DMAT signs MoU to boost transport info and navigation system in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi / WAM

The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific and Inrix for providing transport and navigation data to vehicles under the Transport Information and Navigation System project, the department announced.
According to the MoU, the companies will be provided with traffic information about the road conditions, congestion, accidents and real-time information about parking bays on multi-storey buildings. This would aid the government’s strategy of co-operation and partnership with the private sector, which serves the public and improves the level of road safety.
Eng. Salah Al Marzouqi, Director of Integrated Intelligent Transportation System Division, stated that the department has completed the implementation of the first phase of the Transport Information and Navigation System project. This phase includes gathering data on the Abu Dhabi transport network from the traffic flow tracking systems and other transport management systems such as the taxi management, Mawaqif, public buses management, and Abu Dhabi Airports system.
Using a variety of sources helps in the data analysis, measures the travel time and enables users to benefit from the Darb Application and website and developing engineering studies at the department.
The application was downloaded almost 100,000 times which is an indication of its success. In addition, 86 percent of the users were satisfied with the services provided according to a survey that was conducted in March 2016, Al Marzouqi
assured.
He also mentioned that the benefits expected from the first phase are decreasing traffic congestion on the transport network and information to users about available routes to reach the desired destinations easily. Another benefit is a decrease in the number of accidents by providing users with renewable updated real-time information. This will help in reducing stress, enabling drivers to be ready for any changes on streets, which helps in avoiding congestions.
Moreover, it reduces the cost of information accessibility about the transport network by reducing the time needed to get them. It also reduces the cost and the need of consultants to gather traffic engineering data.
The ongoing second phase includes traffic information dissemination of congestions, accidents and real-time information of parking bays on multi-storey buildings and provide them to navigation systems in vehicles.
Seeking mutual benefits, DMAT, Toyota Tsusho Asia Pacific and Inrix signed the MoU to expand co-operation. Some benefits expected are an increase in the levels of road safety as the public will be notified of congestions, accidents and weather conditions; information on the navigation platforms in cars will limit the use of mobile phones while driving which is considered the main cause of accidents, and expanding the current users’ platform through the applications, websites and adding more ways to information accessibility using other channels.