Dubai: Dedicated bus, taxi lanes to be extended to cover 8 roads

Bus journey times in some areas could be slashed by up to 44 per cent, with authorities in Dubai announcing a plan to extend the emirate’s dedicated bus and taxi lanes.

Between 2023 and 2027, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will construct dedicated bus and taxi lanes extending 37km. These lanes cover eight main streets: Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah Street, 2nd December Street, Amman Street, Al Satwa Road, Al Nahda Street, Omar bin Al Khattab Street and Naif Street.

These will bring the total length of dedicated bus and taxi lanes to 48.6km.

Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA, said: “Dedicated bus and taxi lanes are a successful global practice that encourages people to use public transport rather than private vehicles. As seen in several metropolitan cities in America and Europe, dedicated bus and taxi lanes reduce journey time, increase compliance with on-time bus departures, encourage the public to use mass transport means, improve taxi arrival times, and reduce the direct and indirect operational costs as well as pollution.”

The official said dedicated bus lanes reduce travel time during peak hours by more than 40 per cent.

“The introduction of this project is expected to reduce bus journey time by 44 per cent on the 2nd December Street; 39 per cent on the Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah Street and Amman Street; 28 per cent on the Omar bin Al Khattab Street; 27 per cent on Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street; 25 per cent on Al Nahda Street; and 18 per cent on Al Satwa Road,” said Al Tayer.

The project is expected to help increase public transport ridership by 30 per cent by 2030 on some streets “and reduce the requirements of additional buses due to the journey time saved”.

‘Huge success’

Dedicated bus and taxi lanes in Dubai have already proven to be a “huge success”, according to Al Tayer.

“Over the past three phases of the project, it saved about five minutes of journey time of each bus. This improved the bus journey times by about 24 per cent,” said the top RTA official.

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Earlier, the RTA completed the construction of dedicated bus lanes stretching 11.6km. These lanes covered Khalid Bin Al Waleed Street, parts of Naif Street, Al Ittihad Road, Al Mina Street, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah Street, Al Khaleej Street, Khalid bin Al Waleed Street and Al Ghubaiba Street.

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