UAE | Traffic and Transport

Get friends on board, zip away with Salik bonus

RTA enlists support for Facebook pledge focusing on speeding, cellphones and seat belts

  • By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:00 February 11, 2012
  • Gulf News

The Salik toll gate on Dubai’s Al Maktoum Bridge
  • Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
  • The Salik toll gate on Dubai’s Al Maktoum Bridge.

Dubai: You could win Dh100 in top-up credit for your Salik account if you are one of the first 50 respondents to enlist your friends to undertake a traffic safety pledge on the Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) Facebook page.

The first 25 individuals to get 100 friends to support the campaign will stand to earn Dh150 in Salik credit. The incentive is part of a recently launched initiative by the RTA to reach out to the public through a traffic safety campaign which kicked off in December, in association with Dubai Police.

Under the slogan ‘I won't let it happen', the campaign hopes to address three main areas of concern: speeding, use of mobile phones during driving, and not wearing seat belts.

New media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have helped the RTA interact with hundreds of thousands of people.

Some 300,000 people viewed RTA's videos on YouTube, since the launch of its channel on the file-sharing website in December 2008, said Dr Aisha Al Busmait, director of RTA's marketing and corporate communication department.

YouTube library

The RTA's YouTube library includes more than 160 video clips intended to promote public transport. RTA's YouTube website topped all government bodies and institutions, and ranked third in a report in the ‘e 4 all' magazine issued by the Dubai e-Government, the official said. The magazine described RTA's campaign on social networking media as both progressive and wonderful.

"In November and December 2011, RTA's Twitter page registered about 22 million views by more than 1.8 million people through RTA's 12,000 followers," Dr Aisha said. RTA's Facebook ‘People are talking about this' metric scored an average of 2437 visitors per day," she said.

The number of subscribers to RTA's Facebook page feeds exceeded 20,000 and the number of searches reached around 8 million. Around 320 posts were put up by the RTA last year.

RTA has embraced new media with the aim of strengthening the channels of communication with the public, especially users of public transportation.

RTA also aims to brief the public on its e-services and channels of delivering them and encourage the public to use these services. It seeks to inform the public about public transport services rendered by the RTA to participants and visitors at events and activities in the emirate of Dubai such as the ongoing Dubai Shopping Festival, Dubai Film Festival, Gitex, and Dubai Air Show.

Growing awareness
  • 8m: searches on RTA's Facebook page
  • 1.8m: viewers for Twitter page in November, December
  • The RTA page can be accessed at www.facebook.com/rtatakecare

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