His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed that the number of usages of RTA services during the period of Expo 2020 Dubai amounted to 37.3 million, which constitutes 67% to the total usage of transport services at Expo. The number of riders carried out by public transport modes (Dubai Metro, public buses), taxis and e-hail rides (Careem and Uber) reached 26.3 million. He noted that RTA’s transit means served 37% of Expo visitors, and about 11.038 million motorists used RTA’s parking slots during Expo.

“Thanks to the huge support and patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and the close follow-up of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council, we had succeeded in providing unique, easy and fast transportation services for both participants and visitors of Expo 2020. The integrated infrastructure of road and transportation networks, as well as the master mobility plan developed by RTA in cooperation with strategic partners, was instrumental in facilitating the movement of residents and visitors from Dubai and other emirates to Expo 2020,” said Al Tayer.

Number of Journeys

“From October 1^st, 2021 to March 31^st, 2022, the Dubai Metro service to Expo 2020 clocked at 8.203 million riders covering more than 5.717 million kilometres. Public buses (Expo Rider) constituted for 15.525 million riders covering more than 7.357 million kilometres. The bus service was run by four types of services: Expo Rider Inter-city had 1.096 million riders, Expo Rider Dubai had 1.414 millionriders, Parking Shuttles to the three Gates (Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability) made 10.2 m riders, and People Movers between gates had 2.814 millionriders. Taxi and e-hail ride services had 2.584 million riders,” explained Al Tayer.

“RTA managed more than 29 thousand parking slots at the site of Expo at several zones (Opportunity, Mobility, Sustainability, World and Nissan Parking). 11.038 million users used RTA’s parking services. RTA used sophisticated technology to manage parking to ensure a safe and smooth flow of vehicles to and from the parking lots. It included the use of smart messaging signs and the management of parking through a smart system connected to the traffic movement control centre to identify the vacant parking slots at the site. The Call Centre received more than 30 thousand calls, and customers satisfaction rating exceeded 92%,” he added.

Integrated Infrastructure

RTA has constructed integrated infrastructure to serve Expo 2020 Dubai, costing more than AED15 billion. High on the list is Route 2020, a 15-kilometre extension of the Dubai Metro connecting seven stations served by newly procured 50 trains.

RTA constructed a wide roads network comprising 138 lane-kilometre and 9 flyovers in addition to deploying more than 200 public buses featuring the highest international specifications. It provided 18 stations and bus stops in Dubai and key cities across the UAE, besides providing more than 15,000 taxis and limousines.

RTA managed more than 29,000 parking spaces at the site of Expo, and employed smart technologies, applications and artificial intelligence to facilitate the movement of Expo visitors via metro, buses and taxis. RTA’s preparations to serve Expo included the construction of the Enterprise Command and Control Centre (EC³), one of the biggest and most sophisticated roads and transport control centres worldwide in terms of employing smart technologies in traffic management.

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Facts and Figures

Dubai Metro:

• 87 trains
• Headway: 2 minutes 30 seconds
• Distance travelled by Expo service: 5,717,674 km

Car Parking

• Total No of Parking slots Managed: 29,197
• No of DMS Boards Used: 23
• No of DMS Messages: 623
• Total EXPO Signs Installed: 4,503

Public Buses

• of Expo Riders: 188
• of Parking Shuttles: 121
• of People Movers: 19
• Total KMs: 7,357,881 km

Enterprise Command and Control Centre

• No of Cameras Monitored Via EC3: 1,512
• No of EC³ alerts for EXPO: 3,119

Taxis

• Taxi Avg. Trips/Day: 4,666
• Taxi availability (Peak): 94.5%

Captions:

• Mattar Al Tayer
• Integrated infrastructure to ease the arrival of visitors to the site of Expo