Skip to main content

Transport safety in Qatar – ‘taking a long-term view’ says report

A report by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) says that, while the country is well on its way to implementing programmes aimed at improving road safety, it appears to have taken a long-term view of its needs and is planning for a system which can expand to meet future demand. According to Transport Safety in Qatar: Outlook and Possibilities, the Qatari Government has implemented a series of initiatives and intelligent transport systems (ITS) around Qatar, in line with its Qatar Nat
May 23, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A report by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) says that, while the country is well on its way to implementing programmes aimed at improving road safety, it appears to have taken a long-term view of its needs and is planning for a system which can expand to meet future demand.

According to Transport Safety in Qatar: Outlook and Possibilities, the Qatari Government has implemented a series of initiatives and intelligent transport systems (ITS) around Qatar, in line with its Qatar National Vision 2020, to improve road safety and surface transport effectiveness. These include: infrastructure projects aimed at reducing congestion and helping to cope with Qatar’s increasing number of vehicles; a real time traffic data collection and integration system; a traffic signal control room; and traffic signal pre-emption for emergency vehicles.

The report looks at four aspects of road safety policies: urban and transport planning, vehicles, traffic management, roads and infrastructure.

It discusses the new technologies available to improve road safety, such as anti-lock braking systems, driver alertness detection systems and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, along with the introduction of laws to mandate seat belt use for front seat passengers and drivers. The report claims that the country’s traffic department does not have the resources to control traffic congestion or police law-breaking motorists, although the country is moving to increase the number of officers by the end of 2016.

Qatar is investing substantially to create a world-class, integrated, surface transport system, while new and enhanced highways and roads, complemented by the Doha Metro and Lusail light rail projects, should reduce reliance on private cars, and help increase safety.

Related Content

  • April 10, 2014
    Columbia goes intermodal to support sustainability
    David Crawford on the ups and downs of a Latin metropolis. Medellín, Colombia’s second city and a recognised leader in sustainable transport thinking, is rapidly extending its substantial existing investment in modern mobility. It is deploying both an enhanced integrated traffic management array and the country’s first intermodal public transportation management system. The supplier of both, under separate €9 million (US$12.3 million) contracts, is Spanish engineering company Indra, a major exporter
  • December 19, 2022
    Traffic cameras embrace AI
    Artificial intelligence is spreading into many aspects of mobility – but what about traffic management and enforcement cameras? ITS International invited a few vision experts to ponder a couple of leading questions…
  • March 17, 2017
    Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
  • December 8, 2014
    Sensor solutions cuts maintenance and emissions
    The new raft of sensor technology can provide cost savings as well as additional functionality, as David Crawford discovers. Austria’s third-largest city, Linz, with a population of around 200,000, is recording substantial savings in its urban tram network within 18 months of introducing a new, high-technology approach to its public transport management. Tram, bus and trolleybus operator Linz Linien forms part of city utilities management company Linz AG, which has been carrying out a wide-ranging Smart Cit