December 24, 2013

When cities grow, traffic often becomes the default excuse for almost anything. Late for a meeting? Blame traffic. Don’t want to go out? Blame traffic. City planners have several ways out of this problem. They can build their way out, by widening roads or adding alternative routes around choke points. Alternatively, as is the case

Residents who use the Sharekni car-pooling scheme will now be able to find their way around thanks to a geographic information system. Locations across Dubai and other emirates are being uploaded to the online programme by the Roads and Transport Authority. “Linking the Sharekni programme with the GIS system has made it very easy for

Three students have won an award for their short film promoting the use of child seats in cars. The three-minute movie aims to encourage Emiratis and expatriates to use the restraints to help protect their little ones. The three student filmmakers, all Emiratis, have now been awarded the first Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) Road Safety

An online course that promotes safe driving and the use of seat belts is being added to college curriculums Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) institutes have included the e-course in their curriculums as part of the Stay Alert, Stay Alive campaign, supported by the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai. More than 18,000 Emirati students

The victims of road accidents worldwide will be publicly mourned tomorrow as governments work to reduce the number of crashes. The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday of November each year. Road safety and transport experts have suggested the UAE, which aims to have no road deaths

Abu Dhabi Municipality is to concentrate on improved safety for schools and pedestrians across the emirate. “We identify measures to mitigate high risks and reduce fatal and serious injuries on the roads,” said a spokesman from the infrastructure and assets division. “Based on the Department of Transport and the police reports, we prepared a design

Four years after three children died in an accident that triggered The National’s Road to Safety campaign, the UAE’s roads are considerably safer, experts say. Improved infrastructure, road design and safety standards, enforcement, traffic control and incident response, and pedestrian management have all been factors. “Authorities here are much more conscious of designing roads and

The licensing agency at Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority will start distributing warning stickers to be placed on the windscreen of cars driven by newly licensed drivers, starting in the last quarter of the year. Sultan Al Marzouqi, director of the drivers’ licensing department at the agency, said in Al Itthad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper

Recently qualified drivers can now put a sticker on their car windows warning other motorists that they have only just passed their test. The Roads and Transport Authority has devised a series of “New Driver” stickers that will be sold to a trainee once he or she obtains their driving license. “The idea of placing

A Dubai driver stopped by police last week had racked up more than Dh100,000 in fines. The driver was one of 23 pulled over as part of a campaign against reckless driving. He had accumulated Dh104,990 worth of fines. Maj Gen Mohammed Saif Al Zafeen, the head of traffic in Dubai, has warned reckless drivers