For over a quarter of a century, Jeddah has been known for its 70 squares and roundabouts with beautiful monuments and artworks decorating its various intersections. The monuments were designed by a host of prominent artists and sculptors, such as, Mahmood Banat, Al-Mahdi Waleed and others during the time when Dr. Mohammad Saeed Al-Farsi was the mayor of Jeddah. The monuments include Ad-Darrajah (The Bicycle), As-Sofon (The Ship), At-Tayyarah (The Airplane), Al-Falak (The Orbit), and Al-Jawad Al-Abyad (The White Horse). Al-Handasa Square, one of the distinguished landmarks in Jeddah is one of the largest road junctions. In the middle of this square there are giant geometrical tools like a compass, a protractor, a triangle and a ruler. These are among the largest geometrical tools in the world. The square was constructed in 1986 on a land area of about 4,000 square meters at a cost of approximately SR1.5 million. With the increase in population and with the city expanding to unimaginable proportions, traffic congestion at these squares and roundabouts was inevitable. To address the issue, Jeddah Traffic Police convened workshops with the mayoralty and the city's administration of roads and transport that resulted in decisions to remove some of these squares, and to modify others or move them to alternative locations. “Removing some of the monuments was necessary in order to expand roads and reduce traffic congestion,” said the director of the mayoralty's information center, Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, adding that some monuments were moved to public recreation sites. The decision to remove these monuments has clearly divided society. Artists, for example, say the removal or relocation of these monuments deprive Jeddah of the beauty associated with it for a long time. Taha Sabban, a plastic artist and member of the board of directors of the Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, said monuments have come to be identified as symbols of the city. Some of the city's residents, such as, Fahd Al-Shliwi and Saud Al-Mutairi commended the decision saying that many of these squares were meaningless and were causing traffic congestion and even some accidents. Their removal and replacement with traffic lights has contributed to lightening the pressure on traffic and has reduced accidents, they said. Civil engineer Rayyan Abdullah Al-Rayyani said some of Jeddah squares are not organized and not “right” in terms of engineering. He said most of them are not perfectly round and squares are found in oval or triangular shapes. He said this was a main factor in obstructing the smooth flow of traffic. Col. Mohammad Bin Hasan Al-Qahtani, Jeddah Traffic director, said each of the squares needed at least four traffic police to organize traffic manually which was a burden on the exchequer. “Removing roundabouts was one of the solutions and thus we removed Al-Mazhariyyah square on the intersection of Al-Makrauna and Rawdah Streets, the Prince Majed square on the intersection of Prince Majed and Gharnatah Streets and the Motor Periodic Inspection square at the intersection of Prince Mit'eb and Hira Streets,” he said.
