Workshop seeks solutions for Kuwait's gnarly traffic jams

The technical committee at the Municipal Council organized on Tuesday a workshop on the severity of traffic in Kuwait with the participation of a number of parties interested in traffic issues, the committee chairman said on Tuesday.
Atrocious traffic jams and tie-ups are affecting state development plans and construction projects as the numbers of cars on the roads keep spiking exponentially with no end in sight for traffic relief for all road-users, said committee chairman Fahad Al-Saneh in a press statement following the conclusion of the workshop.
Besides members of the committee, other participants of the workshop came from the General Traffic Department, the executive committee at the Kuwait Municipality, and the Ministry of Public Works.
In the main, Al-Saneh attributed the traffic problems in Kuwait to the fact that roads were constructed four or five decades ago to cover only 3 percent of the country's landmass, whereas over time the same roads are currently accommodating enormous number of cars and a much denser population. The road network at this time is not equipped to handle those increases in vehicular numbers and people, he said.
Moreover, he said the nation's highway network lacks roadside service lanes and is built too close to habitable areas and neighborhoods with dense populations . Besides that, the country has not had major road construction projects in a long time that could absorb the increase in the number of cars and people over the years, he said.
He added that the committee has offered a few solutions to the traffic dilemma in Kuwait, among them passing rigorous traffic laws and beefing up traffic fines.