Skip to main content

Dubai RTA implementing integrated synchronisation for signalised junctions

The number of signalised junctions in Dubai has increased to 412, most of which are controlled by the Traffic Control System Centres of the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA). According to engineer Maitha bin Udai, CEO of RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency, the agency is currently working on an integrated project to synchronise and upgrade databases for 180 main signalised junctions. Some 60 of them will be completed in the current year, and 120 next year, she said, adding that the implementation of the project
July 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The number of signalised junctions in Dubai has increased to 412, most of which are controlled by the Traffic Control System Centres of the 6700 Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).

According to engineer Maitha bin Udai, CEO of the RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency, the agency is currently working on an integrated project to synchronise and upgrade databases for 180 main signalised junctions. Some 60 of them will be completed in the current year, and 120 next year, she said, adding that the implementation of the project was in response to recommendations in a traffic study conducted by the RTA to improve the performance of the traffic signals in the emirate. The experimental studies conducted on some junctions in Dubai showed that the trip time dropped by 15 per cent in areas covered by the study and in which synchronisation and database upgrades were undertaken.

"The Agency attends to training engineers and operators of the intelligent traffic systems on a number of traffic plans for synchronising the timing of traffic lights, where such plans may in some junctions reach six different plans for a single traffic light per day, depending on peak hours and frequency of congestion in roads leading to junctions,” said Engineer Maitha. “The Agency also trains them on the latest techniques of signals timings, and methods of linking a number of traffic lights. The RTA is keen that the lapse time for all directions shall not exceed 240 seconds and that the connected traffic signals should not exceed 16 signals," she continued.

In respect of the traffic control centre, Maitha said the capacity of devices operating the signalling system has been upgraded at the control centre in order to manage the current and future of signalised junctions. "The Centre is equipped with the latest version of data analysis system to analyse information transmitted by sensors. The number of surveillance cameras increased to 240 cameras, and the Agency is moving ahead with plans to improve the calibre of traffic services rendered to the public," said Maitha.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Data revolution in real time travel information
    February 3, 2012
    Damian Black, CEO and founder of SQLstream Inc, writes about relational stream processing for real-time intelligent transport systems Almost unnoticed there is a revolution going on in Internet data which is different from anything seen before. It is taking place in sensor data, which research organisation Gartner predicts in 2012 will exceed 20 per cent of all non-video Internet traffic.
  • Dubai introduces new speed-monitoring technology for public buses
    December 16, 2015
    Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has upgraded the automatic vehicle monitoring (AVM) system used to monitor the movement of buses by introducing a new technology enabling instant monitoring of bus speed. The system fitted to buses and linked to the control centre aims at conserving the lives and properties. Explaining the new technology, Musa Al Raeesi, director of Transportation Systems, RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said it was imperative to resort to advanced speed-monitoring technologies
  • The inside story of how traffic chaos was avoided after I-95 collapse
    August 23, 2023
    June’s collapse of major US roadway I-95 in Pennsylvania could have caused lengthy traffic chaos. But - relatively speaking at least - it didn’t and gridlock was avoided. Alan Dron finds out why
  • Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    June 11, 2015
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi