Final Public Transport Bus Master Plan for Dubai: Presentation of results at the 1. UITP-MENA Congress in Dubai
PTV and its consortium partners Hamburg-Consult, Rhein-Consult, BLIC and Zum goldenen Hirschen timely finalized Dubai's Bus Master Plan for the Roads & Transport Authority of Dubai. The consortium put forward a set of detailed recommendations for implementing the master plan within an extremely tight schedule. It presented its concept for the development and marketing of a public transport bus system for this booming region at the 1st UITP / Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Conference in Dubai in late November. Transportation officials from African countries and other emirates were particularly interested in these solutions. On September 1, 2006, the RTA asked the consortium to develop a concept for the development and marketing of a bus system.
A committee, consisting of officials from each RTA department, as well as members of the consortium and PTV, was created to implement the concepts. The focus is now on building the depots, providing the buses, new bus lines and stops according to the plan. Additionally, passenger information systems and fare management solutions will soon be implemented.
Introducing the marketing and communication concept plays an important role within the entire master plan. Road users must be encouraged to change their travel behaviour. Dubai’s residents currently use their own cars. Only most of the foreign workers take the bus into or out of town. The new bus lanes are meant to convince the motorists that public transport allows them to reach their destination faster. “Our concepts place a major emphasis on sustainable public transport", says Jürgen Kaiser, project manager at PTV Germany. “Expanding the area for transport-related purposes cannot be the only measure to cope with continually increasing traffic volumes. The metro and the new bus system will become the alternative transport mode."
Impressions of the 1st UITP / Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Conference, November 2007, Dubai
Background information:
In recent years, PTV’s Traffic Consulting business field has been involved in numerous projects in the booming cities of the Middle East. Traffic and transportation planners in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar work hard to control rapidly growing traffic and to create optimum conditions for public transport.
Dubai, the centre of the Emirate of Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, will have more than two million inhabitants in 2009. The population is expected to reach five million until 2020. In 2005, over 200,000 vehicles were registered. Only seven per cent of the population currently uses public transport. Major commuter flows also have an impact on the daily traffic nightmares. To cope with today’s and future traffic, Dubai's bus system will be expanded to create a sustainable transport system.
