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175 stations to measure traffic
volume on Abu Dhabi roads

The Department of Transport (DoT) in Abu Dhabi has rolled out the Road Vehicle Traffic Counting System (TCS), which will see the installation of 175 next-generation station devices providing presence indicators and accurate measurements of vehicle volume, occupancy, speed, and classifications in up to 12 separate lanes from up to 76 metres away.

The deployment of the highly sophisticated sensors is part of the DoT’s efforts to establish a world-class highway network in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Slated to be accomplished during the third quarter of 2013, the Dh7 million project seeks to provide inputs for main roads planning, designing, operation and maintenance, given that it ensures more accurate real-time data.

To be operated by solar energy, the stations will be permanently located and connected with the traffic central system via wireless communication technologies.

All data gathered by the stations will be further analysed by the DoT’s Main Road Division which will put forward recommendations on changes that can be made to road management, from planning to design and operation and maintenance as such information is more reliable and represents the actual roadway conditions compared to existing mathematically-modelled data gathering.

Faisal Ahmed Al Suwaidi, General Director of the Main Roads Division at the DoT said: “This state-of-the-art and widely-adopted system comes in line with the DoT’s endeavour to provide a world-class integrated road network.”

Such a network would provide several advantages such as better safety indicators on main roads, historical and real-time traffic data to assess main road improvement and traffic management, and determine highway classifications whilst calculating the level of service on main roads, he added.