RTA stand at GITEX receives 40,000 visitors

The electronic systems displayed included intelligent traffic systems, inquiry of trip time between Dubai Metro stations, electronic services provided through RTA website, road toll system (Salik), bus fare system, and other vital economic services.

H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA hailed the great success met by the exhibition in attracting participation of biggest companies engaged in IT & communications to exhibit their best products, latest technologies and technological solutions.

"RTA is keen to take part in this global event to introduce the public & participants to the electronic services it provides to them, and keep track of modern technologies & electronic systems, which could be applied in transport & traffic systems" said Al Tayer during his visit to the stand of the RTA and tour of a number of stands of government departments taking part in the exhibition.

He stated that RTA is keen to showcase its latest modern projects in the exhibition such as a monitor to be displayed at each metro station enabling passengers to know trip time taken to various destinations in the emirate of Dubai. Other highly sophisticated electronic services exhibited also included wireless communication over the internet in metro coaches. Marine Transport Agency also displayed electronic services such as water bus trip planner and hi tech ticket selling system. RTA availed the opportunity of this gathering to launch an electronic system to measure satisfaction of its customers with the services provided through various RTA agencies so as to probe their opinions, identify the extent of their satisfaction with the services provided, and check the speed of processing applications at various RTA agencies.

He added that the exhibition witnessed display of the Intelligent Traffic Systems project; which includes 24 highly sophisticated electronic display boards modeled after the highest standards & technologies, and used for the first time in the world.

The system computes the volume of traffic congestion in key and express roads, detects abnormality in traffic flow (such as traffic accidents & vehicle breakdowns on roads), and identifies congestion resulting from heavy traffic. The system provides statistics of trip time over these roads after analyzing inputs received from systems installed at sites; which include 500 sensors & radars to compute traffic density & the number of vehicles, 60 mobile traffic surveillance cameras, and 30 cameras used to analyze images automatically captured in the process of tracking traffic flow, and analyze them to establish if they are traffic accidents or faulty vehicles.

The exhibition also saw display of the Toll Gate System, known as "Salik", which is an advanced electronic system aiming at minimizing traffic bottlenecks and ensuring smooth traffic flow at key roads in Dubai. The system adopts Radio-Frequency Identification technology (RFID), which enables vehicles identification through a tag affixed at the front windshield of vehicles.

Al Tayer reviewed the new "mParking" service launched by the RTA in cooperation with Emirates Telecommunications Company (Etisalat) & Orbit Computer Systems Co. Traffic & Roads Agency launched a new experimental service in the exhibition, whereby a new mechanism of paying parking fees by means of mobile phones of Etisalat subscribers is unveiled. Motorists will find it easier to avail this service effectively and smoothly as it involves no specific subscription. All Etisalat clientele will be able to avail this service through sending an SMS to a certain number, quoting the number plate of vehicle, zone number and number of parking hours. The user will instantly receive a text message confirming payment processed for parking the vehicle up to the requested time.

As the expiry time approaches, the user will receive a reminding text message that the parking time is about to expire. Should the user wishes to expand the parking time for more than one hour, he (or she) has only to send an SMS stating the number of parking hours to be added.