live without"
...and the traffic police should not allow parking/waiting inside the roundabouts...
round abouts are good to control the speed and traffic flow. But, whenever any of the four roads to the R/A has been blocked or any of the roads doesnt have enough traffic, can you say everyone will get the same priority to reach the destination??
So I like R/A with signals..
"Never love a person you can live with,
Always Love a person you can never live without"
Traffic Signal simply amplify the issue.Large numbers of stationary traffic rather than a simple filtering sytem like an RA.
RA were made for each lane to have a function.
Lane 1 is for traffic turning left.
Lane 2 for traffic going straight ahead.
Lane 3 for traffic going right or straight ahead.
Where the issues are in this country is no-one can wait and will use whatever lane that has least traffic.This where problems occur.
Its the same as where if the 2 lanes at a left turning are full people will use one of the straight ahead lanes as a 3rd left lane.
It is not RA or Traffic Signals we need its people who respect others and wait in line.
Roundabouts were the right thing for Qatar about 6-7 years ago and beyond, when the traffic wasn't as much as it is today.
But with the increase in traffic, the government has demolished a lot of roundabouts and converted them to traffic lights.
They can't do everything overnight, i.e. why some of the roundabouts have lights installed on them, which was a really innovative idea and a good one too.
So yea, it is happening phase by phase. Because if they do all at once, then again people will start whining that everything has been demolished and there is construction work going on everywhere..
Sir Toyota2005 - Thank you so much for pointing out such a fault on Qatar and us expatriates. we assure you will be doing everything possible to sort this out before you relocate to DOha, may we know how much time we have??..
______________________________________________
Listen to Many..Speak to a few.
round-abouts are much safer...
Toyota2005,
What surprised you in Qatar, surprises most of the western expats that come here.
If you end up coming here, you would probably go through a similar mind status "evolution" process, as following:
- First you identify obvious areas for improvement and wonder why nobody has done it before;
- Then you propose improvements and try to bring your ideas across to those you think have the power to consider them and eventual implement them;
- Then you realize that either no one will listen to you, get offended by the fact you are criticizing the nation or pretend that they listen but wont do anything about;
- After a period of time, going through the previous step repeatedly innumerous times, people tend to give up and accept things as they are, rapidly shifting their mind sets from active professionals to passive individuals waiting for their salary on a monthly basis.
- Soon after you will conclude that you will be better off by taking the passive position (no stress, no struggles, no extra efforts) than the proactive one (you'll just be shut down by the system who does not allow criticism and/or acknowledgement of problems).
Unfortunately, I am not being satiric here. The wealth and income of this nation is not directly linked with hard work, it's simply offered by the mother nature as it pours freely out of their soil.
In such environment, "who cares" is the general mot that “drives” people.
Coming back to your astonishment on the archaic Doha road design, although it is slowly improving, it is obviously outdated and no longer serves the current traffic loads.
The popularity of roundabouts is the consequence of the abnormal and enormous amount of time that takes, from the conception and design to the actual implementation, particularly if the project is government owned.
The roundabouts are just a tinny tip of the iceberg of the malfunction of the system here.
If you do come here, be prepared to discover things that you would never imagine, they still exist in an apparent fast track developing nation.
Thank you, now its clear! If drunken drivers have accidents on roundabouts, it's the roundabout's fault! I suggest that you also point this out in your letter to the authorities: some drivers MAY drink and drive, even though its illegal, and the sooner all junctions are redesigned to make it safe for them, the better! Qatar needs more post-imperial thinkers like you to show the right way!
Lucky that drivers don't drink and drive.. otherwise the roundabouts that you guys find safe would have turned a havoc. Just accept the fact !!
Roundabouts are old imperial thinking.. gone are those days...no more applicable in this time !!
Very noble of you to try and advise companies which are screwing Qatar (?). But will these fools listen to you? Probably not, so its maybe better if you write directly to the Minister of the Interior, advise him that there is a situation with the traffic, and ask him to take immediate action over the road signs and roundabouts. And be firm... tell him that if there's no immediate action you will refuse to come to Doha!
it's not companies to which I am trying to advise.... I guess it's the companies screwing Qatar.
I wonder where Toyota 2005 had his job interview? Hopefully not in my company...we have enough providers of unsolicited advice here already..more than we can manage..;)
...Avada Kedavra..
Its not the round abouts that are the problem but the number of people trying to use one.
Any one notice the lack of feeder roads. I mean you generally have to drive from one R/A to another and then have to come half way back to access a road on the other side. if there were more side roads the R/A will have fewer cars
From Traffic Engineering and Safety Point of view R/A are safer than any other control measures on intersection.
As pointed above, It is lack of common sense and the driving that is the problem not the R/A itself.
Secondly these R/A were designed to accomodate certain number of vehicles and drivers with common sense. Where as the traffic has increased and the patience and common and driving sense of people has decreased hence these R/A are not serving what they were designed for.
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HE WHO DARES WINS
In this modern world, internet is the great equalizer.
Roundabout are a simple and effective solution to traffic management. Problem is people simply have no idea how to use them.
I think people aren't really used to driving Honda Civic's around here.
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
this place was the original AREA51 where all martians went down with their flying saucers...there are hundreds of them in different sizes... since then all of these natives feared to touch even the soil where these martians went down... instead, of touching it, they preserve it...now presto, development went in then they started to build roads..(of course no roads available during aged times because they used camels) but their fears (of touching saucers pad) is still there that opted them one solution...redirect path by putting roundabouts.... who knows that one of them is a martian....
ROBIN!!! To The Batcave!!!
See roundabout was designed when the popultion of Qatar was less 400,000.
Now last 9 years the population has raised to nearly to 1.7million.
Qatar already intiated in converting busy roundabouts into signals.
nearly 5 are in place as mentioned above some are in progress.
All the signals cant be converted at onego they will attak few at a time otherwise the traffic will go haywire.
So have patience.
everyone I know in traffic engineering, round-abouts are far safer than traffic lights, even if they don't feel safer. I cannot believe that round-abouts are going away any time soon.
Round-abouts or long waiting at traffic lights?
Salam
But wait...I'm in Qatar...hmm...
Tell the Civil Defense that it's foundations are sinking and they'll probably do something about it.
They might as well also call all the other contacting companies to bid for the price to have it hired for cheap labour to do the building works...to create another roundabout. LOL
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
i can hardly see accidents in round bouts in Qat. in the past 3 years. I believe there s a reason that everyone is alert in the r/a s. There may be accidents in R/As but all may not be in peak-rush hours. think abt it. Example, today met one accident live at the interesction muntaza. A truck put sudden brake on yellow signal and cudnt control the poor man behind that vehicle. similar saw at the ranada a few weeks ago live too. So I prefer, R/A s.thts all.
"Never love a person you can live with,
Always Love a person you can never live without"
gfxmad, never accidents in r/a??? you must be kidding.. :):) all accidents are on round abouts
... Now, they change old round abouts into traffic signal and at the same time keep building new round abouts.. what's the point of doing it, since they know one day they will turn it into traffic lights intersection?
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“You become responsible forever for what you have tamed”. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Accidents on the intersections are more sever and life threatening or even death then on R/A
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if you have a clear idea about the lane system or atleast some common sense will never make such a posting here. We are seeing daily that accidents at the intersections but its very rare to see accidents inside the round abouts.
"Never love a person you can live with,
Always Love a person you can never live without"
Hmmm, Toyota2005, where you from? 'Cause it ain't Canada, honey. Not with that accent.
Mandi
dont blame roundabouts
Ask the Brits. They are the ones who designed a roundabout inside a roundabout
It's not our problem dear. But trust me in other countries, they are doing away with this havoc roundabouts in preferences for friendly traffic signal lights. Any body tell me how Crazy Signal got's its name prior to this?
Thank you Rav05- my thoughts exactly. The roundabouts are not really the problem when used properly, the problem is that most people don't know how to use them.
>
May your dreams take you travelling all through your life.
Toyota2005, as you seem to have a very low irritation threshold and expect things to be exactly as you want them to be, my advice to you is that it will be better for your blood pressure and long-term peace of mind if you don't come to Qatar. We have enough whingeing know-all expats here already, so Qatar will survive without you. I don't normally write such harsh comments, but for you to be so critical, giving advice to the government of Qatar, on the basis of an interview visit, shows a great lack of understanding, as well as a lack of simple good manners, on your part.
U can find alot of changes now... dey hav started installing signals at round-bts 2. Since der is already 2 much roads going around in qatar, dey r taking each project step by step... its all 4 the good.
BEFORE 3 YRS - IT WAS FULL OF ROUND ABOUT ALL OVER DOHA. ALHAMDULILLAH NOW GOVT DEMOLISING R/A ONE BY ONE.
Don't blame the expats. when you get here you will find out the problems. They want you to come here and pay the fat salaries to attract you, then they completely ignore the advice and expertise.
As far as havoc at round abouts, you will find that somewhere in the Qatari highway code,it say's that you can change lanes, whenever you like, without giving any indication, and without consideration to other road users. I assume it must do, because everyone does it!
Qatar govt already transformed most roundabout in Doha.
Al Sadd R/A, Muntaza R/A, Parachute R/A and the list goes on now have transformed become a traffic light.