Abstract:

Traffic law enforcement is a main part of any road safety strategy and the only one that has quick and direct impact in improving driver’s behavior. The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of two new automated enforcement systems in Abu Dhabi (AD) city on drivers’ behavior and overall road safety. These two systems are speed and red-light enforcement cameras. Two types of data sets are used: crashes and traffic violations data for six years and self-reported questionnaire survey data. Crash data analysis showed that as increasing the number of speed camera devises the number of speed-related crashes decreases. Number of speed cameras were increased from 422 cameras in 2012 to 1,450 cameras in 2017 that leaded a reduction of about 58.2% in speed-related crashes and 40.3% in the resulted in fatalities. Regarding the red-light camera systems (RLCs), the analysis showed that the number of red-light running crashes was decreased by 47.2% at all signalized intersections after implementing RLCs and by 52.5% the intersections where the RLCs were installed. More understanding of the driver’s behavior and response towards the enforcement camera systems were investigated from 600 participants in questionnaire survey. The questionnaire forms included 42 questions. The main findings indicated that significant number of drivers tend to reduce their speed only at the speed camera sites. Drivers always comply with the speed limit when they feel that they under camera detection. Well known locations and visible cameras pushing drivers to such behavior. In addition, drivers who think that they can avoid camera detection and who prefer high speed limit were involved in speed-related crashes more than others. Finally, about 83% of participants believe that speed and red-light cameras have significant impact in improving road safety in AD. The findings of this study will be very helpful for road safety authorities in improving road safety programs and action plans.