346 m passengers used public transport means in Dubai in 2011

346 m passengers used public transport means in Dubai in 2011

• Daily ridership of public transport touches 963 thousand passengers per day
• Al Tayer: 69 m riders used Dubai Metro last year

The Roads & Transport Authority – Mohammed Al Munji:
His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that the public transport means of the RTA, which span the Dubai Metro, public buses, marine transit modes and taxis (Dubai Taxi only), have lifted in 2011 more than 346.5 million passengers compared with 332 million passengers lifted in 2010, according to the recent figures released by RTA's Statistics Section. The average number of daily riders of public transport means reached 963 thousand passengers whereas the figure was in the range of 922 thousand passengers in 2010.

"In keeping with the drive to enhance the integration of public transport modes as outlined in RTA's Strategic Plan, which is aligned with the Dubai Strategic Plan (Infrastructure Sector) aimed at providing an integrated roads & transport system that ensures smooth traffic flow & high safety levels to all users, the RTA has been endeavouring to upgrade the mass transit systems to make them the ideal choice of people in the Emirate. These efforts come in implementation of RTA strategic objective of minimizing the use of private vehicles and maximizing the use of public transit means (including taxis) from 13% in 2006 to 30% in 2030. In 2010 this rate reached 15% and in the middle of last year it jumped to 19%," said Al Tayer.

"The Dubai Metro, comprising the Red and Green Lines, has lifted more than 69 million passengers in 2011. The number of commuters who used the Red Line reached 60.024 million passengers, and the number of commuters who used the Green Line, which has been launched on 09/09/2011, reached 8.982 million passengers, thus the daily ridership of the metro currently exceeds 191 thousand passengers. The total ridership of public buses in 2011 reached 107.407 million passengers making an average of about 298 thousand passengers per day. The total ridership of marine transit modes, which include abras, water bus and water taxi, reached about 14.221 million passengers where abras ferried 13.8 million passengers, water bus lifted 371 thousand passengers and the water taxi lifted about 13 thousand passengers, thus the average daily ridership of marine transit modes is about 39,500 passengers per day.

"Taxis (Dubai Taxi only) made 62.36 million trips lifting about 155.9 million passengers in 2011. Dubai taxicabs in Dubai Emirate make about 173,223 trips per day and lift about 433 thousand passengers per day," added RTA Chairman of the Board and Executive Director.
"The huge investments injected by the Dubai Government for the development of the infrastructure of transport sector have proved both successful & effective. The healthy growth in public transport users reflects the undergoing evolution in the culture of using public transport means by the public spanning all spectrums of the community, particularly with the availability of the metro service. The use of mass transit means has a host of benefits as it enhances the psychological & physical relief of passengers, reduces crashes, cuts outlays on fuel & maintenance of private vehicles, and rids the public of the hassle of finding parking slots; which has emerged as a key challenge facing modern cities across the globe, let alone that using public transport means effectively contributes to reducing environmental pollution resulting from the massive number of private cars; which gives rise to several ailments, such as respiratory diseases.

"RTA is always seeking to improve its business practices through offering a myriad of innovative solutions & strategic initiatives stemming from its vision of providing Safe & Smooth Transport for All. On the 1st November 2010, the RTA inaugurated the Public Transport Day initiative enabling Nol card holders to use the metro, buses and water bus free of charge for one day. The total number of riders using the metro, buses and water taxi on the second edition of the event clocked 693,221 passengers recording a 34% rise on the average numbers of commuters at that time. RTA is proceeding ahead with improvements of the quality of services rendered to the public in keeping with the regional & global profile of Dubai in the business, economic, service, financial, real estate, and tourists sectors among others," said Al Tayer in a concluding remark.

Captions:
 Mattar Al Tayer
 The number of metro riders is continuously on the rise
 Public buses linking various parts of Dubai Emirate
 The marine transit modes link the two shores of Dubai Creek