Khalid bin Al Waleed Street
The dedicated lanes have been marked in red colour. Credit: Roads and Transport Authority.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has completed Phase III of the dedicated bus and taxi lanes project on Khalid bin Al Waleed Street.

Marked in red in both directions, the 4.3km dedicated bus and taxi lanes begin from the intersection of Khalid bin Al Waleed Street-Al Mina Street and end just before the intersection of Zabeel Street.

Roads and Transport Authority Board of Executive Directors chairman and director-general Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer said: “Building dedicated bus and taxi lanes is a successful global practice that encourages people to ride public transport means rather than private vehicles. It is a common practice in several metropolitan cities in North America and Europe.

“It aims to increase the percentage of compliance with the on-time departures, encourage the public to use mass transport, improve the taxi arrival time, and reduce the direct and indirect operational costs, as well as the pollutant emissions.

“The project will also contribute to realising the strategic goal of Integrated Dubai, improve the living standards and enhance the happiness of public transport riders.”

As part of this project, Dubai RTA has built pedestrian paths, roadside parking, air-conditioned shelters for bus and taxi riders, streetlights, and landscaping.

The new lanes will be operational from 21 January 2021.

Dubai RTA said that bus drivers will be using the lanes on a trial until the service is put into formal operation.

With the completion of the Phase III project, the length of dedicated bus and taxi lanes has increased to 11.6km and now covers seven key streets, including Al Mankhool, Al Khaleej, Khalid bin Al Waleed, Al Ghubaiba, Naif, Al Ittihad and Al Mina Streets.

Al Tayer added: “The completion of Phase III of the project culminates the huge successes of the initial two phases of the project that saved about five minutes in the journey of each bus, which improved the bus journey times by 24%.

“It also improved the satisfaction of bus and taxi riders. Currently, 40 bus routes use dedicated lanes, including 19 routes that use Khalid bin Al Waleed Street.”