Dubai's roads, if laid end to end, would stretch nearly halfway around the planet, according to Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Speaking about the emirate's transport future, Al Tayer said the city now handles more than 11 million road trips a day, or roughly 7,000 every minute.
He noted that Dubai's daytime population, currently estimated at around six million people, is expected to double by 2040, a projection that is already shaping how the RTA plans new infrastructure. Rather than simply adding more lanes, the authority says it is widening its focus to cover autonomous mobility, rail expansion and smarter traffic management.
Al Tayer pointed to the economic weight of RTA's projects, which he said have added AED156 billion to Dubai's GDP while generating more than AED319 billion in savings through reduced travel time and fuel consumption.
Autonomous transport is central to the next phase. The RTA is targeting a quarter of all trips in Dubai to be driverless by 2030, and its trial autonomous taxis have already logged over four million kilometres on the road. The authority is also pressing ahead with the Metro Gold Line, a rail project announced this year with an AED34 billion budget, expected to add significant capacity to the city's rail network in the coming years.
Officials say the combination of physical road expansion, continued investment in public transport and digital traffic tools is meant to keep Dubai moving smoothly even as its population and daily trip volumes keep climbing, with mobility cited as one of the pillars underpinning the emirate's broader growth strategy through the next decade.