Dubai calls for public transport to drive 'more sustainable future'

Director general of the emirate's Roads and Transport Authority speaks at global summit in Barcelona

The share of journeys made in Dubai via public transport has risen significantly, the summit in Barcelona was told. Photo: Dubai Government Media Office

The head of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority appealed to global public transit bosses on Sunday to “work together to create a cleaner, safer and more sustainable future”.

Mattar Al Tayer, the RTA’s director general and chairman, spoke at the opening of a four-day public transport summit in Barcelona, Spain.

The summit is the first held by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) since before the Covid-19 pandemic shook up the sector and gave a push in many cities to green-minded urban planning.

Dubai has been chosen as host of the 2026 meeting, it was announced on Sunday.

Industry bosses are using the summit to call for trains, trams and buses to be at the centre of city planning as the world strives to cut back carbon emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Mr Al Tayer said Dubai and the UAE, which will host the Cop28 climate summit this year, were “committed to promoting sustainable and innovative mobility”.

Public transport and other shared journeys have more trebled as a share of all trips in Dubai since 2006, from 6 per cent to 19.1 per cent, he said.

He told delegates the aim was to reach 25 per cent by 2030 and also have a quarter of trips take place in autonomous vehicles by that date.

It is planned that a driverless taxi service will start in Dubai this year. Another goal is to have a zero-emission fleet of buses by 2050.

Dubai’s urban plan is based on the concept of 20-minute cities where people can travel to most of their daily activities in that amount of time.

Mr Al Tayer told the Barcelona summit that Dubai had a “vision of being the world leader in seamless and sustainable mobility”.

“Public transport is an essential part of our city’s infrastructure, leading the way in promoting sustainable mobility,” he said.

“Let us continue to work together to create a cleaner, safer and sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.”

The RTA was shortlisted for a UITP award for its integration of public transport at Expo 2020. The Cop28 summit begins in November at Expo City Dubai.

Dozens of officials from the UITP travelled for 16 hours by train from Brussels to Barcelona for the summit, to symbolise their argument that public transport reduces the world’s carbon footprint.

The body’s outgoing president, Saudi public transport boss Khalid Alhogail, said the world “needs more public transport, together with walking, cycling and shared mobility”.

Reneé Amilcar, the head of transit services in Ottawa, Canada, was elected as Mr Alhogail’s successor.

The UITP’s secretary general Mohamed Mezghani told the summit that peak use of public transport had seen a shift from weekdays to weekends since the pandemic, which led to a boom in remote working and slumps in fare revenue during lockdown.

But he described public transport as indispensable to tackling climate change and achieving other social and economic goals.

“Many of the problems faced by our cities, our economies, our society, the environment – it is public transport that offers up these new sights, new horizons, new ambitions,” Mr Mezghani said.

“These are the common good objectives that must be acknowledged and embraced by policymakers. It’s public transport that shines on a light on our beautiful cities.”