Enviable network of roads, but a few irritants

Oman, in the last 50 years hasn’t just seen a rapid growth in its road network, but an explosion, as a well-documented 6 miles of roads has become thousands upon thousands of kilometres of the best roads anywhere in the world. It really is a pleasure to be driving on most of the roads here. They are wide, and made for driving at, or around 120kph very safely.

However, that doesn’t mean everything is perfect!

Take, for example the drive down to Sur, which we take often to see the turtles and go fishing. The road over the mountain to Amerat, it is a wonderful piece of artistry, let alone engineering, that road, and appears to be driven respectfully, if a little quickly on the downhill runs. Then we drop down into Amerat and that clover-leaf complex, turning right to merge with the Ruwi/Muttrah traffic, down through a couple of roundabouts and set sail for Sur itself.

The drive is easy, and the sights full of interest, however South of Qurayat there are a number of sections of roadway, where the speed limit is reduced to 100kmh, with no warning, the signage being random, always different, and disappointingly, reoccurring. Sometimes there are signs indicating the end of a 100kmh zone, yet there was none indicating its beginning.

One could get cynical and ask whether it was to intentionally catch motorists out, but I prefer to think that someone needs to get down there, and have a look. I think a good start point would be to understand that, in the first place, there should be a speed limit sign at every slip road entering the main traffic route, and also, more speed advisory signs. If the objective is to save lives, let’s do that, yes? The road works in north of Sur, from the LNG Port have been ongoing for so long now, a wag remarked, “They must be getting paid by the hour’’.

And then we enter the city itself, and okay, it’s a city of roundabouts and speed bumps, sleeping policemen, humps, whatever we call them. I have no issue with having them in moderation, but honestly, some of them are incredibly harsh, and appear barely justifiable. I do understand a need to slow down speeders, but why penalise legitimate drivers? A drive through Sur should take 10-15 minutes, not 30 minutes. The concept of inconveniencing everyone to slow down a few is that of catering to the lowest common denominator, therefore unacceptable!

So we go home, having enjoyed our weekend away. But we must face the Muscat to Nizwa highway which has three significant problems just at the moment. First, the median and culvert crash barriers are in an atrocious state, with nothing repaired during the last year following numerous crashes. It’s not great at all!

Second, the slow lanes, where the big trucks operate, is deteriorating at an alarming rate, to the extent that those of us in cars have an experience worse than driving on gravel roads when we must move to the slow lane. It is the big trucks that are doing the damage, no doubt about it! No matter how well the roads are built, they are not made for such abuse!

Finally, these massive trucks, especially those carrying cement and steel, cannot possibly be properly weight rated if they can only travel at around 50-60kmh only, and run nose to tail because they cannot muster sufficient speed to pass, so they end up in convoys, bumping their way down the road, and destroying the surface, and creating unsafe driving conditions and situations on the nation’s busiest road.

At the end of the day, inconvenience is just that. Traffic fines are what they are. But road safety, is a very different issue, and even one road fatality is one too many. Act now to save lives!