To unclog Amman’s road arteries, the municipality hopes to bring its state-of-the-art public buses online by next year.
While it’s neighbor brings Better Place electric cars online, a move that may reduce emissions but not congestion, Jordan is instead pursuing a state of the art BRT system for its capital, Amman, the site of several green projects. Emissions reduction will be an important side effect, but Amman’s municipality is mostly concerned to clear out the city’s traffic bottlenecks. The intention to publish tender for the BRT’s second construction phase was announced at a press briefing last week. Plans are also in place to beautify Amman’s streets and improve waste management.
When online, the BRT will span the area between Sports City Circle and Downtown Amman through Wadi Saqra Street, the Jordan Times reports.
With up to 720,000 cars on the road, the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) stated its intention to improve congestion by offering an efficient public transportation system.
The buses will have a carrying capacity of up to 120 passengers and will be allocated exclusive lanes, separated by medians, on both sides of the road. During peak hours, certain lines will have three minute frequency, and fare collection terminals will be available at every station.
Park-n-Ride facilities will also be built.
GAM told the press that in order to properly reduce congestion, 15 multi-storey parking lots would also have to be scattered throughout the city. Currently there are only three, two in Sweifyeh and one in Abdoun, though another is currently being built in Al Naser.
The Wadi Amman project is designed to rehabilitate streets and create green spaces from the Civil Airport in Marka to Prince Hussein Square on Airport Road, and a new waste management cell at the Ghabawi landfill will be built to improve solid waste treatment.
Nearly 50% of the necessary funds were provided by the World Bank.
More on public transportation in the Middle East:
Public Transportation Takes Flight In Dubai
Why 60% of Iranians Are Overweight
Keeping Public Trains On Track
image via Mr. Littlehand
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
