Investigations in preventing road accidents in Qatar
According to the Gulf Times, The International Traffic Safety Conference (ITSC), jointly organised by Qatar University and the General Directorate of Traffic of the Ministry of Interior, on Tuesday underlined the necessity of effective investigations to identify the real causes of road accidents in the country.
While highlighting the importance of developing effective and long-lasting solutions to reduce the number of road accidents in the country, the speakers emphasised the necessity of proper scientific research, supported by innovative technological solutions and in partnership with both local and international centres.
Some of the speakers advocated the need for promoting the concepts of traffic safety among students of schools, colleges and universities at regular intervals.They also called for adopting technological innovations in line with the local requirements. There is greater need of providing safe passage for students in the vicinity of schools and school buses should be equipped with advanced features to ensure maximum safety for children, they pointed out.
Traffic Awareness Department director Colonel Mohamed Radhi al-Hajri, Dalian University of Technology's (China) College of Engineering dean Meng Li, Tom Brijs, (Transportation Research Institute of Hasselt University, Belgium) and Wael Alhajyaseen (Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Centre) also spoke.
At a session on "Road Infrastructure", French Railway Company (South Paris) security director Laurent Berthinier, Qatar's Ministry of Transport and Communications official Tareq Abdulhamid al-Emadi, Qatar Shell's senior logistics lead in health, safety and environment Majed Samarah, Sverker Almqvist and Gareth Hill from the Qatar National Traffic Safety Office were among the other speakers.
Later in a session on advanced technologies in traffic safety, Hamid Menouar from the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center spoke on “The role of connectivity and automation in enabling next level of road safety” and Jayaseelan Singaravelu of the Qatar National Traffic Safety Office spoke on “GIS Applications for Land Use Urban Planning”.
In another session, Mark Andrew Cooper from Ashghal, Jeff Cheng Lung Lee of Taiwan Police College and Abdel Ghani Karkar from Qatar University spoke. The session featured such areas as intelligent transportation systems, 3D technologies for strengthening traffic education and safety, a mobile-based computer-vision outdoor navigation system for people with visual impairment and the necessity of applying wearable devices and traffic cloud in the enforcement of traffic law in Qatar.
Great initiative, however, there needs to be a change in the way people drive and there needs to be an enforcement of the law: drivers of all backgrounds need to respect the speed limits, use their signal lights , drive in their respective lanes and stop using their phones while driving. I am sure if drivers were levied severe fines for breaching traffic laws, their driving habits will change for the better, manifesting into reduced deadly accidents. Moreover, stop signs and yield signs mean different things and drivers need to understand this and abide by traffic rules. This cannot be done without the traffic officers leading on this: they need to enforce the laws and drive in a manner that sets a precedent...obeying the law and not going above it is incumbent upon them.
Road construction and design are equally important factors that need to be considered: mindfully setting up safe detours and proper signage is imperative for creating a safer driving experience. To further reduce frustrations, road design needs a massive overhaul: why do we need to drive a kilometer to make a Uturn to get to a destination that is across the street? There needs to be more access roads to make turns so that drivers don't have to speed to the next light to only have to wait for 3mins or more before they can turn (most will perform unsafe manuvers just to make the turn). Urban designers and Infrastructure people should look at how North American Roads are designed to see how easy it is for people to commute to malls, hospitals, restaurants and other areas with ease and no frustration: there are plenty of side roads and access ways to make it efficiently to your destination. The highways and Signage are terribly designed: they contain no off roads where one can take to get to a gas station unless you drive over a Kilometer in the opposite direction and then have to turn around just to get to your destination. Seriously, the road designers or planners need to go and study roads in North America. My concerns above are genuine and if Qatar "deserves the best" as one of the companies claims, then they need to do their homework, or be replaced with people who have a genuine interest in making Qatar's roads and driving experience safe and positive.
@dingding, I have always been thinking that RED Indicators are a problem perceived only by myself. I am not sure whether to react positively or negatively knowing others also feel the same way.
way to overcomplicate things; all the science and tech in the world can't do anything if the basic attitude of road users isn't dealt with with an iron fist and strict enforcement of the law; let's take it step by step; start with increasing the fine/penalty points for mobile use to the same as running a red light; then, strictly enforce it regardless of who the offender is and how expensive or cheap his car is or who he knows or doesn't know; if by just coming down hard on mobile phone use we don't see a major reduction in accident rates; I'll eat my mobile phone and post the video here on ql :-) I'll list the second step later if the discussion develops that way :-)
Forget about "scientific" & "technology" it is simply manual error. Common here are tailgating and not using direction indicator when changing lane or turning . One of the issue in driving is the driver's perception of the position of other vehicles around him. Indicator light will alert other drivers of your intent to turn or move into another lane.
RED indicator lights also a cause.