Dubai RTA Announces 35% Increase In Use Of Public Transport

In past year, 621.4 million riders used Dubai’s public transport network, noticed an increase of 35 % compared to the previous year’s 461 million riders, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on Sunday.

The average daily ridership of public transport, shared mobility and taxis clocked 1.7 million riders in 2022 compared to 1.3 million riders in 2021.

The emirate’s public transport comprises Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, public buses, marine transport (abra, ferry, water taxi, water bus), shared mobility (e-hail, smart car rentals, bus-on-demand), and taxis.

March 2022 recorded an all-time high monthly ridership touching 62 million coinciding with the end of Expo 2020, followed by December which saw 57 million riders. Ridership rates in other months ranged from 46 to 56 million.

Mattar Al Tayer, director-general, chairman of RTA, said the share of the Metro in Dubai’s public transport ridership increased by three per cent, while marine transport riders showed a one per cent rise when compared to 2021 levels.

“Dubai Metro acquired the largest percentage of the public transport, shared transport and taxis ridership in 2022, amounting to 36 per cent. It is a good indicator of people shifting to public transport modes that serve a growing number of riders. The share of public buses reached 25 per cent, and marine transport riders grew from two per cent in 2021 to 3 per cent in 2023. Shared mobility modes and Dubai Tram maintained their ridership levels, which amounted to five per cent for shared transport, and one per cent for Dubai Tram,” he said.