Empirical Review of Urban Traffic Challenges and Sustainable Solutions: A Case Study of Muscat, Oman

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical and bibliometric analysis of the issue of traffic in Muscat, Oman, combining statistics and world research trends. According to the empirical results, 15,195 traffic accidents and 1,086 deaths were recorded in Muscat between 2012 and 2022, with the root cause of road fatalities being overspeeding (54%). This has an impact of over 38 hours of congestion delay per driver annually, and its air pollution level of PM 2.5 is 48 µg/m³, far exceeds the WHO levels, which highlights severe environmental and health aspects. The study is methodologically descriptive and a trend analysis using secondary data from government and international sources. An analogous bibliometric was based on 3,799 articles indexed in Scopus and mapped via co-occurring keywords, thematic grouping, and author collaborations in VOSviewer. The factors used as inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed journal articles in the field of engineering that were written in English. The analysis compounds one of the gaps in the research spheres of the Gulf region that supports the novice nature of this muscat-focused paper. The conclusions also underline the necessity of infrastructure improvement, intelligent transport systems (ITS), transportation improvements, and behavioral changes. This review provides actionable policy recommendations and other research directions that should be undertaken, such as stakeholder views and long-term intervention evaluations. In the current study, I will lead researchers and policymakers to the specifics of data-driven, long-term urban mobility policies in Muscat.