Business Intelligence Middle East
UAE. Considering the fact that Abu Dhabi's population is set to rise to over 3 million inhabitants by the year 2030, there is a need to grow all the city's structures in order to welcome the projected arrivals. Therefore the government's Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 - also known as the Urban Structure Framework Plan - deals extensively with traffic and infrastructure issues.
The plan consists of ten basic statements and is mainly focused on public transportation plans and housing in the city of Abu Dhabi.
According to the plan, a well-conceived transit network will help guide and phase development as Abu Dhabi's population increases. The concept aims to minimise traffic congestion on the streets and to provide sufficient parking as well as to offer alternative travel choices.
When it comes to the transportation system it aims to offer Abu Dhabi an efficient and comprehensive list of components.
The first component is a high speed rail line, originating from the Central Souq train station, connecting the downtown to the Capital District, to the airport, and ultimately to Dubai. A freight rail line will operate in the same right-of-way, connecting the new Dubai World Central Airport, and Jebel Ali with the other GCC countries.
''The city needs at least two high capacity metro lines. One of those would have spurs originating on Saadiyat Island and Al Mina turning left at Central Station to follow the Airport District, Capital District, and Raha Beach. The other line would cross the downtown from East to West, connecting Al Reem and Al Suwwah to the Central Station and the Marina Mall,'' the plan explains.
The next step, the plan continues, is a fine-grained network of surface light rail streetcars and buses that will ensure that no one ever has to walk more than five minutes to use public transport.
The wide boulevards of Abu Dhabi already provide ample space for median light rail or dedicated transit lanes for street cars or buses.
Finally, since walking is inescapable even with the most advanced transit planning in the world, a top priority is to improve the streetscapes while maximising pedestrian safety and comfort.
This will imply increasing the width of sidewalks, adding shade trees as well as shading devices and to carefully design the entire public realm.
The establishment of two city centres - one in the downtown area of Abu Dhabi Island and the other in the new Capital District - will facilitate balanced traffic flow in two directions, minimising congestion.
The city will also need a layered transportation network when the population reaches 3 million. This will significantly reduce the number of cars on the road, creating a better experience for those who are driving.
The transportation network should include a high-speed lane separating different destinations. Accompanying this measure there will also be a local metro rail, a freight rail, a surface network of buses, street cars and light rail and finally, a fine grain of interconnected streets.
The possibilities to walk have to be increased, so as to motivate people to walk, especially when it comes to short distances.
It is said that to create a successful traffic system, some of the existing streets have to be reconfigured by carefully designing new ones in order to provide more space for pedestrians as well as more transit options. The sidewalks will have to be wider and other additional options such as bus-only lanes, street cars, express lanes, and light rail medians could also make their appearance in the new construction if they are demanded.
While constructing all this, the plan is to protect and enhance the natural resources and cultural heritage of Abu Dhabi while at the same time integrating nature and humanity.
One of the ideas is to provide a variety of inter-connected transportation choices as alternatives to the automobile (transit, ferries, buses, bicycle and pedestrian pathways). The point is to prioritise and enhance the pedestrian realm (short blocks, wide and shaded sidewalks, medians, shaded seating at bus stops and active streets). There is a will in the government to avoid highway and freeway expansion by providing an inter-connected multiple route transportation network that would include many small streets permitting more traffic.
The idea is to provide a layered, inter-connected public transportation network based on fast train links between Abu Dhabi city, Abu Dhabi International Airport and Dubai so as to interconnect them to the CBD.
The plan features the idea to create a local bus system that will eliminate congestion, or at least, minimise it as much as possible.
The use of ferries will also be exploited to reduce congestion. The city plan aims to attract a great variety of people, including high and middle incomer earners, business people, and women, as well as lower income earners.
On the issue of parking, the plan says this will be reconsidered and studied very carefully in order to offer a larger amount of parking spaces. This concept will also be applied to the CBD area . The plan intends to limit congestion, limit the duration of each stay, and reinstating private parking.
Currently, the New York-style grid system of streets running through Abu Dhabi have the virtue of distributing traffic evenly through the core allowing congestion on one street to dissipate through the grid. Large freeways defeat this virtue by channelling all of the traffic flow through bottlenecks.
Concerning the exit opportunities, they are very limited; therefore the most important principle for the roadway system in Abu Dhabi has become to maximise connectivity providing the largest amount of smaller options rather than the smallest amount of large options.
This is graphically illustrated in the proposed new CBD area centred on Al Suwwah Island, where the Transportation Framework Plan proposes a distributed system of ten or more bridges, each a continuation of a normal city street, connecting the city to Al Suwwah and Al Reem Islands.
These bridges will bond Al Suwwah and Al Reem into the city, providing alternatives as to relieve congestion.
The two new parkways will shorten the driving distance to Dubai, providing alternate entry points to the new island developments and taking the traffic pressure off Al Salaam Street.
The final new highway is a truck route for goods movement to the East of the capital district, proposed as the furthest extent of development into the desert.
The Abu Dhabi government has shown that it wants to insure that the city will support correctly all of the planned population growth. There's a need for a plan like this, in order to ensure that people will be able to move around Abu Dhabi freely. The UAE wants to improve its public system transportation by making things easier for everyone. The plan focuses on respecting the environment, improving the physical conditions of public transport and pedestrians.
The main idea is to create available space while distributing human traffic all around the city thanks to elements such as: ferries, buses, taxis, cars, bikes, subways.
