Your wait for a taxi in Dubai will soon be over

An addition to the available number of taxis is in the pipeline, the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) has revealed.

Currently there are around 8,000 taxis on the road in the emirate and this number will soon grow.

Youssef Ali, Director Public Transport Agency, says: "We have some big projects under development, such as Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid City Academic City, where universities will be constructed.

"And of course, Expo 2020 is an important project for us. We are all working together on that. We have a plan on how this event would need to be approached.

I do not think the number of taxis will ever be reduced. It looks like we will only need to increase the fleet," commented Youssef.

Currently, Dubai maintains a taxi density of 3.8 taxis per 1,000 residents, a little lower than similar areas such as Singapore, he added.

In the first half of 2013, Dubai's taxi fleet carried out more than 50 million trips, which accounted for an increase of 3 per cent compared to the same period last year.

"We review the number of taxis from time to time, and based on different factors we analyse whether the fleet should be increased," explains Youssef Ali, Director Public Transport Agency.

The last time RTA increased its taxi fleet was about 6 months ago, when around 300 taxis were added to the fleet.

"One of the factors we look at is revenue kilometres: the number of kilometres driven with the meter on.

“When this number increases, we look at increasing the number of taxis."

Other factors include population growth, the influx of tourists, and development projects.

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