ABU DHABI // Drive a car with low levels of emissions or park your vehicle and catch a bus. That was the message to residents at yesterday’s Sowwah Square Sustainable Travel Event at Al Maryah Island.
“Our aim is to change people’s travel behaviour, to leave their cars and consider more sustainable modes, whether they take the bus or carpool or use hybrid, natural gas or electric vehicles,” said Suhaib Al Marzouqi, section head at the Department of Transport.
A team from the health insurance company Daman offered free check-ups and a guided walking tour, and trainers explained the benefits of cycling, provided tips for staying safe on the roads and organised bicycle sessions.
“It’s a very good initiative as it looks after everyone’s well-being and promotes a healthy lifestyle here,” said Peter Anderson, a director at the property company Gulf Related who visited the Daman booth.
“It gets people to be active here, especially since Maryah Island is Abu Dhabi’s new central business district and is meant to be a walkable community.”
There are about 4,000 staff working on and around Maryah and this is the best way to promote sustainable travel by bus, taxi, car sharing, walking and cycling, Mr Al Marzouqi said.
“We have so many initiatives, including the soft launch of our carpooling website at Gitex, and we’re now looking at officially launching it in the coming weeks.”
Commuters can register at the department's carpooling website darb.ae/carpooling. When the account is active, commuters can offer rides to others or look for a lift from other registered participants.
“People spend a lot of time searching for a parking spot,” Mr Al Marzouqi said. “It takes them 20 minutes to reach their offices and then half an hour to get a spot.
“Carpooling not only decreases stress, it reduces travel costs such as petrol and parking and is environment friendly.”
Before the launch of the website, the department had begun encouraging staff to pool cars and offered incentives such as VIP parking spots near the elevator.
“We’ve had good registration numbers,” Mr Al Marzouqi said. “We’re hoping to set an example to more than 60 organisations so they would eventually follow it.”
Visitors to the two-day event could also test drive a Renault Twizy, a two-seat zero-emissions electric vehicle.
It can reach 80kph and be fully charged in three and a half hours.
“We should continuously work on initiatives until we see some change in travel behaviour,” Mr Al Marzouqi said. “Traffic volume is growing dramatically and we need to do something about it.”
By 2030, the emirate-wide transport programme aims to reduce the numbers of vehicles on Abu Dhabi roads.
“Public transport is likewise growing and we have to start promoting it so more people are aware of the sustainable modes of transport and use them,” Mr Al Marzouqi said.
“We cannot continue building a public transport system and have no one use it.”
rruiz@thenational.ae
