Experts at the roundtable discussion on traffic and road safety.
A roundtable discussion on traffic and road safety was held yesterday with participation of Swedish experts, decision makers from the Ministry of Interior (MoI), and representatives from the research sector.
Sweden, since the establishment of its Embassy in Doha in 2014, focused heavily on road safety and traffic management in Qatar. This cooperation was deepened during the Fall of last year, when a contract was signed for two Swedish traffic behaviorists, Dr Henriette Wallén Warner and Dr Sonja Forward from Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), to work for MoI on the creation of various awareness campaigns.
Sweden has brought Dr. Dirk van Amelsfort, expert in congestions management, to Qatar in order to expand its efforts further. Dr. Amelsfort is a researcher and an expert in the field of road user charging who has led different projects all over the world to investigate the benefits and costs of road user charging.
Among the attendees at the roundtable were Brig. Mohammed Al Malki, Secretary General of Road Safety Commission at MoI, Dr Abdul Sattar Al Tai, Executive Director Manager,QNRF, Dr Kim Jraiw, Manager of the National Traffic Safety Office, MoI and Ashghal and Dr Wafa Al Yazeedi, Chairperson of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine at Hamad Medical Cooperation .
Other participants were from Qatar University’s Transportation & Traffic Safety Studies Center and the Trauma Medicine Center at HMC.
The main purpose of the discussion was to broaden Sweden’s close partnership with Qatar’s Ministry of Interior to also include research partnerships with Qatar University’s Transportation & Traffic Safety Studies Center, Qatar National Research Fund, among others.
Among the topics discussed at the meeting were´”Tools for improving road safety in Qatar”, “Vision Zero conference in Stockholm in June” and “Road Safety Awarness Campaign.
“This was an excellent opportunity for policy makers, Swedish road safety experts, together with high-level representatives from Qatar’s academia to share their experiences, aim to find common goals and discuss the way forward on how to make Qatar streets a more safe,” said Ambassador Polano.
