DUBAI: Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Chairman of the Dubai Future Council for Transportation, stated that decisions taken by the Dubai Government since the COVID-19 outbreak began last year significantly contributed to containing the pandemic's impact on vital sectors, especially the transportation sector.

"Such decisions also facilitated the speedy recovery and restoration of normal life in the city. Information released by the International Association for Public Transport (UITP) indicated that Dubai was among the world’s fastest cities in regaining public transport ridership to pre-COVID-19 levels," noted Al Tayer.

"The positive indicators and precautionary measures that RTA had implemented reflect the restoration of riders’ confidence in the levels of safety and security of public transport. In fact, the safety of public transport riders is a top priority for Dubai and the RTA. Our teams are continuously monitoring pandemic developments and reviewing protective measures to ensure that measures are relevant and effective, besides coordinating with the concerned committees and parties in Dubai Government," he added.

Al Tayer made these remarks while chairing the 6th meeting of the Dubai Future Council for Transportation, held remotely in the presence of members including CEOs, academia and international transportation experts.

The meeting screened several topics that included the successful practices of tackling COVID-19 and mitigating its impacts on transportation. The council also reviewed the accelerators of quality living from a transportation perspective. Cities are currently upgrading their systems and core services, including transportation, to support the well-being of its population and a fine living environment.

The Council also reviewed the progress made in improving infrastructure and futuristic transit systems. RTA plans to develop flexible and shared mobility to ease the first and last-mile challenge, besides examining global experiments for benefiting from infrastructure in a better way, depending on need and traffic volumes. In this regard, the Council reviewed the trial run of E-Scooters in five districts of Dubai, in coordination with the Dubai Police.

 

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