ABU DHABI // Improved road policies, including public transport and road tolls, can help ease congestion in the region, an expert says.
Intelligent transportation systems, or ITS, could also help reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and make roads safer and keep traffic flowing smoothly.
“Out of all other regions where I worked, I find that the Mena region needs ITS the most,” said Zeina Nazer, director of smart mobility at Transpo Group, a US engineering and technology consultancy firm.
“It’s because you need to optimise your resources, and ITS gives you a more effective and efficient system.”
ITS technologies have offered solutions to transportation mobility, safety and environmental challenges.
“But it’s not necessarily about technology,” she said. “ITS is more about education, awareness and public acceptability.”
In the Middle East, the main concern is road fatalities.
“But congestion is everybody’s concern,” she said. “You can just imagine that per year you waste an equivalent of more than a week of your holiday stuck on the road.”
Ms Nazer, a transport engineer, favours road pricing as a tool to reduce congestion and manage traffic.
“Simply because it does cost money to build or maintain roads,” she said. “And as a road user, you are causing damage to the road. You have to pay somehow.”
From a socio-economic viewpoint, public acceptability is key.
“You need to be fair when it comes to pricing,” she said. “It can’t be too low because everybody will use it, and not too high because it would be unfair.”
Over the past four years, Transpo Group has worked with the Department of Transport and Abu Dhabi Municipality in their traffic management centres . The group advises and assists in managing the road patrol services, towing and recovery services, traffic signal operations, and traffic data collection.
“Over this short period, we have witnessed an improvement year-on-year in response and clearance timings, resulting in improving safety and reducing the probability of secondary accidents,” she said.
In the future, much of the information needed to manage congestion and enhance road safety will come from vehicles themselves. It would involve vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, allowing cars to communicate with other vehicles equipped with similar technology and motorway infrastructure such as traffic lights.
Car manufacturers such as BMW and Lexus are working on their navigation systems and in the next few years, cars will communicate real-time information.
Audi is working to provide real-time parking information to reduce the time spent in traffic looking for parking, she said.
“The bottom line is something needs to be done to reduce congestion and prevent road fatalities, and it must be taken seriously because people’s lives are at stake,” Ms Nazer said.
rruiz@thenational.ae
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Other IPL batting records
Most sixes: 292 – Chris Gayle
Most fours: 491 – Gautam Gambhir
Highest individual score: 175 not out – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Highest strike-rate: 177.29 – Andre Russell
Highest strike-rate in an innings: 422.22 – Chris Morris (for Delhi Daredevils against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017)
Highest average: 52.16 – Vijay Shankar
Most centuries: 6 – Chris Gayle
Most fifties: 36 – Gautam Gambhir
Fastest hundred (balls faced): 30 – Chris Gayle (for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013)
Fastest fifty (balls faced): 14 – Lokesh Rahul (for Kings XI Punjab against Delhi Daredevils in 2018)
JERSEY INFO
Red Jersey
General Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the leader of the General Classification by time.
Green Jersey
Points Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the fastest sprinter, who has obtained the best positions in each stage and intermediate sprints.
White Jersey
Young Rider Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the best young rider born after January 1, 1995 in the overall classification by time (U25).
Black Jersey
Intermediate Sprint Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the rider who has gained the most Intermediate Sprint Points.
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
You Were Never Really Here
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Joaquim Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov
Four stars
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
The%20specs
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