A study directed by the Civil Engineering Department, Faculty ofEngineering Technology Al Balqa’ Applied University Shbeeb, Awad, R. Suliman , with alliance with Jordan Traffic InstituteJTI, Amman,Jordan , the study aimed was to find the “relation between speed-lanechoice and road accidents in Jordan” . Two major highways connecting the capitalof Jordan with the city of Az-zarqa werea case study , and the collected data were divided into five segments . Fourof the five segments wereabout the suburbs, while the last within the city.
the segments was located on a divided multilane highways near a pedestrian overpass. The data showed that 20% of the drivers were driving over the speedlimits. Regardless of lane position, the average speed was beneath the speedlimits for both classes of roadway. Drivers InterviewsThree hundred thirty-one Car drivers were interviewed, and the resultswere as the next: Speed Choice: Out of the 331drivers, 51 cases of speeding were reported. And twenty-two of them admittedthat the reason is the absence of police on the roads .
Though, another twentydrivers said, “An empty road is tempting to speed”. Nevertheless, twelvedrivers proposed that the posted speed is too low. Anyways, Some come cleanthat speeding is their hobby. Lane choice : Thirty percent of the interviewed drivers by theirown admission said that they had altered lanes in the last kilometre beforestopping prior to the interview. The whys and wherefores reported ranged fromslow moving vehicle ahead to no police on-site. Many drivers admitted that theydo a lane-changing manoeuvre as long as it is permitted without any reason. Heavyweightor slow vehicles are the cause behind several lane-changes according to somedrivers. Drivers accept as true that they can change lanes on high-speed open highways.
Being in rush is a common answer. According to some other drivers, attributedto pollutants emitted by the leading vehicles is one of the mean reasons forlane-changing manoeuvres. Jordan is a small country in the Middle East region, with an area of 90thousand sq.
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km and a high populationdensity of 9.456 million (2016) concentrated in the three main cities (Amman,Az-Zarqa, and Irbid). The trafficaccidents issue started to be as a serious matter in the mid-80s. And in 2007, itwas considered as the second main cause of death in country.
During the yearsfrom 1987 to 2007, the number of accidents increased from 15884 into 110630accidents, which is more than 14% percent. Nevertheless, the number of population and the number of automobiles increased only by roughly 2 and 3 folds, respectively forthe same period,. Apparently, this situationis not shocking, since Jordan had not applied a full policy to reduce this problem yet (Katamine, 1999). As a result of the radical rise in trafficaccident fatalities and after a horrendous bus accident on Amman-Irbid highway by the end of January 2008, his majesty King Abdullah II instructed the government to draw aninclusive strategyto curb car accidents and it’s horrible casualtiesin Jordan.
Chairing a conference of the Higher Council for Traffic Safety, hismajesty mentioned that the strategy on traffic safety should be applied in line with a schedule and a clear program. Also, the Kinggave emphasis to the importance of drafting a law to activate the Council’s role, duties and responsibilities.Therefore, the traffic law (No. 49,2001) was replaced with a the temporary law (No. 52, 2007) which imposed quite tauterforfeits.
Along with the new law, traffic police became more intense anddrivers’ blunders became under their surveillance, mainly excessive speeds androad rage. four months later, the temporary traffic law was modified into aless restrictive permanent traffic law (No. 49, 2008), it was issued in July2008 and has been applied since August the same year. However, policeenforcement continued with a bit more and more obligation up to the presenttime. Starting by Feb. 2008, and under the chairmanship of the prime minister,the Higher Council for Traffic Safety, has met monthly to track road safety matters.
5 The policearchives and the observed drivers’ behaviour reveal that most of traffic accidents in Jordan are caused by drivers’ mistakes and their aggressiveness. The main reasons of traffic accidents inJordan throughout the years 2005-2007 are in details in Table (3). Obviouslythe largest single cause of an accident was careless drivers, comeup to 22.5% of all accidents .Driving too closely behind theother vehicles or tailgating took thesecond on the list, for 17% of thetotal.
Other causes were ignoring traffic priority , bad turns, incorrect lanes, and of coursereversing in highways!. Excessive speedranked as the eighth cause, for only 1.5% of the accidents. Aggressive actions, and all the others courseswe mentioned above, contributed nearto 40% of accident caduses. Accidents categorized intovehicle-vehicle collision, single-vehicle collision, and vehicle-pedestrianaccident.
Although the run-off-road accidentsconstituted around 2% of the total road accidents in the country, they raised to further more than 20% of the fatalities. In point of fact, mostof these accidents may perhaps be attributed to speeding, particularly on rustic roads.
