NEWS FROM THE UAE
Source : THE NATIONAL
2030 Plan: Road map to a healthy future for Abu Dhabi
The plan unveiled by the Urban Planning Council turns Abu Dhabi into one of the world's most pedestrian-friendly cities.
ABU DHABI - FEB. 21: A series of bold initiatives designed to turn Abu Dhabi from a gridlocked car capital into one of the world’s most pedestrian-friendly cities was unveiled by planners yesterday.
The plans include shaded walkways, a metro system and a tram network. Streets will be narrower but there will be more of them, and the city’s superblocks will be broken up to make way for open public spaces.
“We want to see a shift from streets without activity to lively public places,” said Falah al Ahbabi, the general manager of the Urban Planning Council (UPC).
“From auto-filled streets and lack of public space to limited on-street parking and welcoming public open spaces.”
The transformation is outlined in the Urban Street Design Manual, a 130-page document compiled by the UPC, that sets guidelines for the remaking of the city by 2030.
The manual describes a series of interconnected street networks in which the pedestrian comes first.
The motorist, long king of the road in the UAE, is relegated to the bottom of the priority list.
Streets will be designed to make walking a more pleasant experience as planners push to get people using public transport, including a Metro system, scheduled to be running by 2016, and a tram network that could be placed down the centre of existing streets. “Because all trips begin and end with a walk, walking should be made as comfortable as possible all year round in Abu Dhabi,” Mr al Ahbabi said.
The scheme is part of the greater Abu Dhabi 2030 project.
Designers say that, for the plan to work, the capital’s enormous superblocks must be carved up, criss-crossed by smaller streets to disperse traffic and broken into parcels with pedestrian-friendly amenities like shops and schools.
“We actually have got plans to start redeveloping the city centre blocks,” said Bill Lashbrook, the UPC’s planning manager.
“It is a sea of car parking largely in there at the moment.
“There are a few mosques [but] there are very few parks in there, few schools or community facilities.”
The manual is also designed to reduce carbon emissions, urban heat gain and water use.
The document must be used for all new developments, including the Capital District, the future seat of government for the UAE, to be built between Mohammed bin Zayed City and Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Serious road accidents down in capital
ABU DHABI - FEB 21: The number of traffic accidents in the emirate that led to deaths or serious injuries dropped by nine per cent in January compared with the same period last year, WAM, the state news agency, reported yesterday.
The number of such cases declined from 89 in 2009 to 81 this year.
Deaths in traffic accidents fell from 37 to 35, year on year, while serious injuries dropped from 52 cases in January 2009 to 46 last month.
Col Hussein al Harithi, the head of the Abu Dhabi Police traffic engineering department, said he anticipated a continued drop in the number of accidents.
He said traffic safety could be improved by raising the standard of driving and increasing the number of police patrols.
Col al Harithi added that the police’s traffic and patrols department had launched an integrated plan focusing on the instant booking of traffic offenders.
Sharjah warns 78 schools of fire safety deficiencies
SHARJAH - FEB. 21: Almost 80 schools have been told they face hefty fines and possible closure if they fail to rectify fire-safety breaches uncovered by inspectors.
An inspection committee administered by Sharjah Civil Defence and the municipality found violations including non-insulated electrical wires and unsafe paper storage facilities in 78 private and government schools.
Hareeb al Tunaiji, the head of the committee, said the schools had been given until the end of the academic year to correct the violations. He did not reveal the names of the schools which have been warned or the amount of the fines they might face.
“Our inspectors look out for all kinds of violations and notify the school authorities to stop them,” he said. “Schools are so sensitive, so we are against all kinds of violations there.”
Overcrowded classrooms and school transport vehicles, unmarked emergency exits and an absence of fire extinguishers were among the hazards discovered by the spot inspections.
The use of makeshift wooden classrooms and wooden staircases was also noted in several schools, according to Mr al Tunaiji. In some cases, workers employed in the schools as carpenters were sleeping in classrooms.
He warned that schools which did not manage to bring their fire-safety standards into line with official guidelines could be closed.
He said that a group of 15 inspectors visited schools from the start of February, when students were on their holiday, and would ask the school headmaster and staff to take them on a tour of the facility to see the state of the school and any violations.
Once infractions had been found at the school, a notice detailing the violations would be given to the head of the school with instructions to fix them by the end of this academic year.
Almost 40,000 students returned to the emirate’s schools earlier this week as the final term of the academic year got under way, according to the Sharjah Education Zone.
Mr al Tunaiji said a number of fire-safety awareness campaigns would be conducted in schools by staff from the education zone and civil defence.
School guards were being trained to fight fires and rescue students in case of an emergency.
Col Waheed al Serkal, the director general of Sharjah Civil Defence, said that with summer approaching, it was important for schools to ensure all fire safety procedures are in place. The UAE tends to suffer more fires in the summer as temperatures rise.