Expert says UAE loses Dh10.5b to traffic

Abu Dhabi: As much as 3.5 per cent of the UAE's gross domestic product (GDP), which amounts to Dh10.5 billion, is wasted annually as a result of traffic congestion, an official has said.

"We lose around Dh10.5 billion on traffic congestion annually, if we take into account both passenger traffic on the streets as well as heavy goods traffic. This is 3.5 per cent of the UAE's GDP and is a considerable amount lost annually", said Dr Salem Al Shafiei, a veteran transport planner who is the managing director of Dubai Real Estate Institute.

Al Shafiei was presenting a paper on setting the sustainable mobility agenda for the UAE at a three-day seminar on Sustainable Urban Transport hosted by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and the Department of Transport.

"With economic growth comes industrial growth, increased personal incomes and increased consumption. This impacts the transportation sector with increased motorisation, increased number of trips and change in modes of sharing. This in turn has economic and environmental impacts due to emissions, congestion, noise pollution, collisions, etc," he explained.

The solution is to move towards sustainable transportation to meet the needs of the country's growing population, noted Al Shafiei, a respected academic who has worked with several Dubai government organisations.

"The UAE's population has grown exponentially from 0.5 million in 1975 to around 5 million now. As per projected growth, the population will hit 10-12 million by 2030. This is a big challenge, primarily for the transportation sector."

Congestion, collisions and pollution are the three major negative externalities of mobility, he added.

Calling for the development of an integrated transport strategy, Al Shafiei, also a professor with American University of Sharjah, said: "On the local level, some emirates are moving in the right direction while others are still getting there. There needs to be a coordinated and concerted effort by way of a national transport strategy that will govern the transportation sector in all emirates."

Alarmingly, the dependency on public transport in the UAE is as low as 0.5 to 6 per cent, while vehicle ownership is high at 2.6 vehicles per person, mainly due to affordability. Occupancy per car is too low at 1.8 passengers.