Dubai: RTA to trial school bus pooling initiative to reduce traffic
School transport pool to be trialled next year The first quarter of 2026 will witness the pilot operation of the school transport pooling project aimed at easing traffic congestion in and around schools, as well as reducing the reliance on private car drops off. This comes after the signing of two memorandums of understanding and will be executed in partnership with Yango Group and Urban Express Transport.
Under the pilot, shared buses will ferry pupils from many schools in specified geographic zones by integrating technology for trip management, vehicle location and operational tracking systems.
RTA noted that the project will meet all confirmed safety, security, regulatory and legislative aspects related to school transport in Dubai in a way that offers facilities for breathing-and-ending traffic congestion as well as ensuring safe drives daily for pupils.
The MoUs were signed by Ahmed Hashem Bahrozyan, CEO of the Public Transport Agency, On behalf of RTA; along with Islam Abdul Karim, Regional Head of Yango Group; and Dr. Mohammad Al Hashimi, Founder and CEO of Urban Express Transport.
There’s also been a clear rise in private car use for students' pick-up and drop-off at schools which has had a direct impact on the traffic situation around school areas, Bahrozyan added.
“By launching this service, RTA seeks to provide a new model of the school transport... offering fair prices towards addressing the traffic movement and providing an efficient daily mobility experience.”
The project will use “smart technology solutions” to better manage trips, track vehicles and monitor operations.
How it works
The project consists of shared buses that take students from several schools in a geographical area, Bahrozyan said. "The project aims to introduce more advanced school transport models that are pooling-based, improve the utilisation of vehicles, decrease traffic in peak hours and enhance safety and quality in student transport service," they said.
It will also help in developing new models for school transportation in Dubai, he added. It will evaluate the possibility of more extensive distribution in the future.
The pilot comes on the back of broader traffic initiatives introduced by RTA in recent years to reduce congestion at school zones. In 2024 Dubai approved a traffic plan that saw policies such as common pick-up and drop-off spots introduced to encourage more widespread use of school transport, with the aim of reducing congestion around schools by 13 per cent.
That year, RTA also constructed eight school traffic improvement projects for over 37 schools that included road widening, provision of improved entry/exit arrangements, more parking and traffic calming measures and this achieved a 20 per cent improvement in peak hour traffic flow around school zones.
“School transport is one of the most complicated daily mobility challenges cities face,” said Yango’s Islam Abdul Karim. “This pilot with RTA will for the first time bring a data-driven school transport pooling model that organises students travelling on common routes into shared buses running on optimised schedules and paths.
Dr Mohammad Al Hashimi from Urban Express Transport said the project would help ease traffic flow and better utilise bus networks by only requiring minimum amounts of fuel, “enhancing their daily travelling experience to and from school”.
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