Dubai's public transport means carry 1.3 million riders every day

The daily average ridership of public and shared transport and taxis in Dubai clocked 1.68 million in the first six months of 2022. A total of 304.6 million passengers used public transport means during this period. In 2021, the number of mass and shared transport users in Dubai was about 461 million, at a rate of 1.3 million riders per day.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will celebrate its 13th Public Transport Day on November 1, which coincides with the authority’s 17th anniversary.

Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, highlighted how Dubai’s public transport network has become the backbone of mobility for residents.

“The network succeeded in coaxing a change in the culture of the entire community towards the use of public transportation. RTA’s strategic and executive plans are based on integration to ensure smooth traffic flow across Dubai. These include the expansion of road networks, crossings, and public transport systems including the metro, tram, buses, and marine transport as well as the first and last-mile means and shared transport.

“It also focused on constructing connected pedestrian and cycling facilities and upgrading the traffic and transport technologies to achieve the efficient utilisation of road and mass transport systems. The plans also focused on initiating policies to encourage the public to reduce the reliance on private vehicles and increase the dependency on other means of transportation, including public and shared transport.”

Infrastructure boom

Al Tayer said the RTA has accomplished infrastructure projects worth more than Dh140 billion . These include the Dubai Metro, which now spans 90km after the launch of Route 2020; the 11-km Dubai Tram, and the Dubai Water Canal, which was completed in less than three years.

“RTA also implemented many road projects, which contributed to increasing the total length of the roads network from 8,715 lane-kilometre in 2006 to 18,475 in 2021. The number of bridges and underpasses increased six times from 129 bridges and underpasses in 2006 to 884. The number of pedestrian bridges and underpasses has also quadrupled from 26 to 121. The length of the cycling tracks increased from 9km in 2006 to 502km in 2021,” said the RTA chief.

Joint efforts by the RTA and the Dubai Police helped bring down road accident-related fatalities from 22 cases per 100,000 of the population in 2006 to 1.9 in 2021.

Smart mobility

The RTA is helping Dubai achieve its Smart Self-Driving Transport Strategy to transform 25 per cent of total mobility journeys into self-driving ones.

It recently completed the first phase of preparing digital maps for Cruise's Origin autonomous vehicles. This serves as a prelude for the launch of the actual service by 2023, making Dubai the first city in the world to commercially operate Cruise self-driving vehicles outside the US. The self-driving Cruise Origin vehicle will be deployed in limited numbers next year to offer taxi and e-hail services. “We have plans to increase the number of deployed vehicles gradually to reach 4,000 by 2030,” added Al Tayer.

This year, the Public Transport Day aims to promote a healthy lifestyle. #SpeedUpSlowDown encourages residents and visitors to use public transport means to reach their destinations on time in a hassle-free way.

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