Creating Sustainable, 20-Minute City: Dubai’s RTA Unveils Updated Strategic Plan For 2024–2030
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has updated its strategic plan for the 2024–2030 period.
The plan is aligned with Dubai Urban Plan 2040 (aiming to make Dubai the world’s best city for living), Dubai Plan 2030, Dubai Government Directives, and the UAE Government Vision, ‘We the UAE 2031’.
“RTA had developed this strategic plan in response to the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Executive Council,” said Mattar Al Tayer, Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA. He added that the plan focuses on promoting both the economy of the city and the wellbeing of its residents and visitors.
“RTA’s future entails studying and deploying integrated and soft mobility solutions along with connected and real-time mobility systems and self-driving transport. RTA intends to operate self-driving Chevrolet Bolt autonomous electric vehicles, positioning Dubai as the first city in the world to operate American Cruise self-driving vehicles outside the USA,” he said.
RTA’s Strategic Plan 2024–2030 is centred around achieving five key goals pertinent to integrated and innovative mobility. The plan is designed to facilitate the development of roads and transport systems that support the 20-minute city (to ensure 80 percent of daily services are accessible within a 20-minute journey by walking or cycling). It focuses on improving accessibility, fostering better integration of multi-modal transport, expanding current and future mobility services, and charting smart mobility solutions.
Under the Future Proof Organisation Goal, the plan emphasises the importance of attracting, retaining, and developing talents that meet future demands. It calls for establishing an effective partnership structure, boosting capabilities in R&D and innovation, transforming into a leading data-based entity, and developing a flexible technological infrastructure.
The strategic plan is also centred on sustainability. RTA has rolled out its ‘Zero-Emissions Public Transportation in Dubai 2050’ strategy, which makes it the first Middle Eastern entity to develop a long-term strategy for migrating towards Net-Zero Emission Public Transport. RTA seeks to convert 100 per cent of taxis and limousines in the emirate to electric and hydrogen vehicles by 2040, and to convert the entire fleet of public transport buses into electric and hydrogen buses by 2050. The plan has set a target to push transportation on sustainable means to as much as 42.5 per cent in 2030.
The goals and objectives of the plan also include promoting transportation safety, securing assets, ensuring corporate security, and enhancing occupational health. In terms of customer happiness, the plan called for the development of capabilities to understand customer needs and trends, proactively create tailored innovative services, and guide and motivate customer behaviour to achieve the intended benefits of transportation networks.
