Traffic can be one the most hectic aspects about living in Cairo. With most people using private cars, no wonder most of the city’s population is stuck in traffic. However, there are 3 projects currently being developed in order to help lessen the traffic burden.
1. New Public Buses
The public transportation system collaborated with a private transportation company called ‘Mowaslat Masr” to bring new public buses to Cairo. These new buses will have have WiFi, air conditioning, and an electronic ticket service which allows passengers to buy tickets electronically.
Tickets will cost LE 5 and buses will be stationed at Abdel Moneim Riyad Square, Salah Salem Road, the Military College and the airport. Ten of these buses have already started operating last week and more will be running by August 1st.
Buses will be put into service gradually over time until June 2018 but might take longer said General Transport Authority official, Rizk Ali, given the delay in running the first 10 buses.
Ali added that they plan to impose a strict system of regular maintenance on the buses. Any bus that has out of service features will be suspended. Ali also said that they plan to put over 160 new buses into service in addition to the 180 privately owned buses.
2. Bicycle Lanes
Moreover, a joint project planned by Cairo Governor, Atef Abdel Hamid, and Rania Hedeya, Director of the United Nations Human Settlements, called “Bescletta”, will offer public bicycles to be used around Cairo.
How this works you might ask, well, passengers will take a bike from point A then go to point B and leave the bike there for others to use and so forth.
Both sides agreed to work together in order to choose locations to implement special cycling routes throughout Cairo. This project hopes to encourage Egyptians to choose cycling as a means of transportation instead of cars in order to lessen traffic and pollution.
3. New Metro Line
A new 30 KM metro line is also expected to be operational by June 2018. The plan for this new sixth metro line was put into agreement by Major General Tarek Gamal al-Din, Chairperson of the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT) along with “Bombardier,” a Canadian multinational aerospace and transportation company.
It’s expected to transport around 1.5 million passengers daily. This will help relieve the pressure off the first line that transports around 2 million passengers.
Hopefully, all these projects will help in lessening traffic all around Cairo.
