Khaberni - The crews of the Greater Amman Municipality removed 140 obstacles and encroachments on sidewalks and streets within the capital areas over the past 48 hours, as part of its ongoing campaign to limit obstructions that hinder pedestrian movement and affect traffic flow.
The removed obstacles included 30 kiosks, 60 cones, 28 planting containers, and 22 water barriers, while the municipality teams continue the removal operations to prevent encroachment on the capacity of streets and sidewalks and to reuse them for their designated purposes.
The director of the media center at the municipality, Mu'adh Al-Hadid, said that the campaign began by alerting the owners of commercial shops and those exploiting the sidewalks and streets about the necessity to remove obstacles in front of their shops, noting that the municipality confiscates obstacles if the warnings are not heeded.
Al-Hadid explained on Monday that some roads were experiencing the closure of a complete lane due to these obstacles, which affected traffic movement, indicating that their removal contributed significantly to improving traffic flow.
Al-Hadid confirmed that repeated violations would lead to legal actions against the offenders, based on the Amman Municipality's public nuisance prevention regulations, including imposing financial penalties on those who reposition obstacles in areas that had been cleared.
He emphasized that sidewalks are the right of pedestrians, and placing obstacles or barriers to reserve public parking spots is a violation, urging shop owners and citizens to comply with laws and instructions and not to occupy designated parking areas intended for everyone.
The municipality conducts regular field campaigns to remove encroachments and obstructions from sidewalks and streets, in response to complaints and in coordination with the administrative governor, concerned entities, and security agencies, while random removal and control teams monitor sites that witness violations.
Alongside removal operations, the municipality continues to rehabilitate sidewalks in residential and commercial areas to provide safe and continuous pathways for pedestrians, especially children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, to reduce the need for them to use the road due to obstacles on sidewalks.
The rehabilitation work also includes repairing old sidewalks, improving the connectivity of pedestrian paths, studying sites whose technical and regulatory conditions allow for sidewalk expansions, in addition to removing parking on sidewalks, barriers, street vendors, commercial expansions, and prohibiting the use of pedestrian pathways for private parking or valet services.
Regarding trees and plants that impede pedestrian movement, the municipality deals with them based on a technical assessment of each site, giving priority to preserving them whenever possible, trimming obstructing branches when trimming is sufficient to secure a passageway, and relocating trees or plants when feasible, while removal is limited to cases where it is not possible to provide a safe pathway by other means.
The rehabilitation efforts also include restoring the locations to their appropriate condition after removing obstacles, considering the selection of planting sites and suitable types of trees for the available spaces when creating new sidewalks or redeveloping them.
The municipality affirms the continued application of the sidewalk system and measures adopted against illegal occupations, monitoring locations to prevent repeat violations, in addition to monitoring cases of reserving public parking spots or preventing citizens from using them in front of shops and establishments, taking into account private and designated parking restrictions in place.
