Skip to main content

Abu Dhabi restricts heavy vehicles on city roads

Integrated Transport Centre liaising with police to enforce new regulations
By Adam Hill February 19, 2025 Read time: 1 min
New measure is aimed at smoothing traffic flow (© Typhoonski | Dreamstime.com)

The Integrated Transport Centre (Abu Dhabi Mobility) has restricted the hours in the morning and evening during which heavy vehicles can move on the emirate's roads.

They are now banned in Abu Dhabi city from Monday to Thursday between 6.30am and 9am, and between 3pm and 7pm. 

On Fridays, vehicles such as trucks and tankers are prohibited during the same periods - plus a two-hour exclusion in the middle of the day between 11am and 1pm. 

Citing a "significant increase" in the number of vehicles using the roads, Abu Dhabi Mobility has introduced the new rules "to ensure the smooth traffic flow and enhance road safety".

The agency says it is "coordinating directly with the Abu Dhabi Police General HQ to ensure that heavy vehicle owners adhere to the specified timings".

The new initiative has been put in place to "reduce the impact of the interaction between heavy and light vehicles on the roads during peak hours, as it leads to variations in vehicle speeds and causes traffic accidents, thereby increasing traffic congestion".

It will also help preserve roads and bridges "from damage caused by excessive loads".

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    March 17, 2015
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme
  • The UK’s busiest crossing adopts free flow charging
    April 30, 2015
    Colin Sowman looks at the transition to free-flow charging on the Dartford Crossing, a notorious congestion blackspot on the UK motorway network. The Dartford Crossing, where London’s orbital M25 motorway crosses the lower reaches of the River Thames 32km (20 miles) to the east of Central London, has long been a major source of congestion. Now, to alleviate the congestion caused by some 50 million crossings per year, the Highways Agency has adopted a free-flow charging system - but the Crossing’s location a
  • Figures show Express Lanes bring wider benefits
    August 12, 2015
    Drivers in the Washington DC area are realising time savings following the opening of Express Lanes on the I-95 - and not only those paying to use the new facility. Washington is ranked as being the worst gridlocked city in the United States. Every day its drivers face an average commute time of 39.5 minutes and they waste an average of 67 hours every year just sitting in traffic. In a move to counter these problems, late last December new Express Lanes were opened along 46.6km (29 miles) of the I-95 betwee
  • Sharjah Police record 500 per cent increase in heavy vehicle traffic violations
    October 18, 2016
    The Traffic and Patrol Department of Sharjah Police has successfully increased road safety since the beginning of last year by utilising technologies new to the United Arab Emirates, designed to manage truck and heavy vehicle movements in the emirate - the highlight of their recent submission in to the Gulf Traffic Awards taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre on 13-15 November. Issues with heavy vehicles passing through the city without permits and other restricted zones have been a recurring pro