As more and more vehicles crowd the cities’s roadways, traffic congestion has an increasingly debilitating effect on our quality of life. Across the West Bank, people, business, the industry, the economy and the environment pay a higher and higher price for mounting congestion through delays, lost opportunities, higher costs, increased accidents, reduced competitiveness, pollution, frustration and much more.
Nablus city is a major city located in the central part of North West Bank, connecting the northern governorates with the governorates in the middle and south of the West Bank.
Moreover, Nablus City is the center for the villages and refugees camps around it. Figures (1) and (2) present the central location of Nablus city in Palestine and Nablus governorates, respectively. Therefore, traffic that passes through the city is considered to be high. It requires a thorough examination to develop possible solutions to through traffic passing the city center, thorough major projects, rather than traffic management plans, in order to provide the appropriate links for through traffic, considering the available space of the roadway network and to keep at the same time acceptable service operations for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Through traffic passing along ''Faisal Street'' and its western extension of "Haifa Street", they form the basic arterial street across the city. Traffic along the street is rapidly growing due to political, social and economical changes that are happening there.
City planners, civil engineers, environmental, politicians and the general population can have a significant impact on how we address traffic congestion. Traffic is a very political and sensitive issue since almost every proposed method of addressing it carries a hefty price tag.