Dubai: Streets in six areas of Dubai will be covered under the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) District Addressing System by the end of this year, replacing street and community numbers with names.
The District Addressing project will be carried out in three phases and will cover the entire city by the end of 2015.
Umm Suqeim 1, Umm Suqeim 2, Umm Suqeim 3, Al Sufouh 1, Al Sufouh 2, and Dubai Marina are the six areas to be covered in phase one, while phase two will include Al Nahda, Muhaisana, Oud Al Mateena, Nad Al Sheba, Al Thaniyah, and Dubai Investments Park, completing by the end of 2013. In phase three Al Warqa, Al Khawaneej, Al Quoz, and Al Barsha will be covered, which will be completed by the end of 2014.
The ever-expanding areas of Dubai have been divided into 13 districts, which are further divided into smaller sectors and streets with unique names. A new directional signage system will complement the addressing system, allowing the motorists and other road users to find the locations easily.
The new addressing system was launched in 2008 as a pilot in Jumeirah 3 and proved successful, following which a decision was made to have the system for the entire city.
During the pilot, a sector of Shaikh Zayed Road from the 2nd to the 4th Interchange, was also selected to implement the Directional Signs System. The names and direction signs used on pilot have stayed and will stay on permanently.
“The RTA will assign names to streets instead of the previous numbering system. Studies across the world have shown that people can recall and retrieve names better than numbers. The new system will also save people from confusion resulting from repetition of the same streets numbers in more than one area,” said Engineer Maitha Bin Edai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency at RTA.
The addressing system is one of the RTA’s largest projects, leading to a large-scale change in the map of Dubai in terms of streets and area names. The changes in directional signs, facilitate the mobility as well as the spatial descriptions.
“The great development witnessed by Dubai in urban and real estate sector requires a fast and accurate street naming system in a way that facilitates the mobility and accessibility. The project will help people in recalling addresses of their homes, offices and shops. The old system caused a lot of confusion for people finding a location, having to remember names of the area, community number, street number and building number,” he added.
Hussain Al Banna, Director of Traffic at RTA said, “Under the new system people will have to remember only the street name, which will be unique and the villa number which will not change. Even in the direction signs, street names and directions like north, south, east and west will be used.”
Explaining the geographical directions further, Al Banner said that ‘North’ would lead to the direction of Sharjah and northern emirates, south will lead to Abu Dhabi, west towards the sea and east to the mainland.
The addressing and directional signs system is already being implemented on all road projects under construction, including Al Khail Road, Emirates Road and Rashid Hospital tunnels.
