Public sector must prioritise public transport

Leadership at a federal level is now required to ensure that inter-emirate rivalry does not delay or derail this development.

Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, has already hinted that obstacles stand in the way of what should become an interconnected UAE-wide – and eventually GCC-wide – public transport system.

He told Emirates Today that he has proposed a metro rail line that would link Ajman and Dubai, via Sharjah, but that the Sharjah authorities have not yet responded to his suggestion.

This, in spite of the fact that HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, has expressed hope that a metro system “will cover the whole Emirates”.

A metro system is only part of the solution. Additional measures should be put into place, including congestion charging on the busiest roads. Again, Dubai is the leader here: the emirate plans to introduce tolls on sections of Sheikh Zayed Road and possibly elsewhere.

And in Abu Dhabi, they are launching a new taxi company that boasts newer cars and more knowledgeable drivers, and a boat-taxi service that will ferry people to the emirate’s small islands in the Gulf.

But then, why not go further? The UAE could consider bus lanes to offer an effective alternative for those that don’t find the train convenient. Or what about government-endorsed incentives for car sharing at peak times?

City and town planning must also improve. Satellite towns – offering cost-effective housing and rapid transport into town on public transport, should be favoured over high-rise, high-density apartment blocks crammed into the centres of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

This week has offered some signs of hope for a nation, it sometimes seems, entirely made up of 4 X 4 drivers. So now is the time for bold, far-sighted leadership on these issues – or the economic, and environmental, prosperity of the whole UAE will be endangered.