Abu Dhabi City wins 'World’s Best City' for roads and transport

Abu Dhabi City has won the TomTom International Award as the 'World’s Best City in Developing the Infrastructures Related to Traffic Management' for 2016.

The win is as a result of the emirate's sophisticated road network and solid infrastructure. Abu Dhabi City ranked first based on the TomTom annual global traffic index, which classifies road quality and measures congestion levels in each city.

The study conducted by TomTom, a Dutch company specialised in the production of navigation systems, traffic maps and GPS systems, included 390 cities in 48 countries around the world.

Awaidah Murshed Al Marar, Chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, said, "Winning this highly coveted international award, which commands great international attention from the bodies concerned with infrastructure and traffic development around the world, is an 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. It also supports both the local investment opportunities in the emirate, and the efforts made to achieve sustainable development in line with Abu Dhabi vision," he continued.

According to Al Marar the volume of investments in improving transport systems, traffic management, traffic signals control and other traffic flow improvement projects in the emirate are valued at AED581 million.

"The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport is currently carrying out projects worth AED909 million in traffic and transportation management, in keeping with the development seen by road network and ensuring smooth traffic flow," added Al Marar.

Mohammed Darwish Al Qamzi, General Manager of Integrated Transport Centre, 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 percent 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, Al Qamzi concluded.