The Manual is one of five Manuals to be approved this year
The Roads & Transport Authority - Abdul Fattah Haidrah:
Engineer Maitha bin Udai, CEO of the Licensing Agency, Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), announced the endorsement of the Speed Management Manual in Dubai Emirate; which is one of five technical manuals set to be approved by the Agency this year namely: Entries & Exits Manual, Traffic Control Means Manual, Generated Trips Rate Manual, Road Design Manual, and Speed Management Manual; which has recently been endorsed. "These manuals complement the technical manuals published in 2011 which include: Roadside Design Manual, Traffic Diversions Management Manual, and Traffic Safety Auditing Manual. These manuals reassert RTA's policy built on the highest professional standards, clarity and transparency," she said.
"The strategy of road safety in Dubai is a top priority aligned with RTA's vision and therefore every effort is continuously being made to make the roads of the Emirate the safest in the world. Among the key objectives of this strategy is to curb traffic-related mortalities to bring them in line with the rates prevailing in the most developed countries by 2015. The RTA has made good progress down this track from inception as the traffic fatalities plummeted from 21.7 cases per 100 thousand persons in 2007 to 6.7 cases per 100 thousand persons in 2011.
"Despite the fact the traffic fatality rate in Dubai is better than countries such as Malaysia, South Africa and the United States, the RTA is still aspiring to place Dubai amongst the cities with the least traffic fatalities in the world," commented Maitha.
She highlighted the paramount importance of curbing speed levels in a bid to bring down traffic-related injuries & casualties. International studies indicate that increasing the driving speed by up to 5 per cent over and above the specified speed limits shown on traffic signs result in pushing up the rate of traffic accidents causing injuries by 10% and fatalities by 20%.
The Speed Management Manual has been compiled by a world-class British consultant under the supervision of a specialist technical committee from the Traffic & Roads Agency. The mission took two years to complete during which a revision was carried out for the best international practices, and intensive field surveys were conducted for hundreds of locations in Dubai Emirate.
"The RTA has chalked out a time frame over the next two years for assessing the maximum speed signs fixed all over roads & streets of Dubai Emirate including revising them, if needed. The new speeds will be set over three stages: The first stage will include site surveying of every road sector and feeding the relevant data to a computer program customized for Dubai city under the Speed Management Project. Information related to the type of road, prevailing speed limit, land uses, pedestrian traffic and other parameters will be entered in the system to identify the so-called Estimated Road Speed.
"The second stage relates to the calculation of the driving speed of 85% or less of vehicles; which is called in the traffic engineering science "85 Percentile Speed" or the natural speed of the road.
"The third stage is meant for running a comparison between the findings of the above two stages and taking decision. If the Estimated Speed, for example, was higher than the Maximum Speed fixed on traffic signs, in this case the signs had to be changed and maximum speed increased. If the natural speed was higher than the maximum or estimated speed, in this case the traffic enforcement measures had to be intensified and other calming means had to be introduced on the road. But if the natural speed was less than the estimated or maximum speed, there might be a problem of a traffic safety being overlooked during the speed assessment study; which has to be studied more carefully. Speed limits reminder signage will be fixed at distances relating to the road speed such as a reminder signage every 500 meters on a road with a speed limit of 60 km/h and every 5000 meters on a road with a speed limit of 120 km/h," elaborated the CEO of Traffic & Roads Agency.
As regards the educational guidance policies, engineer Maitha noted: "The educational orientation has two folds; the first one is the provision of information need to up the knowledge level and accordingly utilize such knowledge as a tool to impact the behavioural patterns. The other one is the encouragement & stimulation through continuing with the reminders of the information that had already been delivered and accordingly encourage further adherence to the same proper behaviours through guided campaigns.
"The educational traffic safety in essence depends on communicating & directing educative traffic messages for building a solid base related to the dissemination of traffic culture and polishing of behavioural patterns. Then we have got to develop that base starting from the age bracket (3-13 years) considering that the impact on the younger ages is higher than those at older ages.
"Through the project, the RTA managed to identify the audience targeted by media campaigns, and the media channels to be used in delivering messages as well as the techniques of assessing the success of media campaigns.
© Press Release 2012
