Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Dubai Cutting the highway speed limit of 120km/h to 110km/h in some areas of the emirate will go a long way to reducing traffic carnage on the emirates roadways, say police.
A grace limit of 20 kilometres over the speed limit may also be cut by a 10mh/h to further slash the high rate of speed pursued by some motorists which has been blamed for serious motor-vehicle crashes and fatalities in recent years.
Police say they are also weighing the increase of minimum speed on highways from the current 60km/h to 90km/h, said a senior police official, noting that driving too slow on some highways is equally as dangerous because it causes obstacles in fast-moving traffic.
Maj Gen Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Chief of Dubai Police Traffic Department, told Gulf News yesterday that Dubai police have proposed a new plan to slash speed limits by 10km/h on the emirate’s main roads (which currently have a maximum speed limit of 120km/h) including Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road and Shaikh Zayed Road.
“Reducing speed limits on roads will reduce the number of accidents and traffic fatalities,” said Maj Gen Al Zafein.
“We are also working on reducing the grace margin granted which allows motorists on some internal and external roads to go an additional 20km over the posted limit without being fined,” he said.
Maj Gen Al Zafein said that the 20-km grace margin could be reduced to only 10km. Driving on Shaikh Zayed Road, for example, would then be reduced legally to 110km/h.
“We are also proposing to increase the minimum speed limit on highways from 60km/h to be 90km/h which will also help in reducing fatalities on roads,” he added. Maj Gen Al Zafein said that there are some roads in Dubai which do not allow any grace margin.
He said that the grace margin rules have been in place since 2011 for some specific kind of vehicles including mini-buses, trucks, heavy and light vehicles and taxis. “This rule will be implemented on all vehicles soon,” he said.
He said the new initiative will help curb the number of traffic accidents.
Maj Gen Al Zafein said that police aim to reduce the rate of deaths on roads by 10 to 25 per cent this year.
Traffic fatalities in Dubai declined nine per cent last year with road accidents claiming 123 lives in 2012 compared to 134 in 2011, he said. Traffic accidents, however, increased seven per cent in the same period.
“The decline in fatalities is attributed to strict policing. The police plan to reduce fatalities to zero per 100,000 of the population in the next seven years,” he said.
By Bassma Al Jandaly, Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
