By MATOVU ABDALLAH TWAHA gulftoday.ae
The introduction of the Metro in the Emirate of Dubai has had “great impact on the traffic flow,” said a traffic expert from the emirate’s transportation agency.
“Dubai is now doing well compared to the other famous global cities. Many cities utilise Travel Time Index (TTI) as a measure of congestion, our score is very good,” said the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Traffic and Roads Agency at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Eng. Maitha Bin Adai.
In her written submission dated April titled, “Integration of Dubai Metro with other modes of Transportation”, which was obtained by this paper, Eng. Maitha puts Dubai’s TTI at 1.36.
Other USA cities’ score that she culled out stand at Phoenix (1.30), Houston (1.33), San Diego (1.37), San Francisco (1.42) and Chicago (1.43).
“Our stand is very good,” she said, adding that the travel time during the peak hour is 36 per cent more than the travel time during free flow conditions.
Eng. Maitha contends that other projects and policies have worked in tandem with the Metro project to significantly reduce the traffic congestion.
The constructors were asked to link the stations near busy establishments such as the malls.
For Eng. Maitha, due to certain weather conditions in Dubai, the malls have special importance in the management of traffic flow as they have trip generation of 4,000 to 10,000 vehicles per hour.
“So, services were provided at most regional malls in Dubai: City Centre, Emirates Mall and Burjuman.
“A Direct Bus shuttle service was established to serve Dubai Mall and Ibn Battuta Mall.”
Some areas such as the direction to Bur Dubai and Deira from any angle were badly off in 2006, the year when the RTA was incepted.
