A Framework for the Assessment and Policy Development of Water Transit Services in Dubai, UAE

The Marine Agency-Roads and Transport Authority (MA-RTA) of Dubai-UAE recently undertook a study to develop a new transport policy for service delivery. The goal of the new policy is to increase rider share and use of MA-RTA services. The existing service policy guidelines of the water transit services were barely supported by the loading patterns, existing market coverage, adequate intermodal planning tools, economic feasibility, and capital return of services. Based on user and operators surveys of the water transit services, aiming at assessing the baseline conditions, methodologies are suggested to estimate important service attributes, including service coverage, intermodal connectivity, and market demand estimation. The estimated service attributes were used as measures to develop the service policy standards to increase water transit ridership and enhance service efficiency. It is recommended to incorporate some of the service standard/guideline measures under a framework discussed in this study for developing service plans, monitoring performance, and providing short or long term alteration to the services. Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2011 2 Introduction Urban development and prosperity, as well as the quality of life of city dwellers in Dubai, depend on the accessibility and smooth operation of public transit. Public transit that provides people with outstanding service is a real alternative to the automobile, thus contributing directly to sustainable development. Investing in public transit is also a lever for economic development because of the transportation industry’s role in our production chain and daily activities. Improvement in marine transport would relieve some of the pressure on the congested roads in the city. Waterbus service has been introduced recently in Dubai-UAE as a mode of marine transport under the authority of the Marine Agency-Roads and Transport Authority (MA-RTA). As such, it was necessary to develop a service policy and operational guidelines for the Waterbus in particular and for marine transport modes in general. This service policy and guidelines are important for the monitoring, assessment, and improvement of marine transport services and particularly to support MA-RTA’s vision of increasing ridership of marine modes to reduce demand on land transport modes, and subsequently to reduce congestion in the Emirate of Dubai. Therefore, MA-RTA undertook a study aimed at developing a transport policy for service delivery. Policy development would initially depend on the assessment of existing baseline services by RTA through user and operators surveys (Hassan et al. 2010). The assessment of transport system performance through targets is becoming increasingly widespread worldwide (FHWA,2004; NCHRP 2004; Zografos et al. 2004; Hidas and Black 2002; Turner et al. 1999; Gates 2001). The study was conducted by the Roadway, Transportation and Traffic Safety Research Center (RTTSRC) at UAE University (RTTSRC 2008a,b). The overall goal of the new policy is to increase the ridership or use of MA-RTA services. To attain this goal, MA-RTA adopted a five-year service policy for the establishment of modern, cost-effective, and efficient services to attract higher ridership. In general, the literature on issues of marine transport operation and planning of services is scarce, with little of relevance to marine agency policy development. No literature of relevance was found related to policy development, such as how policies are developed, whether they are developed subjectively or using a quantitative approach, how guidelines are developed, the difference between policies and short term planning of service enhancements, and data needed for policy development and planning. Presented herein is previous work of relevance to marine operation in general but not necessarily policy development.