‘Number of private cars estimated to rise to 1.35m’

AMMAN — The number of privately owned cars in the Kingdom is expected to increase by 65,000 or 5 per cent this year to reach 1.35 million, compared to 1.285 million vehicles registered last year, according to official estimates. 

Amman’s streets will have to accommodate around 25,000 new cars this year, an officer at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Department told The Jordan Times on Sunday, adding that nearly 38 per cent of the cars registered in the Kingdom are in the capital. 

According to 2015 State Budget Law estimates, the number of vehicles in Amman is set to reach 510,000 this year.

The budget data indicated that 300,000 people are projected to obtain driving licences this year, up from the 275,000 motorists who were licensed in 2014. 

Revenues from licensing new cars, renewing licences of those already on the streets and for issuing driving licences are estimated at JD128 million this year, 15 per cent higher than the JD112 re-estimated revenues for 2014, according to the budget law. 

The Greater Amman Municipality says that over 1 million cars pass through the capital’s streets on a daily basis as residents of other governorates commute daily to their workplace.

Official figures indicate that more than 200,000 residents of the city of Zarqa, some 22km east of Amman, drive to the capital every day. 

Traffic congestion during summer is a usual scene in Amman streets due to thousands of cars that enter the country from Gulf states. 

In the summer of 2014, a total of 154,920 cars entered the Kingdom from Saudi Arabia, according to figures issued by the Jordan Customs Department. 

Officials and experts attribute the fact that Jordanians prefer to drive their own cars to the lack of a proper public transportation system in the capital.