By Shafaat Shahbandari, Staff Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: Traffic congestion in Dubai is on a par with most major cities in the world, costing the economy Dh771,147.388 per kilometre in fuel and time lost, Gulf News can reveal.
According to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Dubai’s economy was set back by Dh2.9 billion in terms of loss in working hours, time and fuel in 2013. A simple division of the annual loss with the total length of roads in Dubai, which is 3,760.63 centreline kilometres, shows a loss of Dh771,147.388 per kilometre.
With 1.39 million vehicles registered in Dubai, the traffic cost per vehicle per year amounts to Dh2,086.
However, the scenario would have been much worse if RTA had not developed the city’s infrastructure over the last nine years, spending up to Dh60 billion in building roads, establishing a Metro network and expanding other modes of public transport.
Without the road and public transport projects implemented by RTA, the loss for the year 2013 alone would be Dh16.6 billion.
In reality, the estimated cost of time and fuel lost in congestion from 2006 to 2013 was around Dh27.9 billion, owing to improved infrastructure. More info
