The Great City of Gridlock
Except at dawn
Or dead of night
Take Maktoum south
And you'll be right
One of Dubai's best traffic mantras failed utterly today. Despite the side entry to Maktoum bridge being inexplicably closed, an endless metallic gridlock-snake slithered southwards across it. Stranger still: Garhoud bridge, despite bearing the extra weight of the diverted traffic, was a 120kmph open race track.
It was slight compensation for the forty minutes spent travelling the length of the J W Marriott on Abu Baker Siddique street. This works out to a dazzling 0.15kmph, compared to average walking speed, which is around 5kmph.
In Dubai, cars travel 33 times more slowly than human beings. The gridlock has won, and we are all doomed.
Or dead of night
Take Maktoum south
And you'll be right
One of Dubai's best traffic mantras failed utterly today. Despite the side entry to Maktoum bridge being inexplicably closed, an endless metallic gridlock-snake slithered southwards across it. Stranger still: Garhoud bridge, despite bearing the extra weight of the diverted traffic, was a 120kmph open race track.
It was slight compensation for the forty minutes spent travelling the length of the J W Marriott on Abu Baker Siddique street. This works out to a dazzling 0.15kmph, compared to average walking speed, which is around 5kmph.
In Dubai, cars travel 33 times more slowly than human beings. The gridlock has won, and we are all doomed.
Labels: driving
14 Comments:
it should be written as:
"In Dubai, cars either travel 33 times more slowly than human beings, or 33 times more quickly than human beings"
SD, actually a few days ago it was announced on gulf news that al maktoum bridge (bur dubai bound) will be closed between 1st and 3rd jan only between certain times of the day.
sorry you had to suffer!
yes,traffic was crazy yesterday.It was just like in the movies when a city is getting evacuated before a majore disaster hits. And the big surprise was the disappearance of all traffic police! none was spotted in any congested road.it took me about 80 minutes to drive from Al Maktoom hospital near Fish RA to Rashidyia. I wished for a Helicopter.
DSF is starting today ...
So ...
Work from home or walk.
Sometimes it is good to live and work in the "new Dubai"
Last Wednesday evening I travelled from RAK to the Ibn Batutta Mall to see the new Harry Potter movie. I left RAK at 7.00 and arrived at the Mall at 8.10, without breaking the speed limit. I wonder if last night people spent more than 70 minutes travelling from Jumeirah to Sharjah, for example.
Mind you, we don't want none of you Dubai types moving up here to take advantage of the new 311 connection and the decent accommodation. Remember how strange we are up here, as many of SD's RAK postings show.
does Dubai have a mass transit system other then buses? cause that would ease the present and future problems..
good morning lads and lasses..
its DSF ( Dubai suffering festival)
it's gonna be a traffic nightmare for the next 30 days...
get used to it !
yup - DSF is to blame.
The lane on the Al Maktoum bridge is closed because of tonight's fireworks display, and the bridge will be totally closed between 9pm and 10:30pm tonight.
DSF Fireworks tonight
What they need is a subway system.
New york is way more crowded than Dubai, but the traffic never gets as bad. Stuck on Garhoud bridge for 1 and a half hours yesterday.
nothing like a hot and steamy subway. I live at the Greens and work across the road - why can't I just walk under the road in an airconditioned tunnel to Media City? Futurisitc? Not really dozens of cities cater to pedestrians this way
yeah one lane has been closed for the fireworks. wonder how safe these pyros are exposed to the sunlight like that for a whole day? tho, they won't be needing the bridge tonite...at least not for the fireworks. last time i saw, they'd removed the fireworks and re-opened the lane. the roads have suddenly cleared up after having been massively clogged all morning. i can't imagine it was just that one silly lane on Maktoum bridge that was causing all this chaos. and to think of it, we didnt even get to see the fireworks after going through all this trouble. anyway, Shk. Maktoum, God bless his soul.
OS
Dubai has a metro system under contruction starting sometime this month. Just like Chicago, it will have 2 lines , red and blue. The expected completion date is 2010. This better be good!
I am having second thoughts about moving back to UAE so soon.
The Financial Centre is getting a transportation system of its own, but with newer technology than monorails. The two companies in the running are Ultra and SkyWeb Express. I hope one of them gets it, and then they extend those all over the city. Much better than the train.
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