By Shafaat Shahbandari, Staff Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Like most major cities in the world, traffic congestion costs Dubai a lot despite continuous efforts by the authorities to tackle it.
In 2013, Dubai’s economy was set back by Dh2.9 billion in terms of loss in working hours, time and fuel.
The most common feature of every modern road network is a traffic light, which according to some facilitates the movement, while some feel it hampers the flow of traffic.
Though the authorities come up with flyovers and bridges every other day, replacing the junctions and roundabouts governed by traffic lights, it is not practically possible to avoid the signals altogether.
In a city like Dubai, which is home to 1.5 million vehicles and a sprawling road network of around 3,760 kilometres of roads, traffic lights play an important role in regulating traffic, particularly in the central business districts.
Over the years, as Dubai expanded, the traffic system has also become more advanced.
Gulf News takes you behind the scenes of Dubai’s smart traffic system to give you a glimpse of how the system works.
Dubai has more than 800 big and small signalised traffic junctions that are connected to the central traffic command. Most of Dubai’s traffic junctions are run by an advanced signalling sytem called SCOOT. More info
