Including taxis, public transport and shared mobility…

Dubai’s population reached 3.825 million at the end of 2024. That is a lot of people travelling in, out and around the city. While many of them drive their own cars, public transport facilitates a large percentage of the emirates’ population. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced that 747.1 million used public transport and shared mobility services in Dubai in 2024. This is a 6.4 per cent increase from 702 million riders in 2023.

Public transport includes Dubai Metro, which includes the Red and Green lines, Dubai Tram, public buses, marine transport (abras, ferries, and water taxis) . Shared mobility was smart app-based ride-hailing, hourly rentals, and bun-on-demand. Taxis consist of Dubai Taxi and franchise companies available in the emirate.

The average number of people travelling each day exceeded 2 million riders.

The total trips across the same categories reached 153 million in the year. Of these, taxis accounted for over 115 million trips, while shared mobility services recorded approximately 32 million trips the Dubai Media Office reports.

It’s possible that the increase in public transport is due to various initiatives that the Dubai government are undertaking to decrease traffic on the roads. One initiative is the addition of two new Salik toll gates, increase in Salik charges during rush hour traffic, with the price increasing to Dhs6 from the original Dhs4. Another initiative to decrease traffic is the truck ban on major roads during peak times in the city.

Dubai is certainly growing in all aspects…