DUBAI — Failure on the part of bus drivers to halt at some of the bus stops to pick up commuters could be attributed to several reasons, including the bus being full to capacity and a situation that warrants the driver to keep going for fear of breach of regulations, the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) clarified on Friday.
Among the other reasons are absence of passengers at the bus stop or the stop not ‘designated’ on a specific bus route, said Abdullah Yousuf Al Ali, Director of Buses Department in RTA’s Public Transport Agency. The Public Transport Agency receives 30 to 40 complaints every week about bus drivers not stopping to pick up passengers and most of these complaints are repeated. Bus drivers re-check the actual number of passengers on board through the number of tickets issued and when they are certain that the number of passengers had reached the maximum, they do not stop to pick up more passengers.
Sometimes when the bus stop area is blocked by other vehicles, the drivers give the stop a miss so as not to hold up traffic, the statement added.