In a significant achievement, nearly 346 million riders used various means of public transportation in Dubai in 2020, which means about 947,000 riders per day. Notable public transportation means in Dubai include metro, tram, buses, smart rental vehicles, e-hail rides, taxis (Dubai Taxi and franchise companies), and marine transport (water bus, ferry, and water taxi).

As per a recent announcement made by the Dubai transport regulator, this ridership level was achieved despite an unprecedented global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries across the world shut down public transit services, particularly in the second half of 2020, with the aim of combating the spread of the virus. In addition, various precautionary measures such as physical distancing and regular sanitisation were also implemented across all public transit means to ensure the safety of riders and staff members.

Speaking over the development, Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA (Roads and Transport Authority), noted that the Authority implemented top international practices to address the spread of COVID-19 and to provide a safe and healthy environment to all riders and staff of mass transit means.

He explained that the precautionary measures were implemented on the basis of three pillars. The first agenda was to ensure the safety of all employees by providing a sound and safe working environment, while the second aim was to ensure that all facilities and public transit means provided by the RTA are COVID-19-free in line with the efforts to facilitate continuity of services across the emirate. The third pillar was to provide continuous support to the efforts of the Dubai Government to combat the pandemic.

In this regard, Al Tayer added that the RTA ensured that each train is sanitised thoroughly at the end of each journey and intensive sanitization of the entire fleet and stations were carried out at the end of operations every day.

Al Tayer also highlighted that RTA's precautionary measures received international recognition for efficiency in handling the COVID-19 crisis from Norway’s DNV-GL firm, a premier global entity in the assessment of infection risk control programmes and the management of associated risks.

According to RTA’s statistics, the Dubai Metro (Red and Green Lines) served a total of 113.63 million riders last year, which included 74.455 million riders for the Red Line and 39.172 million for the Green Line. At the same time, Dubai Tram served 3.65 million riders, while public buses provided services to 95.41 million riders and marine transit means ferried 8.05 million riders. Shared transport means, such as e-hail and smart rental vehicles assisted 15.29 million riders, while Dubai Taxi and franchise companies served 109.94 million riders in the year 2020.

The RTA also introduced a comprehensive system for sanitising public transit means in accordance with global practices based on the International Association of Public Transport (UITP).

The sanitation system was implemented across all modes of public transport including metro, buses, taxi among other services. In addition, all RTA buildings and facilities were also covered in the system in order to safeguard the public from infection. The system included precautionary means such as physical distancing onboard metro, buses, marine vessels, and trams, compulsory face masks for all riders and staff, and 70 percent ridership capacity. The number of riders in each taxi was also reduced to three riders which included the driver. At the same time, the RTA mandated scanning of all staff members before the start and after the end of their shifts to ensure safety.

WAM