Algerians waste 45 days per year in traffic jam: The result, stress, violence and other problems

Algerians waste at least three hours a day in traffic jam, the equivalent of 90 hours per month and 1080 hours per year, and this means that 45 days of every citizens’ life wasted in traffic congestion. This was disclosed by an expert of traffic movement Mohamed El Azzouni, asserting that Algeria suffers bad traffic scheme that needs more organization.

The spokesman said in a statement to Echorouk Newspaper that Algeria is the only country where citizens use cars to go to work, because there are no collective transports, thing which prompts a lot Algerians to sell their properties in order to buy a car.

“Lack of collective transportation and disruption of the metro and tramway projects are the causes of traffic jam, especially in the capital Algiers, which is no longer able to contain more than three million cars out of 4.5 million vehicles in the national level. Algeria suffers a random traffic scheme, especially with regard to traffic signals, that are placed by officials and influential personalities. Roads in major cities are either closed or converted to paths for one destination, thing which aggravated the situation, and examples in this context do not end”, he adds.

“Lack of traffic lights in most intersections are replaced by policemen who usually get tired and turn into a source of concern among the citizens. Citizens spend one hour a day at least in order to search for a place to park their cars under a severe lack of parking places, and the only solution is the sidewalks, and this disrupts the movement of traffic”.   

Specialists in psychiatry and mental development warned, a few days ago, during a symposium in the Aurassi hotel in Algiers, of the alarming spread of stress among Algerians because of the traffic jam which is top of the reasons of anxiety and blood pressure, due to the daily long hours spent in overcrowding. All these facts create fights and violence, Head of the Algerian Association of Psychiatry said.

Professor Tedjiza added that the stress is the subject of age, as it is the main factor for various types of diseases including heart attack, obesity, colon cancer, liver, and lungs.

“Traffic jam and unemployment are at the forefront of the causes of these diseases. We call at the same time to the need for early analysis and detection of acute anxiety throughout visiting various health centers that are numerous in Algeria. Algerian citizens still get very sensitive with mental and psychological disease, thing which causes a large spread of deadly diseases”.

Many citizens said they spend more than an hour in security checkpoints which cause interruption of old cars causing tension and stress and even weariness, and all this for security reasons, according to the Minister of Transport, Gendarmerie and national security.