Engineer Abdel Halim Kilani, director of the Traffic Engineering Department at Greater Amman Municipality, said that a strategic plan has been outlined by GAM for the period of 2006- 2010 to increase the lighting of Amman streets, covering about 50 kilometers. The plan, he said, aims to enhance the performance of traffic lights, and provide more safety measures to the streets to lessen the rates of traffic accidents.
In a press meeting held at the Media Center of GAM, Kilani pointed out that a series of studies and researches have been applied recently by the department, recommending the establishing of tunnels and bridges, and aim to organize the traffic junctions and road signs to ease the flow of traffic on streets.
Kilani highly appreciated the contribution by Chicago Municipality in the United States, in which it initiated joint studies with GAM to enhance the public awareness about traffic and street planning in Amman. Meanwhile, Kilani said that GAM is carrying out a number of projects, in which it works on building a central control system that links all of the traffic lights in Amman with an operations unit to monitor its working and control the flow of traffic at the concerned areas. The system will be applied first on some of the traffic lights, where it will include all the traffic lights by 2008.
The system aims to minimize the rates of traffic jams and to limit the pollution in the capital by saving time and energy. Kilani said that the department will apply scientific standards in enhancing the safety of motorists on the road. This, he said, will be coordinated jointly with the Traffic Department.
The high number of traffic accidents and high rates of deaths on the road forced GAM to innovate a number of initiatives that help motorists to comply with the traffic rules and standards. Some of these initiatives take in consideration the rise in the number of development projects around the capital, which apply further number of cars on the road.
Kilani said that GAM will establish automatic counters (meters) to organize the periods of stops on sides of the road. He said that GAM will continue to control the traffic through radars and cameras to ease the jams around the capital. He said such procedures are not after levying more taxes, but definitely to enforce motorists to comply with the rules.