Dubai: What you see is what you get.
From Sunday, August 12, motorists in Abu Dhabi will no longer need to guess how fast they can go without getting hit by a radar.
Abu Dhabi Police is in the process of changing all signboards across internal roads and highways, and will also remove the additional 20 km/h speed buffer that motorists have always taken for granted.
This means that if the road’s speed limit used to be 60km/h, police will adjust the signboards for the speed limit to change it to 80 km/h.
Any one driving 81 km/h or over will automatically receive a speeding ticket.
Up to Dh1,000 in speeding fines
According to the UAE federal traffic law, motorists will be slapped with a Dh600 fine for exceeding the speed limit by 30 km/h, Dh700 for speeding by 40 km/h, and Dh1,000 if they drive 50 km/h over the speed limit.
“What is written on a sign should not be open to interpretation, buffers or anything similar. Like in other countries, the meaning of road signage must be crystal clear. Hence, it is definitely a step in the right direction to get rid of the speed buffers in the UAE,” Thomas Edelmann, managing director of Road Safety UAE, previously told Gulf News.
Major-General Mohammad Khalfan Al Rumaithi, Commander-in-Chief of Abu Dhabi Police, said a comprehensive study was undertaken before deciding to implement the new system, which he said would help raise road safety standards.
#شرطة_أبوظبي #الإعلام_الأمني pic.twitter.com/2dt09QyMtL
— شرطة أبوظبي (@ADPoliceHQ) July 29, 2018
However, the speed limit on two of Abu Dhabi’s highways will not change: the Abu Dhabi — Al Ain Road and the Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road, which was previously called the Mafraq — Ghuwaifat Road.
The maximum speed limit of the roads will remain at 160 km/h after the cancellation of the speed margin on August 12.
Road accidents
According to recent police statistics, 99 people in Abu Dhabi were killed in road traffic accidents and 149 were seriously injured.
The findings indicate a slight drop in the number of deaths from 2016 when 289 people were killed and 156 were seriously injured in traffic accidents.
