Municipality to close some Amman areas to cars in Ramadan

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is planning to close some areas to cars during Ramadan in a bid to preserve the “spirit” of the fasting month, expected to start on June 18.

“The municipality will encourage people to let go of their cars and enjoy the city,” Ayman Smadi, executive director of GAM’s transport and traffic department, told The Jordan Times on Saturday.

“We want people to have a connection with the physical environment, something that cannot be realised when they are in their cars. We think that Ramadan will be the perfect opportunity to realise this,” he added.

Smadi noted that Jabal Al Hussein, downtown Amman, Sweifieh and Rainbow Street are among the areas that will be closed to cars.

“The closures will only be imposed during rush hours and we will provide alternative parking lots,” he said, adding that convertible shuttle buses will also be operated in these areas in a bid to encourage tourism.

Traffic jams are common in Ramadan in the hours before sunset, when Muslims break their day-long fast. Amman residents also tend to spend their evening after iftar at restaurants and cafés, staying there until dawn.

Highlighting that 100,000 to 200,000 additional vehicles are expected to enter the capital this summer, Smadi said GAM is taking these measures to ease traffic congestion.

“We already have one million cars in Amman,” he noted.

Last summer, 154,920 cars entered the Kingdom from Saudi Arabia through the Omari crossing, according to official figures.

According to official data, travellers from Saudi Arabia constitute the largest number of tourists to Jordan, with an estimated 1 million people entering the Kingdom by land.