Filenews 5 November 2021 - by Vassos Vassiliou
Four electronic signs, which will be installed on the road network, will guide drivers as to the duration of the trip on specific axes, any queues, accidents, etc.
After the installation of the above signs in the next eight months, the installation of another 20 signs with a three-year time horizon is underway.
In the first stage, in addition to the installation on motorways, the main road network of Nicosia will be covered and in this direction a relevant agreement is imminent with the company that will undertake the project. In this context, the installation of 21 road surveillance cameras and an additional 14 traffic meters are foreseen.
The Minister of Transport, Yiannis Karousos, asked about this by "F", said that the aim of the development of these systems is to increase the safety and capacity of transport networks. As he explains, this is achieved by normalizing traffic, responding immediately to events and informing users to make the right choices in the medium they will use and/or the route they will take.
Regarding the benefit to the citizen and the island in general, Mr. Karousos said that similar applications implemented in other countries have resulted in an increase in the capacity of road transport networks of up to 10%, a reduction in travel time by 20% and a reduction in the number of accidents by 15%. Moreover, regarding the issue of expenditure on transport fuels, which is also in the news, he said that with the successful introduction of fleet management systems, routes are optimized, fuel consumption is reduced and savings in the total operating costs of between 5%-10% are achieved.
The four signs that will be implemented in the first stage will be added to the already existing Intelligent Transport Systems systems installed by the Department of Public Works on the motorways, the main road network of Nicosia and at the entrances of the cities, which include more than 120 traffic meters and 5 surveillance cameras of the road network.
The full coverage of the Cyprus network will be achieved in the next three years with the expansion of the above systems and will be financed by the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF). Indicatively, it is mentioned that 20 additional electronic information signs, 100 traffic surveillance cameras and 180 meters are foreseen, the majority of which will be installed on the main road network of the cities of Limassol, Larnaca and Paphos.
After their purchase and installation, the systems will be connected to the control centre located at the Head Offices of the Department of Public Works. It is noted that the above are funded by the European Union (Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Greece Cyprus 2014-2020 Step2Smart Act, the Connecting Europe CEF Fund for Ten-T Trans-European Networks and the Horizon 2020 Fund -- H2020), and the Republic of Cyprus.
