Roads & Transport Authority - News Details

The second day of the 18^th International Roads Federation World Meeting & Exhibition commenced on Monday (8^th November 2021) started with a discussion panel entitled ‘Delivering the Next Generation of Road Mobility’.

Attendees included Randell Iwasaki, Leader, State and Local Transportation for Amazon Web Services; Daniel Avdagič, City of Ljubljana, CEO of AV Living Lab, and Shailen Bhatt, Senior Vice President – Global Transportation Innovation, AECOM. The session was moderated by Shelley Row, Former Director, ITS Joint Program Office.

Iwasaki started his speech by congratulating Dubai on its great attention to roads safety and wished the emirate to continue this advanced approach to serve residents, including road users. He cited Apple and iPhone founder Steve Jobs experience with connectivity. He stressed the importance of data, computing power and electronic connectivity, which are very important in addressing climate change, which is considered one of the challenges to the development of transportation means. Iwasaki concluded by stressing the need to provide special transportation for the elderly.

The second speaker in the session, Daniel Avdagič, began by expressing his love for mass transportation and cycling as they have a positive impact on public health and the environment. "In Slovenia, we have invested heavily in the development of modern transportation means, including self-driving transportation. We still face great challenges in achieving our goals in this regard. Other transportation areas in which we invest include electric and shared transport. Previously, the emphasis was on producing transporting means, but at present, it shifted to improving the level of service,” he said. 

Shailen Bhatt concluded the session by thanking RTA for its amazing achievements in mobility and transportation infrastructure. "Modern technology is a key pillar in the development of the next generation of transportation means. What caught my eye in RTA’s records is the clear drop in the number of road accident deaths, thanks to plans, effective strategies, and hard work,” he commented. 

“RTA’s roadmap is a model that deserves to be emulated by similar entities in other countries to make achievements and successes in this field. I'm going to use the metro to get around this city,” he concluded.