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Roads in Egypt Information

Egypt has an extensive web of roads stretching 65,050 km (40,420 mi), where 48,000 km (30,000 mi) are paved and the rest are unpaved. ^[1] In 2022, Egypt's ranking in road quality rose from 118th to 28th after the National Roads Project was established. ^[2]

Egypt is known for having high rates of road accidents and fatalities, mainly due to poor and adequate maintenance and the ignorance of Egyptian drivers to traffic rules. In addition, pedestrians are known to jaywalk due to lack of sidewalks and traffic lights.

History

During the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (2600–2200 BC), the Egyptians built what is known as the oldest paved road in the world, to facilitate stones from the quarries to the construction sites. The 8 mi (13 km) road was laid 69 km (43 mi) southwest of modern Cairo and had an average width of 2 m (6 ft 7 in). The road was discovered in the early 20th century but it was not recognized until in 1993 when archaeologists James Harrell and Thomas Bown found a large basalt at one end of the road. The road ran from there to the northwestern shore of Lake Moeris in the Faiyoum Depression. ^{[3] [4]}

Egypt was one of the ten countries included in the Road Safety Project which aims to reduce the number of road accidents by 50 percent.

National Roads Project (2014–)

In 2019, Egypt had greatly improved its rankings in road quality when it jumped 89 places from 118th in 2014 to 29th place with a minimum of 2.74 points in 2013 to a maximum of 5.1 points in 2019, with an average of 3.47 points during the period. ^[5]

Roads today

The road system of Egypt totals approximately 65,100 km (40,500 mi) with 586.09 km (364.18 mi) per 1 million people. Between 2013 and 2019, the total fatalities stood at an average of 10,921, which was considerably safe with 10.8 accidents per 100,000 individuals per year, compared to the United States with an average of 12.3 and the world's average of 17.0. ^[6]

Major roads

The major roads of Egypt are mainly concentrated in Cairo. The main roads in Egypt includes:

Road numbering system

Roads in Egypt uses two types of road numbering systems, the national one and the Arab Mashreq International road numbering system.

The original numbering system had 1- and 2- digit numbers, divided into three subclasses; one digit numbers, two digit numbers of the same number, and two digit numbers with different numbers. Although the use is deprecated, it continued to be shown on some maps. ^[7]

In the 1990's, the numbering system was renewed. It had two to three digit numbers only, however, one digit numbers with a leading zero were the most important. There was a zone system which omitted the zero in one digit numbers, with the exception of the Ring Road. ^[7]

The third numbering system was introduced around 2005 and was the only one known to appear on road signs. ^[7]

International roads

Arab Mashreq International Road Network

The following roads run on the Arab Mashreq International Road Network with their provided road numbers: ^[8]

• M40 (Iraq to Southern Mediterranean) (from Rafah to the border with Libya)
• M50 (Baghdad-Cairo) (from Nuweiba to Cairo)
• M55 (Sinai – East Red Sea)
• M60 Western Saudi Arabia - Upper Egypt
• M65 (West Red Sea) (from Ismailia to the Halayeb Triangle)
• M67 (From Kantara Bridge to Cairo)
• M75 (Nile Valley) (from Alexandria to Arqine (Egypt/Sudan))

Trans African Highway network

Two routes of the Trans African Highway originates from Cairo: the TAH1 and the TAH 4.

• TAH 1
• TAH 4: Cairo–Cape Town Highway: The Egyptian section starts from the north end and crosses through Fayoum, Beni Suef, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Luxor, Aswan, the Toshka junction, and to Arqine in the Egyptian–Sudanese border. The section's length is 1,155 km (718 mi), and the connection to Arqin is expected to be completed by 2024. The transport minister Kamel Al-Wazir stated that the road was estimated to cost 26 million pounds. ^[9]

Safety

Egypt was criticized for having poor maintained roads, which had one of the most dangerous roads in the world. A study by the World Bank found that Egypt lost 3.2 percent of its GDP, amounting to $10.74 billion a year in 2020. ^[10] On a report by the World Health Organization's Global Status report on Road Safety in 2018, an average of 25 Egyptians die every day due to road clashes. ^[10] The same report also states that one third of road fatalities are pedestrians. ^[11]

According to the World Health Organization data for 2010, Egypt had lost 10,700 people as a result of road crashes, equal to the amount of people who died during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Some estimates placed an economic loss of $1 million a year. ^[12]

In 2014, the number of road accidents had declined by 7.5 percent as compared to statistics of 2013, a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) found that the fatalities were 14,403 in 2014. The death toll similarly dropped to 6,226 compared with 6,700 in 2013. ^[13]

However, it continued to rise until in 2016, after which in 2018 fell from 14,710 to 8,480 accidents. That same year, the fatalities had fallen by 50.5 percent to 3,087 deaths. This was as a result of the national projects in renovating new roads, construct new roads to facilitate mobility, and to meet international safety standards. ^[5]

Statistics of roads accidents varied greatly among agencies. In 2016, CAPMAS recorded 5,343 deaths based on the Ministry of Interior crash reports, while in the same year, it recorded 8,211 deaths based on the Ministry of Health on causes of deaths. The WHO report of 2018 reported 9,287 deaths a year, and a World Bank statistical analysis of 2019 pushes up to 26,925. ^[14]

In 2017, the Ministry of Health reported 7,370 deaths. Cairo experienced the highest death toll of 1,307 deaths, followed by Giza with 821 deaths. Cairo, with 2.5 million vehicles at the time, had 526 D/MnV which placed it in 18th place of the 27 governorates of Egypt. Beheira was the most dangerous governorate with 2192 D/MnV, trice the national average of 745, followed by Assiut, North Sinai, Suez, Matrouh, and Ismailia, all which are above the average. ^[14]

Controversies

Teraet Zomor controversy

In 2020, a bridge known as Teraet Zomor Bridge attracted media attention when the bridge is situated centimeters away from 4 apartment buildings, ^[15] as part of constructing speedways to ease traffic in the region. ^[16] However, it was found that the buildings build directly were illegal, and order demolition, but the residents argued that the permits were acquired in 2008 and can't be deemed illegal. ^[17]

Algeria axis controversy

In June 2021, the Ministry of Transportation announced the establishments of three new axises; one of the axis, called Algeria, is to run in place of the freight railway in Maadi. ^[18] However, it drew criticism from local people as it would impact the trees, as well as schools in the region. This also resulted in a hashtag promoting the refusal of the project implementation, and the formation of a Facebook group. ^[19]

Other controversies

During the summer of 2022, the Sahel road and its roundabouts gained media attention by multiple Egyptians due to its complexity and fears of potential road accidents on an infamous road. They posted on social media about the poor design of the road, vehicles driving on the opposite side of the roundabout, the confusion of the drivers due to the multiple exits, and technical issues which can lead to dangerous incidents. ^[20]

See also

• Transport in Egypt

References