Annual bill for Dubai road jams is Dh4.6b

Dubai // The time motorists spend stuck in traffic in Dubai costs the emirate Dh4.6 billion a year, the chairman of the Roads and Transport Authority said yesterday. Delivering a speech at the First International Transport Conference and Exhibition for the Middle East in Jordan, Mattar al Tayer said the city was determined to address congestion and road safety. "Among the key challenges facing the emirate of Dubai is traffic congestion, which costs about Dh4.6 billion per annum.

"The fatality rate in Dubai is 17 cases per 100,000 of population, compared to five to six [per 100,000] cases in countries such as the UK and Sweden, and the associated economic loss exceeds 800 million per year," he said. "There is also the limited use of mass transit, which does not exceed six per cent [of all journeys taken], whereas such percentages range from 40 per cent to 80 per cent in advanced countries."

Mr Tayer said plans to tackle the problems include an integrated programme of education and infrastructure upgrades, which aims to reduce road deaths to five per 100,000 people by 2020. The first large scale form of public transport in Dubai - Metro Dubai - is due to launch in September of next year. rabubaker@thenational.ae