Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority's Public Transport Agency (PTA) has recently revamped the designs of bus schedules and route maps of public buses, in a bid to make them simpler and user-friendly for commuters.

The PTA, a division of the RTA, said that the new simple and stylish designs were developed as part of efforts to upgrade services offered to bus users and to make it easy for commuters to read bus route maps.

Officials have begun installing the newly designed bus schedule and route maps in all air conditioned and non air conditioned bus stops, main bus stations and bus stops of feeder bus services, near the Metro stations, Eisa Al Dossary, Chief Executive Officer of PTA, said.

The new design shows bus timetables, headway [service interval], and time taken between bus stops, he said.

Each route has been colour coded to make it easy to understand.

The route maps will help commuters identify where exactly they are, and allow them to choose the route to take to their destination.

These maps, which are being installed at the main bus stations and Metro stations, are divided into three main sections; the first one shows the overall transit route network in Dubai, the second shows routes passing across the point in which the user is currently in, and the third shows all the key geographical locations and landmarks close to the commuter.

Timings

Bus routes show the starting point, arrival, headway, starting time of the first and last service as well as bus stops located along that route, Al Dossary added. The PTA currently operates more than 1,400 public buses covering around 80 per cent of the city. The first bus service began in Dubai in 1968, with just four mini buses on two routes.