Avoiding the jam
Will this year's Ramadan traffic be any better than last year's? Reem Nafie seeks an answer
In the lead up to Ramadan's first day last Sunday, Cairo's streets were filled with pedestrians and cars, as a multitude of the faithful were busy doing their last minute shopping for the holy month's special culinary needs.
Strangely enough, as the month of fasting actually began, the jams also began to dissipate. Whether or not the relatively calm streets of the first few days will last all month long, however, remains to be seen. According to Sherif Gomaa, head of the Giza traffic department, "as long as people respect traffic rules, things will move smoothly as they have since Ramadan began."
In fact, government officials are being very optimistic about this year's Ramadan traffic, in light of the recent improvements that have been made in the city's road network. According to Gomaa, things like the new tunnels and bridges in Heliopolis and Nasr City "will certainly be beneficial during the rush hours that are common during Ramadan".
Dalia Ahmed, whose commute home from work on the first day of Ramadan was smoother than expected, attributed the relatively empty streets to the fact that "many people didn't show up at work that day". According to Ahmed, a significant percentage of working women chose to stay at home on the first day preparing their family's first iftar meal, while a large number of men also left work earlier than usual.
Traffic officials saw their own efforts as having made a difference. "More traffic police will be on duty downtown and near the 6 October Bridge before iftar," Gomaa said. "As such, if a car stalls or an accident occurs, the nearest tow-truck will quickly be called upon to deal with the situation." Gomaa also said "the Giza traffic department -- in coordination with Cairo's traffic department -- has provided more police motorcycles (to transport traffic police) and tow-trucks than usual this Ramadan."
One of the factors that also tend to negatively affect this month's traffic situation is the plethora of mawa'id al-rahman charity tables providing iftar meals for the underprivileged. These are usually set up on sidewalks and streets all over Cairo, and often create traffic jams. According to Ahmed Abdel-Gaffar, who was heading towards one of these tables in Nasr City on the first day of the month, "If I'm walking down the street and I'm really hungry, I'm not going to move if a car honks at me, because I have a right to walk in the street and I have a right to eat as well."
Even after iftar, the potential for traffic jams goes up with the extra taraweeh prayers that take place at most mosques. Heliopolis resident Rania Sherif said that it was "impossible to drive near mosques around that time because of all the double parking and the people trying to leave the same place at the same time".
Heliopolis traffic officer Mohamed Hossam, however, assured Al-Ahram Weekly that "this year we are planning to deal with these sorts of problems by banning double parking." For his part, Gomaa said that all traffic officers have been given orders to issue parking tickets and confiscate licences as necessary.
"I hope all the new plans work," said Ibrahim Said, a father of two. Still, Said's scepticism got the better of him. "Every year turns out to be exactly the same as the one before," he said.
