Chuck cars and opt for public transport means

A visitor looking at the model of a parking lot at the Gulf Traffic Exhibition and Conference at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre on Monday. — KT photos by Leslie Pableo

One of the best ways to reduce the risk of road accidents is to completely shift the preference of people using cars/ private vehicles to public transport, which is a ‘relatively’ safer mode of transport.

“Car travel must be made expensive. There are several ways that private firms and authorities can work together to encourage people to use public transport,” Tawab Kazemi, Technical Director at Transport Research Laboratory, told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the Gulf Traffic Exhibition and Conference, which opened on Monday.

“The need of driving should be eradicated. Simple cooperative measures between companies and the transport authorities can fix this problem.”

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), officially opened the exhibition along with Helal Saeed Almarri, Director-General of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and CEO of Dubai World Trade Centre. The event, which runs until December 10 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, brought together over 200 of the world’s leading traffic and transport infrastructure suppliers who are looking to capitalise on the opportunities in the region, which has recently committed to investing approximately $121.3 billion in improving its land transportation infrastructure.

UAE’s car sales from January 2014 to May 2014 recorded a 12 per cent growth, compared with the same period last year; and for the whole of 2013, just over 360,800 vehicles were sold to private owners or fleet operators. The rapid growth in the number of vehicles is increasing the problem of parking spaces, and according to industry data, 30 per cent of traffic congestion occurs due to vehicle drivers struggling to find parking space.

Kazemi said: “Apart from making car travel expensive, parking can also be made expensive, and introducing toll roads are also an option.” He said that the authorities in Dubai are already doing a lot of things to improve the traffic situation, however, in places like Abu Dhabi and Sharjah , there is a lot of room for improvement. Kazemi also suggested that hiking petrol prices will definitely deter the use of cars and other vehicles as a mode of transport. “Procuring a vehicle is very easy in this part of the world. That must be changed.”

Government intervention

Maitha bint Adai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency, presented the keynote address highlighting the growth plans in place leading up to the Expo 2020. “Transport is vital to our economic activities and social life and must be planned, designed and operated as a complete system with integrated modes of transportation such as pedestrian, bicycles, rail, bus, water transport, taxis and vehicles.”

Currently, the daily contribution of all means of public transport exceeds 800,000 passenger trips, which represent about 14 per cent of the daily total number of passenger trips. “It should be noted that public transport percentage was less than 6 per cent in 2006 and that RTA is planning to increase public transport percentage to 20 per cent by 2020, and to 30 per cent by 2030.”

She highlighted the RTA’s efforts in reducing the amount of road accidents since 2005, with the implementation of their Pedestrian Safety and Mobility Action Plan.

“During 2006, the percentage of accident fatalities involving pedestrians to the overall accident fatalities reached an alarming rate of 44 per cent, which prompted RTA to conduct its first Pedestrian Safety and Mobility Action Plan.

“The implementation of the action plan has resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in pedestrian fatalities from 78 in 2009 to 50 in 2013. Also there was a reduction in the overall accident fatalities from 21.9 fatality/100,000 populations in 2006 to 3.9 fatalities/100,000 population in 2013,” bint Adai said.—dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com