The Roads and Transport Authority kicks off Public Transport Day for its 7th Edition on Tuesday, 1st November, with a variety of events for all spectrums of the community. The idea of the day revolves around encouraging commuters to use more public transport, spanning the metro, tram, public buses, and marine transit like waterbuses and water taxis. 

Abdullah Yousef Al Ali, CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency and Chairman of the Public Transport Day Committee, said, "The current edition of the event will also feature a contest, "Finding the Treasure". 20 teams of RTA public transport users will be selected, each team comprising 3-5 individuals. To participate in the contest, each team has to work out a strategy for amassing the largest number of points as quickly as possible in order to rank among the winners. Three winning teams will be named and rewarded at Dubai Ice Rink in Dubai Mall, where other fun contests will be run on the day. Participants have to take selfies with the name of the station on the background. 

"The winning team will get AED15,000, and the runners-up will walk away with AED10,000. Third place will be given AED7,000. 

"There will be a fantastic array of events and activities of this year's public transport day as the RTA has allocated a sum of AED100,000 for two winners to be selected from the most frequent users of public transport means," announced Al Ali. 

The Public Transport Day initiative aims at highlighting the role of the Emirate in supporting efforts towards improving the environment, achieving sustainable development, encouraging residents to use mass transit means, and improving passenger levels. This requires raising the awareness of users about the benefits of public transport, and displaying RTA's modern mass transit means including the metro, buses and marine transit modes. The event is also intended to step up the integration of mass transit modes, and boost the pioneering role of the Dubai Emirate in general and the RTA in particular in raising the profile of public transport means. 

On the sidelines of Public Transport Day festivities, the RTA will honour 50 cabdrivers from franchise companies operating under the RTA. The event is part of RTA's annual 'Taxi Excellence Award', selecting the best drivers and franchise companies.

Source: WAM