DST Eco

Transport 2 min read

Amman's bus rapid transit takes the top Dubai award for sustainable transport

A long green paper bus on its own lane through a pale stone city on hills, a small trophy shape in the sky above

The Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport, run by the RTA under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, handed out its 14th round of prizes at Dubai World Trade Centre on 15 October 2026. Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed honoured the winners.

The Elite Award

The top prize, chosen from the first-place winners of every category except the student awards, carries a trophy and $100,000. It went outside the UAE: to the Greater Amman Municipality for its bus rapid transit, which runs with the Amman Bus services as one network with one fare system. It has 193 buses on nine routes over 215 km, and has carried 73.9 million passengers, about 2.1 million a month. A second phase will add more than 43 km and three routes in the south and west of the city.

The other winners

Among the organisations honoured were Abu Dhabi Mobility, Etihad Rail, DP World, Keeta Drone, UAEV, Dubai Police for its safe cycling work, Careem Bike, and Qatar's Ministry of Transport together with the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.

Students

Yousef Al Badawi of Ajman University took first place in the NextGen for Mobility Award for Smart Solar Pedestrian Nodes: solar shades at crossings that also harvest water from the air. Shamas Abdulraouf of the Indian School in Abu Dhabi took first place in the Outstanding Student Solutions Award for Empty Miles, a platform that fills spare space in commercial vans to cut empty trips. Both awards pay AED 60,000, 40,000 and 20,000 for the first three places.

A bigger field

This round drew more than 750 entries, up 400 per cent, and 158 finalists, up 140 per cent. Entries came from 45 entities in nine countries and from 460 individuals in 22. Tony Seba, who writes on technology disruption, gave the keynote.

The Amman result is the one to read twice. Bus rapid transit gives buses their own lanes, level boarding and priority at junctions, and it is built at a fraction of the cost of rail, which is why it is the workhorse of sustainable transport in cities without a metro budget. A Gulf award going to a bus network rather than to a drone or a rail line puts passengers carried ahead of novelty. The 2.1 million passengers a month is the number to hold any new scheme in the region against, Dubai's own bus lanes included.

Source: Roads and Transport Authority checked against the source

More news

A pale cream stream winding between layered green and amber paper hills on a deep green ground

Environment

Wadi Wurayah inscribed

UNESCO inscribed Wadi Wurayah in July. The citation counts 1,099 species in the Hajar mountains of Fujairah — roughly half the terrestrial mammals recorded in the whole country.

Rows of sage paper rectangles tilted at the same angle across a forest green ground, the last row a shade paler than the rest

Energy

800MW left in phase six

DEWA puts the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park at 3,860MW today, with the remaining 800MW of phase six scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the year.

A large sage paper square on a deep forest green ground beside three smaller moss squares of decreasing size, a warm cream line beneath them all

Energy

Solar, now the largest fleet

The IEA’s Global Energy Review 2026 puts 2025 solar additions above 600 GW for the first time, taking the cumulative fleet to about 2,800 GW — more installed capacity than any other generating technology.