Business & Money | Tuesday 8 December, 2015 1:13 am |

Gulf Traffic Exhibition and Conference, which takes place until 9 December at the Dubai World Trade Centre, was inaugurated by His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), in the presence of other dignitaries including His Excellency Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre.

 

A main growth area of the show this year is its number of free to attend conferences, which has increased from three to five - a 40 per cent increase on last year. Running over the three days, industry leaders from across the globe will be discussing game changing projects, plans and future technologies in transport and traffic. Conference topics for this year include; Road Traffic Sustainability and Safety, ITS and Smart Cities, Smart Parking and Planning, Bridges, Tunnels and Structure Projects and Road, Highways, Design and Construction, and ways to keep the roads safe, some of the biggest visible trends at the moment in the GCC.

 

Day one of the conference, which focuses on road traffic sustainability and safety, hosted a number of panel discussions and presentations discussing road designs and healthcare access to reduce fatalities, the history and movement of autonomous vehicles globally and its effects on road safety, and the future potential of sustainable vehicle usage. 

 

Tomorrow’s (8 December) conference agenda is set to tackle how solutions can present new opportunities by using the technologies with a ‘smart’ approach. 

 

Rupert Green, Smart Design Lead at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, is one of the day two speakers and will be unveiling his Smart Design Framework, which focuses on how being smarter can improve the way that we manage the challenges faced by towns and cities, such as traffic congestion, public wellbeing and energy supply.

 

“Our framework has three stages, the first of which helps us to establish a strong smart city vision, supported by clearly communicated stakeholder and governance structures. We then work with the stakeholders to clarify the smart city attributes, such as improved connectivity or resilience, associated with the vision and the steps required to help achieve these. The final step is focused on the smart city delivery and operation processes, during this stage we highlight where innovation and smarter use of technology can add the greatest social, environmental and economic value, thereby helping to identify the right formula for a sustainable smarter city.”

 

Day three of the conference will give an overview on smart parking, building an integrated sustainable parking space cost-effectively, characterising the bigger picture of ‘smart’ parking into master development plans and what role “Big Data” will play in the future of parking. 

 

For the first time ever, Gulf Traffic is running a hosted buyer programme, set to connect key buyers from across the Middle East with participating exhibitors, both regionally and internationally. 

 

Another inaugural feature this year is the dealer/distributor lounge, where visitors can conduct meetings in a quiet setting away from the busy show floor. Visitors are able to fill in their details on the Gulf Traffic website and state the top three products they are looking to source at Gulf Traffic. These details will then be put on the Dealer/Distributor wall so that exhibitors can follow up with the relevant visitors. 

 

Experts from the speaker line up include: Gilles Vesco, Chief Council, Opticities, France; Waddah S. Ghanem, Executive Director, EHSQ & Corporate Affairs, ENOC LLC, UAE ; Sultan Zahrani, Secretary General, Eastern Province Traffic Safety Council, KSA; Rupert Green, Smart Design Lead, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, UAE; Abdul Aziz Al Mutawa, SVP, Technology Innovations, Etisalat Group, UAE; Martin Tillman, Director, Transport Planning, AECOM, UAE; Dave Hill, International Representative, International Parking Institute, USA; Sam Alawiye, Managing Director, GreenParking, UAE; Mark Essam, Head of Bridges & Tunnels, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, UAE; Rachad Norcharli, Regional Business Director, Traffic Engineering Services, Hyder Consulting Middle East Limited, UAE and Jodie Mairs, Principal Consultant, Road Safety Specialist, AECOM among others.