Preparing traffic safety systems to avoid Climate changes

The Middle East region in general, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular, is facing a change in climate and winter weather due to the (La Niña) phenomenon, in which sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean decrease significantly, causing climatic changes between extreme cold and dry weather, and also causing storms and rainfall in some areas which affects on traffic safety.

Therefore, different regions of Saudi Arabia will be affected by extreme cold with rainfall in addition to dust storms which will affect traffic safety. 

In many cases, climate change threatens vehicle drivers, which negatively affects traffic safety, as many accidents may occur due to rain accompanied by strong winds that affect the movement of vehicles. In 1435 Hijri – 2014, the Ministry of Interior page stated that heavy rains led to 217 accidents that resulted in 3 injuries in addition to death, and this is due to many reasons, including difficult visibility that may be absent, so the road boundaries or lanes can’t be seen. Sometimes it’s difficult to control the vehicle.

In the phenomenon of (La Niña), dust storms affect vehicles due to the fog that prevents visibility for the driver. However, there are effective solutions to overcome these risks that threaten traffic safety.

There are many traffic safety systems, each of them plays an important role in achieving traffic safety on different roads and conditions, and we will present some of these systems below:

Solar-powered traffic safety systems

Some systems work with modern and renewable technologies like solar power which improves visibility, especially in bad weather, due to its ability to work for long periods of up to three days without power outages or the need for external sources.

Shawahid Company manufactures solar road signs and solar road studs which have a panel of solar cells mounted on the top of road studs as well as above standard road signs. The cells store solar energy during the day and then start working at night until the next day and this cycle continues with the presence of the sun.

Guardrail road barriers reflectors

Shawahid metal road barriers are important systems on the roads that must be used to maintain traffic safety, so we found it necessary to equip them with what makes them more effective on the road.

So we mounted reflectors on the barriers. These reflectors are metal plates covered with reflective films that may be one-sided and sometimes two-sided on two-way roads.

Reflectors clarify the visibility of the barriers themselves and the edges of the road by reflecting the car lights falling on them. 

In Safety roller barriers, these reflectors are tapes that wrap around the rollers.

Sandstorm-resistant traffic safety systems

As we mentioned the La Niña phenomenon affects some areas with snow, rain, and dust storms, when dust storms occur in desert areas, they are carried with sand, and this may cause danger to road users if the sand accumulates on the sides of the road or on the barriers.

Therefore, Megarail road barriers are of great importance in these cases, because they are specialized for such conditions and areas, as sand can’t accumulate on them or bury the barriers thus remaining standing and performing their basic role in absorbing the shocks of vehicles in case of deviation from the road and redirecting them again, which confirms their efficiency as other road barriers in traffic safety.

When designing traffic safety systems, different conditions and regions must be taken into consideration to achieve the greatest benefit and traffic safety in all conditions as much as possible, so we didn’t forget this point in traffic safety systems that we manufactured, as we developed some of them by adding technology such as solar power and LED lighting to our systems or by developing the shape of the system to suit a specific region, as we did in the Megarail barriers, that makes Shawahid Industrial Roads Co. systems required across Saudi Arabia and outside its borders as well.

our products are manufactured to the highest quality standards and conform to specifications achieving the highest level of safety through our continuous development.