08 March, 2008

Do you think there's a correlation?

"Municipality says old vehicles should not be on roads" national newspaper link

"Rash overtaking main cause of accidents" national newspaper link

What d'ya think?
Posted by i*maginate at 2:17 am

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Correlation in what way exactly?
Could you be more specific and clear in your postings? and give us a piece of your mind?
Or do you always want to spell the pearl in the comments' section?

08 March, 2008 04:23
Anonymous said...

The ridiculousness of rash decisions by the Municipality, like trying to take vehicles over 10 years old off the road, leaves me almost speechless.

They claim that cars bought before 1998 are interfering with traffic flows and are causing pollution, but did no-one sit down and think about the vast amount of pollution which will be caused when all these ‘older’ vehicles have to be disposed of and the financial burden this move would have on people living in the UAE.

The Municipality’s suggestion is taking paternalism to a whole new level and is going to solve absolutely nothing.

08 March, 2008 04:32
i*maginate said...

anon 1 - "correlation" in the two headlines as in the local papers quoted.

Am not a pearl diver, so not 'qualified' to 'always want to spell the pearl in the comments section', though I can recommend some good local restaurants that serve oysters if you're interested?

08 March, 2008 05:47
Kyle said...

Personally, I'd prefer an organized public transport (metro, ferry) instead of driving in Dubai.

Not that we have an old vehicle, or are rash drivers but it's the never-ending jam in a mad rush!

08 March, 2008 08:37
Keef said...

Cars have an emissions test when they are re-registered each year. Surely the thing to do is not to register cars that fail, rather than this stupid blanket ban.

08 March, 2008 11:36
Grumpy Goat said...

I agree with Keefieboy and Anon 8 Mar 04:32. The easy solution is surely to ensure that vehicles that can't pass registration are removed from the roads. Scrapping a perfectly roadworthy 1997 Toyota is patently ludicrous. The only likely beneficiaries are the new car dealers and loan companies.

Think you won't be affected because you buy a new one every two years? Think again: if it's worthless at age ten, that depreciation will knock on all the way up the second-hand market.

I await the scrapping of the Rainbow Sheikh's collection of old cars with bemused interest...

08 March, 2008 13:14
Anonymous said...

Don't worry....
Your Sudanese cousin 85 corolla with the cherry on the top won't get impounded. Because its registry has expired ages ago anyway.

08 March, 2008 18:38
Anonymous said...

I get exceedingly frustrated when I drive down the road here and see smoke billowing from the exhausts of trucks and cars; and it is not a "rare" sighting either.

As usual in this country there are ways to bypass every law, including the emissions tests; wasta, backhanders and powerful indivduals/companies (with truck fleets).

Police should be on the lookout for polluting vehicles, find out where the vehicle was last tested and sack the manager in charge at the time.

Now I ask myself. Why am I wasting my time writing this? Nothing will change unless either:

1) some sensible authority figure decides that enough is enough (please Sheikh Mo - do your "walk-in-to-a-govt-department-and-sack-everyone-who-doesn't-do-their-jobs-properly" thang ).

...or more likely:

2) Dubai receives some exceedingly bad, tourism-effecting PR regarding its environmental record and the government has no choice but to do something about it (like ban 10 year old vehicles from the road).

Not going to happen in a flash is it?

Seriously - the 10-year ban thing is grreat for big car business owners (no big family names mentioned here) - LOTS MORE CARS TO BE SOLD!!

Wow. I didn't realise I was this bitter!!!

Being a benevolent dictatorship of sorts the UAE has the power to change things in a heartbeat - one click of Sh Mo's fingers gets things done at incredible speed. I just wish things could be done for humanitarian/environmental reasons for a change rather than for the $$$$.

09 March, 2008 08:04
i*maginate said...

Grumpy Goat, I also agree: no point banning cars just based on age. Good point about the depreciation! That means 9 year old sports cars will be a real bargain ;-)

Anyway I think in the local market cars depreciate much faster once they reach 10 yrs +, but they'll be worthless locally with the new rule...

I also notice that drivers of the oldest AND evidently most poorly functioning cars on the road are arguably the worst drivers! Why? Coz the cars are too slow to overtake, often hog one lane, and drive below the minimum speed!

They should charge less for Salik and more for some kind of MOT scheme.

09 March, 2008 12:20
Anonymous said...

That effectively means that the majority of the buses construction companies use to ferry their workers back and forth, will have to be tossed out because some of them are like pre-WWII era.

10 March, 2008 04:16
rosh said...

Am not sure there is a coerelation. Priamrily 'cause, a healthy sensitive, professional driving culture/mentality, help develop good drivers. Blaming the machine, is sort of like, workman blaming his tools.

10 March, 2008 23:53

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