Using its Advanced Traffic Monitoring and Analytics Platform (MasarakTM) and utilising its unique and rich bank of traffic data in Qatar, the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC) launched its third annual Qatar Traffic Report (QTR) for year 2018 during a press conference held at QMIC’s offices in Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP).
This year’s edition of the report takes a detailed look at the traffic status in Qatar. It presents unique insights about traffic congestion and movement in Qatar throughout the year, across major road segments and during different periods of the day. The report also looks at results from previous years and makes comparisons to track the changes over time.
On the release of the third edition of the QTR report, Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, the Executive Director (CEO) of QMIC, commented:
Over the years, we spent significant effort to build a comprehensive data collection network and the associated data intelligence that allowed us to build a valuable data bank about traffic and mobility behaviour in Qatar. We are happy to use this strategic platform to support decision makers in Qatar through the Qatar Traffic Report and the other intelligent mobility applications and services we provide to our national stakeholders and customers. In the next few months, we look forward to using our data bank and intelligence to shed insights about driving behaviour and road safety issues on Qatar’s roads. On this occasion, we would like to acknowledge the support of our strategic partners especially Ashghal, Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Municipality and Environment.’
QTR takes into consideration a number of key globally accepted metrics to report on the severity, time, and locations of traffic congestion in Qatar. In order to gauge traffic conditions for year 2018 in a scientific, methodical and accurate way, the QTR uses the concept of Masarak Congestion Index (indicates average reduction in speed due to congestion) and the Travel Time Index (indicates the increase in travel time due to congestion) to assess the level of road congestion. In addition, using publicly available statistics about the labour force in Qatar together with QMIC’s mobility and congestion data, QMIC has built a model to quantify the economic impact of traffic congestion in Qatar.
The following key findings for 2018 QTR were revealed:
- The average number of extra hours spent due to congestion is 98 hours per commuter in 2018 (this is less 10% less than the 109 hours in 2016). This indicates that road projects completed by Ashghal in 2018 had a positive impact on traffic flow. We expect traffic behaviour to keep improving as key ongoing road projects are completed in 2019 and the Doha metro starts operation in the next 1—2 years.
- The economic cost of congestion in 2018 is estimated to be between QAR5.5—6.9 billion which is equivalent to the levels forecasted for previous years. This translates to a loss of about 0.9—1.1% of the GDP in 2018.
- February, March, and November 2018 were the most congested months in the year with a Congestion Index of 28.8%.
- The highest congestion period during the work days is the evening peak (around 6—7 pm) during where the average congestion index is 33.8%.
- In the morning peak hours of work days, Monday had the highest congestion index of ~33% and Thursdays had the lowest congestion index of ~31%.
The QTR is one of the key outputs of the Masarak System which was fully developed and deployed by QMIC. Masarak represents a comprehensive platform and integrated suite of services serving the areas of Intelligent Transport, Road Safety, and Smart Logistics/Telematics.