Shopkeepers say allowing cars onto busy Sweifieh street good for business

AMMAN — Opening Sweifieh’s pedestrianised Wakalat Street to cars will contribute to supporting businesses located on the thoroughfare and encourage families to visit the area, vendors and shopkeepers told The Jordan Times on Monday. 

Construction work undertaken by the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) on the busy commercial street is expected to wrap up on May 25, according to a GAM statement. 

A four-metre-wide section will be open one way for cars, while the rest of the street will be designated for pedestrians, the statement said.  

Alaa Baghdadi, an employee at a sweets store on the Sweifieh street, said the project will make it easy for people to shop in the area. 

“From now on, people can come to the area using their cars and park outside the store they want to buy from. In the past, they used to park far from the street and quickly got the items they wanted,” Baghdadi noted. 

Shuaib Abu Khalaf, who owns a grocery store, had a similar opinion.

“In winter time, the street used to be deserted because no one wanted to walk in the cold weather. They only walk during summertime. Now, the number of customers might increase regardless of the weather,” he added.  

Even though many pedestrians come to Wakalat Street in summer, Abu Khalaf said he did not make good profits. 

“I used to sell clothes, and then I was forced to turn my shop into a grocery store because the majority of visitors would buy a cup of coffee or a pack of cigarettes,” he added, claiming that only restaurants and cafés benefited from when the street was pedestrianised.

“When people got bored of walking, they would start looking for a restaurant or a café to sit down and grab a bite or a cup of coffee.”

A restaurant owner, who refused to give his name, noted that when the street was closed to traffic, several young men used to frequent the area with the purpose of harassing girls.

“Many girls used to enter our restaurant only to avoid harassers,” he said. 

Thabet Qazzaz, an employee at a clothing store, agreed, adding that this trend has had a negative impact on business. 

“Many of our customers told us they stopped shopping in the area and turned to malls because of this inappropriate behaviour,” Qazzaz said, as GAM employees worked on making the street accessible to cars. 

The storeowner also suggested that the municipality could close the street to cars for specified hours between June and October to allow pedestrians to walk around.

“They can do this from 4pm until 2am for example,” Abu Khalaf said.

He also suggested holding festivals and activities during the summer to boost tourism and attract the more visitors. 

In 2005, GAM introduced summer evening pedestrianisation to Wakalat Street for the first time, barring traffic from 6:00pm until midnight to provide residents and visitors with a space to enjoy open-air musical and cultural events.

Two years later, it became the first street in the capital designed exclusively for pedestrians and served as one of the venues for activities of the Amman Summer Festival.
As part of the JD850,000 project, GAM paved 17,000 square metres with coloured tiles, posted maps on the street’s entrances and built a kiosk to provide services to visitors.