Skip to main content

First Middle East ITS conference and exhibition

The first Middle East conference and exhibition on ITS, held in December 2006 in Dubai, was opened by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Al- Mogbel, the president of ITS Arab and Deputy Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management. H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across t
March 12, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
The first Middle East conference and exhibition on ITS, held in December 2006 in Dubai, was opened by His Excellency Eng. Abdullah Al- Mogbel, the president of 1697 ITS Arab and Deputy Minister of Transport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The two-day conference, the theme of which was 'Shaping the Future with ITS Solutions', focused on traffic safety, congestion, security and demand management.

H.E Eng. Abdullah Al-Mogbel said, "ITS Arab will play a vital role in the development of sustainable ITS deployments across the Middle East and North Africa in partnership with the regional and international ITS community".

Fabrizio Minarini, Head of Sector, Intelligent Car Initiative, 1690 European Commission, praised ITS Arab and expressed support from the European Commission to the conference.
Richard Barnes, London Assembly Member: "It is now an accepted policy across all the main political parties in the United Kingdom that ITS is an absolute must. The problem we have is that we are not sure what ITS means, why we are doing it, and we have not fully developed an integrated approach." Barnes shared his experience in policy development that provided thought-provoking debates and provided a political balance from a European perspective. His contribution provided the link between ITS and security, reinforcing the importance of developing and communicating clear ITS policy objectives to the wider public.

Barnes's view was echoed by the Dr Essam Sharaf, former Minister of Transport, Egypt, who suggested the use of asset management systems as an approach to communicating ITS objectives and benefits to politicians and the general public. Dr Sharaf added, "Studies from around the world have concluded that the transport infrastructure satisfies both the natural human desire to mobility, as well as being vital for economical prosperity, and therefore ranks transport infrastructure as one of the most important projects." "The key word is integration, by marrying transport infrastructure with ITS technologies we will see a completely new type of transport infrastructure that looks the same but will provide a new way of delivering mobility function." The business case for ITS benefits was reinforced by Riyadh Dabbo, Managing Director, Arab Road Safety Organisation, when he presented the shocking statistics regarding human losses, which show that within the Arab countries there are 32,000 traffic fatalities every year. Worldwide the transport fatalities total 1.2 million with 12 million injuries. "In terms of human losses, we have a 9/11 every day around the world," Dabbo said.

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.nfm-bauma.de www.nfm-bauma.de false http://www.nfm-bauma.de/ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Didi Chuxing issues public apology for death of female passenger
    September 3, 2018
    Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing has blamed its own ‘vanity’ for lapses in safety which led to the rape and killing of a 20-year-old female passenger. The firm issued a public apology for the incident which took place on 28 August and says it will now prioritise safety over growth. In an emailed statement, Didi founder Cheng Wei and president Jean Liu say: "We see clearly this is because our vanity overtook our original belief. We raced non-stop, riding on the force of breathless expansion and
  • Live e-call demonstrations at second Heero conference
    October 8, 2013
    The second HeERO international conference, due to take place at the Hotel Novotel Bucharest City Centre in Bucharest, Romania, on 21 and 21 November, will give participants an exclusive insight into the status of eCall deployment in the HeERO pilot sites; the outcome of interoperability testing; revision to eCall standards; and the recommendations for the large scale implementation of the eCall service in Europe. Conference attendees will also have the opportunity to attend live eCall demonstrations staged
  • Drive.ai self-driving tests with passengers in Frisco, Texas
    July 31, 2018
    Drive.ai is using self-driving vans to carry passengers on a near two-mile route in Frisco, Texas. According to a report by CBS News, the company is the first to launch such a test since an Uber vehicle driving in autonomous mode killed a pedestrian in Arizona. These vans will operate over the next six months, with a safety driver on board, and will travel between an office park and a nearby dining area and entertainment complex. Conway Chen, vice president at Drive.ai, says the service has been desi
  • Comment: Be wary of fads – but embrace change
    June 26, 2018
    Along with death and taxes, there is one other certainty in modern life: change. In this issue of ITS International, Jarrett Walker (an urban transit expert who has unaccountably ruffled the feathers of Tesla’s Elon Musk) sensibly implies that we should be wary of fads, but there are some developments which require our full attention. Among these are connected and autonomous vehicles: try as we might to avoid them as dinner party topics of conversation, the world outside of ITS is waking up to the