Abu Dhabi wins TomTom Award for traffic management

Abu Dhabi City has won the TomTom International Award for the World’s Best City in Developing the Infrastructures Related to traffic management for 2016. The win came thanks to the emirate's sophisticated road network and solid infrastructure, said a statement. The trophy was received by Engineer Awaidah Murshed Al Marar, chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, from TomTom, a Dutch company specialised in the production of navigation systems, traffic maps and GPS systems. Abu Dhabi City ranked first based on the TomTom annual global traffic index, which classifies road quality and measures congestion levels in each city. Engineer Al Marar said: "Winning this coveted international award, which commands great international attention from the bodies concerned with infrastructure and traffic development around the world, is indicative of the great progress made by the emirate of Abu Dhabi in advancing infrastructure including roads and transport networks and usage of smart transportation technology systems. It also epitomises the keen attention of our wise leadership to establish advanced, integrated, high quality and efficient infrastructure to improve traffic flow, and facilitate people movement in tune with the requirements of population and economic growth.” Abu Dhabi has invested Dh581 million ($158.18 million) in improving transport systems, traffic management systems, traffic signals control and other traffic flow improvement projects, he said. The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport is currently carrying out projects worth Dh909 million ($247.48 million) in traffic and transportation management, in keeping with the road network development, he added. Mohammed Darwish Al Qamzi, general manager of Integrated Transport Center, said: "Several factors have contributed to developing the traffic system and enabled Abu Dhabi to win this international award such as reducing traffic congestion by 14 per cent annually over the past years (as per TomTom Traffic Index). This success is attributed to the high quality of roads and infrastructure and transport network as well as the modern technologies used in monitoring, controlling and managing traffic in Abu Dhabi cities.