Maktoum Bin Mohammed Honours Winners Of 5th Dubai Award For Sustainable Transport

Masdar, Emirates Gas, School Transport Services, And Emirates Transport Top Various Award Categories

Under the the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council; HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Vice Chairman of the Executive Council, has honoured the winners of the 5th edition of the Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport 2012, which is initiated by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to encourage public and private sectors to help reduce traffic congestion and uphold environmental conservation.

Upon arrival at ceremony venue in the Dubai World Trade Centre, HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was received by HE Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, along with a host of directors and Department heads in both the public and private sectors.

HH, together with the audience attended to a film on Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport, highlighting the efforts of the Emirate of Dubai in preserving environment & natural resources and enforcing the principles of sustainable development since they shape the future and welfare of human beings.

Korean experience
Next, HE Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul City, delivered a keynote speech where he reviewed the efforts made by the Government of South Korea to achieve sustainable development and promote green growth in Asia, given that the metro system in the Korean capital has been ranked among the top 9 metro systems worldwide.

“The transport system is closely associated with people’s daily life, and thus it dramatically affects their quality of life and happiness. There are research results showing that the longer the commuting time, the worse the happiness level,” said the Mayor of Seoul.

He pointed out that “the people of Seoul led the national craze of driving one’s own car until 1980s, and the number of cars in Seoul sharply increased, and in the 1990s, Seoul began to construct roads, and expand public transportation infrastructure. To control the large traffic demand, Seoul also began to collect traffic congestion fees and carry out various traffic control measures. Despite decades of carrying out various traffic management measures, Seoul was still not free from traffic congestions. Seoul suffered an estimated loss of 6.4 billion dollars every year due to traffic congestion.”

“Seoul opted to establish an integrated public transportation system and opened the first Subway Line in 1974. This project contributed to rendering the city easily accessible from all directions. From 2000, Seoul began pursuing reforms in public transportation by initiating the median bus lane system and the integrated bus transit system in addition to setting up a prepaid transportation card system, expanding bus information systems using smartphone apps to provide real-time public transportation information,” he continued.

“The Seoul Metropolitan Government,” he added, “is pursuing a paradigm shift to sustainable and pedestrian-friendly transportation to give future generations a more pleasant environment to live in. therefore, the government is also planning to expand bicycle lanes throughout the city, and increase the number of pedestrian zones & car-free zones, and operating low-floor buses in the interest of people with special needs. Moreover, the Korean Government intends to launch a pilot car-sharing program this month.”

Winners Honoured
HH Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, flanged by H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, honoured the winners of the Award. Masdar City finished first in Mobility Management category for its sustainable transport project in the city; which is a fundamental element of its design. Its PRT (Personal Rapid Transport) pod cars are carbon-free, driverless, and automated. Apparel Group finished second for the Shared Transportation Project; which aims to reduce carbon footprints, avoid traffic congestions, road safety, along with Employee punctuality at work place & increased efficiency of all the staff, and the Group provides buses to commute around 2000 employees per day. The Dubai Airport Free Zone finished third for running an initiative for providing transportation services to the metro stations. Buses have been deployed to offer shuttle services for about 13000 employees in 1600 companies from the Airport Free Zone Metro Station to and from their work places in DAFZ.

In the Transport Safety category, the School Transport Services LLC was the winner for its project of: Best Technical & Operational Practices of Total Safety, Training, Awareness and Learning. The STS is currently serving 40 Educational Institutions and 26 Non Educational Sector business units, and commuting more than 55000 passengers in 2000 trips through more than 1500 routes in 110 areas and covering more than 135,000 kilometers every day. STS is committed to improve the safety and security of the passengers travel in our buses through development of various strategies and solutions. Al Otaiba General Transport Group was the runner-up for its initiative pertinent to the obtaining of the OHSAS certificate and installing the GPS (Vehicle Tracking System) in vehicles. The third place finished was Rawdhat Al Amal (Hope Nursery) for its initiative: My Bus My Saftey; which contributed to raising the awareness of children, parents, bus conductors and the local community about the compliance with the proper rules of boarding buses in order to ensure safe arrival of children from and to their homes.

Emirate:  Dubai

Date: Feb 19, 2013

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