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Muscat municipality holds a workshop for discussing the results of the overall traffic study for the city.

• (4320 km) paved roads (2030 km) lighted roads in Muscat and the numbers are increasing
• Studied plans for promoting the efficiency of roads until the year of 2030
• Field surveys and census for vehicles and roads .
• Offering a bid for designing the traffic control center .

Muscat municipality, recently, finished preparing the overall traffic study of Muscat governorate (MATS) which contained preparing an overall transportation plan that handles the requirements of traffic in Muscat in the short, moderate and long term until the year 2030. The study led to a set of results and recommendations recently recommended in a workshop related to the participation of a number of the competent government agencies, notably the higher council of planning, the general directorate of traffic in the royal Omani police, the ministry of transport and communications and the ministry of housing, as also Dar Elhandasa Co. has been assigned to prepare this study . The total paved roads also in Muscat reached ( 4329 km) , the total lighted roads (2030 km) and the lighted crossroads (61). These numbers are expected to increase in the light of the steady increase of the numbers of vehicles and the extensions in the urban and economic fields witnessed in the city and the increasing population growth .

The study rested on a great number of field statistics and surveys that included making interviews with motorists, performing the classified manual census for vehicles, making a study and also a survey for the parking, census of vehicles turning , collecting the data of traffic accidents, updating the data of road inventory and evaluating the absorptive capacity of the main roads and crossroads, in order to enter an extended database that includes all roads in the governorate, upon which a traffic imagination for Muscat, the capital, is set. Also a model has been set for the multi transportation (Multi-modal Traffic model) to provide an expectation of the future traffic, considering the new development projects and the population growth in addition to the future road plans .

This study has generated a number of solutions contributing in meeting the future traffic demand by assuring the infrastructure and the services necessary for transportation in Muscat. The proposed solutions include the most important solution :

Public Transportation Plan

The study includes proposing an integrated system for the public transportation to be implemented through the upcoming twenty years, including busses , lines of bus supply, small transport busses , a light rail transit (Light Rail Transit) and marine ferries and their related facilities as stop and ride stations till the other transportation (Park and Ride). Soon, municipality will offer a bid for the consultants for preparing the feasibility study (Feasibility Study) related to the public transportation for studying the tracks of the public transportation proposed in the current study , the .time plan required for implementation in some detail in preparation for submitting the proposal to be adopted by the planning authorities , then performing the initial and detailed designs for the lines of the public transportation lines and seeking for implementing the project in accordance with the adopted time plan .

Improving crossroads

The service levels for main crossroads in Muscat have been analyzed present and future in order to improve the traffic on the crossroads which are expected to witness a weak performance in the future. A number of solutions also have been chosen which included changes in the geometric shapes, modifying tracks, increasing the absorptive capacity (through adding new tracks), allocating tracks for the free turning, installing light signals, building bridges or tunnels that serve the traffic .

New roads and improvement of the current roads

Most of the current road network in Muscat are characterized by international specifications and subject to a continuous maintenance. There are studies and plans related to this field and are implemented now by the competent authorities. The current study worked for finding additional improvements that can facilitate communication and contact between the different areas of Muscat as well as improving the absorptive capacity of roads via proposing new roads and increasing tracks on the current established roads .

Procedures of improving traffic

The study suggested taking other procedures for improving the traffic and infantry in Muscat, including: setting an overall plan for improving the traffic, setting procedures for managing the traffic and specifying tracks for infantry and truck tracks.

Parking

Widespread surveys have been conducted for five parking in Muscat in each of: north and south of Roy commercial district, Sarouj district, Seeb market area and the commercial area in Qaram. The studies indicated that many parking in the questionnaire are actually full, especially in peak times. It is expected that the future demand for parking will continue the pressure upon the limited capacity of these parking, leading the drivers to park illegally.

The study set a number of proposed solutions for the problems of parking , including: involving or increasing charges of parking in peak times, determining the max. period that allows parking in one place, constructing multi- floor parking or underground parking, developing parking and converting to other transportation (park and ride) ) (Park& Ride), handling the illegal parking and finding a flexible information system that relates to parking .

Traffic control center

Recently, Muscat municipality offered a bid for the consultants for designing the traffic control center which aims at improving the traffic by connecting all crossroads that work by the light signals in the center and promoting the traffic safety by controlling the crossroads, road network, keeping in touch with and follow-up of the traffic and taking the necessary actions.

Study phases

Muscat municipality indicated ,after making the inventory of road length in the capital, that there are a number of roads that their lengths are not registered accurately. Also the manual count has been done to all vehicles and has been done on a number of the main turnings which reached 52 different locations in the capital. The main questions which have been directed to the drivers contained knowing the start and end of the driver trip in addition to his address of residence, work, trip target and if the trip was just leisure trip or for business trip , the query of the number of vehicles owned by the driver at his house and the number of adults (more than 18 years old) and lesser than that .
Municipality indicated that a number of interviews have been conducted with the drivers, from the beginning of 6:30 am until 8 pm for two consecutive months by two different locations per day in Muscat municipality.
Muscat municipality indicated that the study aims at establishing a scientific base for the futuristic expectations planned and based on a wide range of updated data for the amount of the futuristic traffic and determining its destination; resulting in determining the needs of the governorate of the road network through the upcoming 30 years, as it will includes recognizing the traffic patterns, their times, amount, reasons and effects , determining the weakness areas in the road network, identifying crowdedness and traffic jam areas, how to promote and treat them, determining the future roads and transportation required for keeping up the patterns of population and vehicles growth, setting a program for determining the priorities of performing the procedures of improving the road network and determining the needs of the governorate for improving the public transportation and booking "Ihramat" for it .
The first phase included two main factors; collecting data then updating the data of the inventory of roads. Through this phase, the a absorptive capacity of the main roads, crossroads and turnings are evaluated for the sake of including them in a wide spread database that includes all roads of the governorate, explaining them easily by specialists to extract the necessary data, working for developing a model related to the road network in Muscat by using computer programs, comparing the current traffic requirements with the absorptive capacity of road network and determining the locations and nature of the current traffic problems of road network as well as assessing the development of the traffic and parking for knowing the expected development in the traffic during the next years in order to set a structural plan for absorbing the traffic need in Muscat.
For the second phase, it has been a result of the first phase and a result of caring for studying the alternative solutions for improving the road network . It includes some actions as building new roads , contacts and improving the current ones for improving the traffic efficiency .
The study has led to make a simulation model for the vehicle movement on Muscat roads, noting that the addition of the rates of population growth and vehicle growth on the simulation model 2030, the distribution of the land use annually as well as the growth rate of the annual and national income, which leads to extract a unique annual growth rate "growth factors", have been taken into account.

It is worth mentioning to know that this traffic study implemented by Muscat municipality is considered as the third one in this kind after the structural plan of Muscat, as the municipality has conducted two traffic studies, based on which, a number of development projects have been resulted; which gives a civilized nature to Muscat, the capital. The first one was in 1985 and the second in 1993. This traffic study of 2011 comes after the big increase in the steady growth rates of population to aim at evaluating the current and future state of the capacity and level of performance of road network in the governorate .