17 December, 2005
Changes Are Afoot...
Traffic is such a hot button issue here. There are real issues, but people seem to complain too much. Today's Gulf News reports a 5th lane being added to SZR. If you ask me the municipality is doing a lot to keep up with the unprecedented growth of the city. So many new flyovers, many lane additions, some brand new highways... In addition new bridges, tunnels and various rail systems in the works. What more can people ask? Dubai's commuters seem to want overnight improvements. In other countries, even in the developed West, people often have to wait years for decisions to be made on new infrastructure, much less getting them built. Leave Dubai today and come back one year later and you'll be amazed at how many infrastructure improvements will have come online.
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12 comments:
What we need in addition to the 5th lane on SZR is better lane dissipline from the drivers. No use adding an extra lane if all the drivers pile into the same two lanes and leave three empty lanes.
imho, improving driving standards in the UAE is not going to work until they finish implementing the contract by IBM to place "black-boxes" on each and every car. and record violations without needing speed cameras.
samuraisam said...
imho, improving driving standards in the UAE is not going to work until they finish implementing the contract by IBM to place "black-boxes" on each and every car. and record violations without needing speed cameras.
And then enforce the fines resulting irrespective of nationality or who you know. And do so in a timely manner not just annually when you renew your registration.
Funny thing is that I sometimes visit countries like India or Sri Lanka and I think I could never drive there. They don't even have lanes for people to stay in, and you are always just inches from the next car. But when I'm in the US driving seems so tame. No such thing as flashing headlights, and one "problem" is that drivers are always waiting for pedistrians to cross the street, thereby holding up traffic. It's all pretty relative and the UAE I think fits somewhere in the middle of good and horrendous.
actually chilton it's better if they're anually, that way they go to re-register thinking they've bypassed fines year long, and are faced with hundreds of thousands of dirhams of fines, keeping them off the road till they pay it off (:
hopefully the same would apply to taxi drivers.
I reckon we need a change in driving culture rather than extra lanes. No doubt the lane will help, but I believe one of the major causes of congestion is the lack of lane discipline.
If people changed lanes less often, and used the LEFT to overtake, then moved back to the RIGHT then I reckon the situation will improve.
BD: your optimism is admirable.
What more can people ask?
Only that the transport infrastructure being put in place now should have been up-and-running two years ago. You will come to agree with me once the Jumeirah Beach Residence is occupied and the only way you'll be able to get out of there in any reasonable time is on your boat!
BD: I must agree with Keefieboy...People do see that DM is trying to solve the problem, but what seems so painfully obvious is that they really f'ed up when first started planning Dubai... and now we are all paying for it.
In short, DM needs to be proactive. At the moment, it seems that a solution is only found after a problem has occurred.
You guys are right that more could have been done in the way of better planning early on. But one thing I think people fail to acknowledge is that a lot of the traffic jams come as a result of ongoing construction. It's kind of the no pain, no gain scenario.
I can't help but make comparisons with other places. For example, there's a spot on the Abu Dhabi highway (at Shahama) that has been in some state of disrepair at least since I came here in 2000. Almost 6 years and a tiny stretch of highway remains a mess--always a needless bottleneck. In those 6 years Dubai has built about 100 flyovers! and Abu Dhabi still hasn't managed fix this one little hitch in Shahama.
Any successful city is going to have traffic problems.
Dubai is a successful city.
Any island residence has trouble when people all want to get off at the same time. But people like to live on islands.
Still, I'm not looking forward to the sight when the residents of the Palms are driving to work and pouring onto the SZR.
I doubt if many Palm residents will be working!
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