Education and enforcement key to safer roads

In recent months, police have stepped up patrols, rolled out more fixed and mobile speed cameras and adjusted speed limits.

ABU DHABI // Motorists need to be educated on the dangers of speeding and reckless driving to strengthen and complement enforcement efforts, experts said.

In recent months, police have increased patrols, rolled out fixed and mobile speed cameras and adjusted speed limits.

The measures are to increase speed limit compliance, while reducing death and serious injuries on the roads.

More police patrols and speed cameras will be installed along the Abu Dhabi-Sila and Abu Dhabi-Al Ain Road, police said last month.

Dubai Police will introduce point-to-point speed cameras, which calculate the average speed of vehicles, to monitor drivers who accelerate between two speed cameras on roads where accidents are common.

Phil Clarke, principal road safety consultant at Transport Research Laboratory, welcomed their introduction.

“Average speed cameras have proved more effective at managing speeds on long arterial roads in Europe and the UK, and would work better than fixed-site cameras on similar roads in the UAE.”

Different measures of speed control are useful but not the end solution, said Simon Labbett, project director at Sheida, an Omani road safety body.

“Speed limit compliance is only one part of safe driving,” he said. “Attitude and behaviour as well as responsibility for self and others need to be addressed to achieve safe roads.”

Changing reckless behaviour will be difficult, said Michael Dreznes, executive vice-president of the International Road Federation. “Do motorists understand how few minutes they are saving by driving 70 kilometres an hour versus 50kph over a short distance?” he said.

“The savings in time does not justify the potential dangers and enforcement consequences.”

Penalties for speeding and reckless driving, Mr Dreznes said, must be “severe enough that the fear of conviction is an active deterrent”.

Sanctions to restrict or remove the right to drive need to be further developed and effectively enforced, Mr Labbett said.

“In a society where individual wealth is far higher than average, a traffic fine may be perceived as a rite of passage,” he said. “Fines are not addressing the behavioural mindset that will lead to a safer society.”

The Federal Traffic Council in April last year suggested detaining people who did not follow the rules of the road or who broke the speed limit by more than 60kph.

In August, Abu Dhabi Police scrapped the 50 per cent discount in the cost of traffic fines to improve safety.

“The police are doing a lot to try to tackle speeding, but the focus needs to be on deterrence,” Mr Clarke said. “If enforcement is about improving road safety, better compliance is required, this will ultimately reduce accidents.”

Many of the UAE’s roads are designed for high speeds, but the wide range of speeds pose a problem, Mr Clarke said.

“A vehicle travelling at 140kph closing on other vehicles travelling at say 80kph or 100kph provides little time for driver reactions, and can lead to sudden swerving to avoid a collision and then loss of control,” he said.

“Many vehicles are sports utility vehicles, which are heavy and have a higher centre of gravity than ordinary cars, so at high speed can easily become unstable and overturn.”