RTA stresses on safety of Dubai public bus commuters

Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), has stressed that the safety of public transport riders in Dubai is of paramount importance in RTA's strategic vision "Safe and Smooth Transport for All".
Public buses are highly popular amongst commuters, and a crucial transit mode in the daily mobility across Dubai.
Al Tayer made this statement during a recent visit to Al Awir Bus Depot during which he reviewed a host of creative initiatives including the mystery instructor aimed at monitoring any violations undermining the safety of riders. Initiatives also included an inspection of the optical scanner fitted to buses to detect any potential or actual faults and pinpoint them without human intervention to maintain the safety and security of bus operations.
During the visit, Al Tayer attended a briefing by the CEO of Public Transport Agency Abdullah Yousef Al Ali, as well as directors at the agency, about the simulator used for training bus drivers. The device is aimed at curbing accidents and the cost of training drivers on professional driving. He also visited the recycling workshop for reprocessing spare parts of scrapped buses.
He also visited the Drivers Affairs Department where he was briefed about the results of the drivers' training and the extent of hitting targets. He also reviewed the accident rates per 100,000km in comparative studies compiled from 2012 to 2016.
He also reviewed a comparison of electronic and paper transactions where the proportion of paper transactions plummeted from 87 per cent in 2014 to 16 per cent in 2016. That means electronic transactions leapfrogged from 13 per cent in 2014 to 84 per cent that year.
Al Tayer visited the Operations Room where he examined a comparative study of ridership between 2015 and the first half of 2016 in terms of targets and achievements. Al Tayer and the team then boarded a CNG-powered bus on a tour of the external yard of the station.
He was also briefed about the trial of the bus, which is one of the Green Economy initiatives and deployed on a route from Deira City Center to Al Nahda 1 for 12 months.
The route was selected in view of its proximity to Al Qusais Station in order to enable smooth refuelling of the bus when needed.

• Dubai