# Digital traffic signs planned for Dubai



## Krazy

Gulf News









Alert for motorists: An illustration shows how the digital signs will look when they are installed on Shaikh Zayed Road.



Dubai: The information highway will soon become a reality on the roads of Dubai.

The city will enter an era of better-coordinated road management early next year with electronic display signs updating traffic conditions and directing motorists away from congested routes.

It is the first venture of its kind in the Middle East and it is seen as a move towards smoother roads and better-informed motorists. It is also expected to reduce the problem of emergency vehicles being delayed on congested roads.

The signs will update road conditions and list congested routes and suggested alternatives.

They may also warn of lane closures or blocked intersections. The Dh65.5-million project is in its final planning phase and the first stage of construction is scheduled to begin in November. Project contractor Semines is finishing work on the software.

Sources said a second contractor will be ready within three weeks to start the civil work, including pipes, cabling and board installation. The construction is expected to be completed early in 2005.

Officials hope the project, which starts on Shaikh Zayed Road, will eventually reduce traffic accidents by 15 per cent in Dubai and slash travel time by 1.4 million driving hours per year.

The project comprises 17 electronic signs around Dubai, and about 300 monitor boards which will direct motorists to roads with less traffic.

The official said the boards will be erected on carefully selected locations on internal roads, intersections, interchanges, roundabouts and highways.

The messages will be displayed in Arabic and English. "There will be no need to call the police if there is an accident because all roads will be wired with radar and speed-control devices, accessible to both the municipality and police.

"The central communication centre will have all the information to display traffic messages in time and also alert the police on time, giving minute details of the location so that they can respond in the shortest possible time."

The project will give traffic engineers at the municipality a better picture of traffic flow and allow the technical unit to receive up-to-the-minute details concerning road conditions. 

Electronic sensors and cameras will be installed to capture traffic volume data and transfer it instantly to the traffic control centre.

Pictures of accidents will be transferred to an electronic map, which will help traffic controllers analyse information.

Engineers will be able to find solutions to the problem in cooperation with the police and re-route traffic by sending instructions to the electronic boards.

Traffic signals will also work in tandem with the electronic sign system. More information about its usage will be published on the municipality website.

The project relies on a survey done by the Intelligent Transport System (ITS), a modern technique of traffic management.

This is being installed in major cities to reduce traffic congestion and will help control traffic on Dubai's major highways to a certain extent.

"Last year, we completed a comprehensive study of the city's road network and traffic management system, called R-700, which showed that the number of registered vehicles on the road could go up to one million by 2020 from 400,000 today," an official said.


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## Trances

intresting but it wont stop rubbernecking which is the real problem here
with those sorts of signs every one would pull over closer to that lane for a look
dont you know it


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## Dubai-Lover

at least dubai is trying to relive traffic and to coordinate it in a better way!!
with the metro and the ras-al-khor bridge it's a good beginning, but what these digital signs will make better, i don't know!!!???


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## Krazy

I wonder if they will read in Arabic as well, since the illustration has the sign boards in english only.


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## Dubai-Lover

i think it will change from english to arabic every 5 seconds or something!!


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## AMDXL

This could happen if someone hacked into their system


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## Krazy

Yet another hater.....


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## Trances

AM sure it will be used for adds as well
why not ?


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## Krazy

Yes Trances but a Hooters ad on SZR in Dubai? That's pathetic.


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## Qatar4Ever

lol its funny.... 

I think its a great idea. But i think it should be used for adds mainly rather than to notify drivers of traffic problems. Or they can have adds running with little writing scrolling down the screen.


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## Trances

well of course very unlikey as in never
but adverts are going up every where !!


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## juiced

Krazy said:


> Yet another hater.....


...of what? Hooters?


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## Qatar4Ever

i think he meant hater of dubai


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## Krazy

Yes I did.


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## BinDubai

i like the idea of the signs it will help alot specially in avoiding the traffic jams


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