‘Park & Ride’ service announced in Abu Dhabi

Our Correspondent

The Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) of the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) in Abu Dhabi has announced that it will offer ‘Park & Ride’ service for the public from January 2, 2021.

The service allows individuals to park their vehicles in dedicated parking spaces in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi Island and use public buses for free to travel to different areas inside Abu Dhabi City.

The service coincides with the launch of ‘Darb’ – the Abu Dhabi Toll Gate System – in order to vary the travelling options available, offer alternative means of transport, enhance the smoothness of traffic flow, and reduce the number of vehicles on road which will consequently reduce the parking demand.

With the launch of this service, ITC will implement a number of free facilities for vehicle parking and bus departure points in areas surrounding Abu Dhabi Island. Specifically, 500 parking spaces each will be offered in Mohammed bin Zayed City and Al Shahama.

ITC will offer two services as part of Park & Ride – service no. 104 and 411. Each trip is 50 minutes.

The services will operate from Saturday to Thursday from 6am to 9pm. The frequency of the service is 20 minutes during peak hours (6am to 9am and 4:01pm to 9pm) and every 60 minutes off-peak hours in each direction.

Every day, 58 trips will be conducted within Park & Ride service, ITC said. Owing to physical distancing, only 24 seats will be available in each bus.

Drivers can easily obtain the service card for a maximum of three – for the driver and two passengers in the same vehicle – from the parking spaces area. The card is valid for one day only and can be used any number of times within the same day of issuance. The cards will not be sold on the buses, and fine for travelling without the card is AED200.

During the first phase, ITC will study the demand and assess the service in order to find the best solutions to improve it in the future.