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HE Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) attended part of the public transport events which corresponds to the first of November each year, the day the RTA was established back in 2005.
The festivity, which took place in Dubai Ice Rink, Dubai Mall, featured the recognition of the two winners selected from a pool of most frequent riders of public transport means, by awarding them AED50,000 each. The RTA also honoured 50 cabdrivers from the DTC’s franchise companies operating under the tutelage of the RTA, as part of the Excellence in Taxicabs, organized annually by the RTA to select the best cabbies and franchise companies.
The Award aims at upgrading services on offer to taxi riders, and raise the competitive edge among franchise companies to ensure quality services, improve traffic safety, heighten awareness levels, bring happiness to taxi users, and motivate drivers to achieve excellence and show job & customer service commitment.
The festivity also featured a contest named: Finding the Treasure. Here, 20 teams of RTA public transport users were selected, each team comprising 3-5 individuals. To participate in the contest, each team had to work out a strategy for amassing the largest number of points as quick as possible in order to rank among the winners. Three winning teams were named where a prize money of AED 15,000 was given top winners, AED 10,000 to the runner-up; and AED 7,000 to the third, not to mention the commemorative gifts were offered to the public.
Awareness and education
HE Mattar Al Tayer was thrilled with the great communal interaction with the public transport day initiative, hailing the response of public & private entities, educational institutions, and various community segments for their contribution in making the initiative a success. This reflects the RTA’s keenness to educate community members on the importance of using public transit modes. HE reiterated the RTA’s efforts in this regard, including public transport initiatives, which have contributed to promoting awareness and disseminating culture of using public transport. The population has started to savor the benefits and advantages of using mass transit such as psychological & physical comfort to the passengers, cost savings, and high safety levels, besides cutting expenses such as vehicles usage, fuel, maintenance, etc. The share of public transport rose from 6% in 2006, and 15% in 2015, putting the emirate on track to meet a target of 20% by 2020, and 30% in 2030.
“The strategic and operational plans for roads & transport drafted by the RTA are based on achieving the principle of integration amongst the various public transport means, rendering them the preferred mobility option for population in the emirate. To this effect, the RTA has provided integrated solutions such as upgrading and widening roads and bridges networks, rejuvenating the mass transit systems including the metro, the tram, buses and marine transport, besides renovating traffic technological systems to optimize utilization of mass transport systems. The RTA has also adopted polices capable of lowering private vehicle use and raising public transport usage, enabling individuals to car-pool a single vehicle to and from their workplaces which is ideal for Dubai where every two individuals have one car,” added Al Tayer.
The Public Transport Day initiative aims at displaying the role of the Emirate in supporting efforts towards improving the environment, achieving sustainable development, encouraging residents to use mass transit means, and improving ridership levels. This requires raising the awareness of users about the benefits of public transport, and highlighting RTA’s modern mass transit means including the metro, buses and marine transit modes. The event is also intended to step up the integration of mass transit modes, and boost the pioneering role of Dubai in general and the RTA in particular in raising the profile of public transport means.
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