CAIRO - Haytham was driving down the street using his mobile, when a traffic officer stopped him and told him to pay a fine, because using a cell phone while driving is a violation of Egypt's traffic laws and regulations. But today we rarely see a traffic officer or traffic lights (and those lights we do see normally don't work). In the past, traffic lights were respected. Meanwhile, a new technological concept, known as ‘Smart Street', has been launched to control Cairo's haphazard traffic. In Egypt, a country of about 80 million, car accidents and street violations are on the increase. According to recent statistics from the Traffic Administration, affiliated to the Ministry of Interior, there were 22,930 car accidents last year, resulting in almost 6,500 deaths and 35,000 people being injured. The World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that the number of car accidents in Egypt had risen by 10 per cent due in the past year, because the number of cars had now increased to more than six million. “I doubt that the Smart Street will protect us from the random behaviour in the streets of Cairo,” says Ashraf Gamal, an employee at the Railways Authority. He added that this project should be preceded by awareness campaigns, to prepare the Egyptian people for this new kind of technology. “Everyone who violates the traffic laws should be fined. Traffic officers can't stop the violations, so do you electronic cameras will?” he asks rhetorically. As for Essam Mohamed, a taxi driver, he thinks the Smart Street project won't help control the ‘mincemeat' in the Egyptian streets and the misbehaviour of the microbus drivers. “What we need is a plan to reduce the number of car owners by making motorists switch to public transport and taxis,” he argues. During a brief visit to Cairo, Samuel J. Palmisano, the President and Chief Executive Officer of IBM, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with both the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Transportation, for applying the Information Technology (IT) system, in order to bring order to the chaos of the streets of Cairo. Amr Talaat, the Chairman of IBM in Egypt, says that the purpose of this agreement is to reduce the congestion in Cairo, control the traffic and make the streets safer and more secure. “In the coming few days we will start implementing the Smart Street project to reduce traffic congestion,” he explains, adding that sensors will be set up in the streets and on bridges to pinpoint which of Cairo's streets are the busiest by counting the number of cars that use them everyday. Meanwhile, the Cairo Traffic Administration has started using cameras in many of the capital's streets and squares, so it can monitor them round the clock. “The Smart Street is a good, creative initiative, ideal for an e-Government,” says Minister of Administrative Development Ahmed Darwish, adding that the traffic problem is a social issue that affects Egypt's economy. He explains that the Ministry has a long-term plan to reduce the pressure on the Egyptian street by offering electronic governmental services, which the Egyptian citizen can access via the Internet, landline telephone or mobile.
