Dubai’s Traffic Problems Solved? August 26, 2006
Posted by O.J. in Dubai.trackback
Any of you who have been to Dubai within the last few years, or know people who live there, must be fully aware of the traffic problems in that City/Emirate. It’s horrible!! It takes 15-20 minutes to get from one side of Shk. Zayed Road to the other. And with all the construction and detours in the city, it takes double the time to get from point A to point B. Will the metro project currently underway solve the traffic problems? It may relieve some of the congestion on Shk. Zayed Road, but doesn’t tackle the problem in other areas of Dubai such as Bur Dubai, Garhoud, Jumeirah, etc. I’m not really convinced of the feasibility of such a project; but after you expand roads from 3 to 6 lanes and you still suffer with “rush-hour” every hour of the day, what else is there to do?
Here are some decent 3-D images of what Dubai’s metro system (The Dubai Rail Project) is supposed to look like.
That shit will never work and here’s why:
A similar Metro Rail framework currently exists in Miami – and very few people use it. Why? Because the locations serviced are very limited. How does this Dubai Metro Rail help anyone living on the Jumiera Sea Front? Are they going to walk 30 minutes to the station in the 110% Summer humidity to get to the station? Yeh right.
This will benefit the poorer TCN’s in Dubai who cannot afford a car and who are currently forced to travel by Bus from location to location. I was talking to one poor Indian National who works in Al Quoz Industrial Estate, 4th Interchange. On the public bus system, it currently takes him 2.5 hours in the morning and 3 hours at night to get back to his appartment in Deira. (Those who are unfamiliar with Dubai, it’s about a 12km drive from Quoz to Deira).
A flop of a project and a complete waste of money.
I don’t think the aim of the project is to solve all of Dubai’s traffic problems. Like I said, it doesn’t cover all areas of Dubai: Diera, Bur Dubai, Jumeirah, Garhoud, etc. But seeing how bad things get on Shk. Zayed Rd. (traffic backed up to the Metropolitan Hotel), it may ease the congestion slightly.
I have a feeling it may even become a tourist attraction. Don’t forget that many projects in Dubai started out slow with lots of pessimism and criticism; but they ended up being a success. Let’s wait and see…
OJ, who do you think is going to use this service? Do you see Emiratii’s – or any other Arabs for that matter using it? Do you see yourself getting on this thing?
It’s not as if this is the London tube network, it’s an overground train which basically goes in one direction – straight up the Sheik Zayed Road!
The major problem I have with this entire project is there is no clearly defined target market.
If I were to guess, I would say Laborer’s in the Service Divisions and perhaps Tourists (who don’t drive anways!) will benefit. Other than that, I’m struggling to see the light.
Dubai is the land of flashy cars… after Monaco
So I guess the blue collar workers will be the one’s using the Metro… BUT they don’t even live on Sheikh Zayed road!
There’s a fairly new (3 year old) overground “Skytrain” in Bangkok which similarly goes only up one street for any distance, and down another smaller street for a shorter distance.
The labour classes can’t afford it (maybe 18-20 baht for an average ticket if you buy a month pass) compared with 3-4 baht for a bus trip. The bus may take longer (1-2 hours compared with 10-15 minutes) but the cost factor means only the middle-classes and tourists use this service.
In Dubai, the middle classes will continue to be stuck in traffic, preferring the comfort of their air-conditioned cars. Tourists – yes, maybe, if they want to get to/from the main Sheikh Zayed buildings.
I used to live right on Sh. Z road in Al Wasl a few years ago. I would only use a skytrain like this IF there was a stop less than 3 minutes from my apartment (in humid weather) and IF there were stations adjoined to buildings I wanted to go to (maybe Deira City Centre, Lamcy Plaza, and so on). The skytrain works in Bangkok in places it links to major stores (MBK, Emporium, Siam Centre), so the same would need to happen in Dubai. But years after its inauguration, passenger numbers are still much much lower than were anticipated.
The train in Dubai would ONLY work well as an attraction to show that a ME city has a public transport service. If it was going to solve the congestion problem, Dubai would instead implement a practical solution in conjuction with the train, as has happened in Singapore, i.e. you charge car owners a FORTUNE to travel within certain zones at certain peak hours.
Seems this is exactly the reason why they should introduce some hefty tolls once the metro’s up, to force lazy people to move their asses.
Put up some nice road tolls, put up some taxes on cars (preferable the more expensive the car, the more the tax), etc in order to force you to ditch the car. And btw before anyone asks me, would I walk, yes I would. Last June I walked from the creek up to around the dusit to take some photos. Was it scorching hot, most definitely (but for some reason I don’t really sweat, I definitely feel the heat but I’m never drenched like some other people).
There are actually 2 more lines launched now and there will actually be around 10 in total by 2020. Also they’re putting a tram on jumeirah road (yes that’s right, they’ll dig up the road again!!)
ohhh wazaaaaaa i am doing a work for the school about dubai, it´s a fantastic place…… I want to sleep in burj al arab holds but I don`t have ni un peso… ( I am so poor).
salu2 from Argentina cordoba.
well i say that is about time they did some thing like this in dubai.i am from england and i live on sheikh zayed road and a metro stop will be right out side my tower and i will be useing the metro when it’s open.as for toxy i have been told by a friend that works for the RTA and there will be 2 trains going up and down and they will have 1st class ,female only parts of the train so it will not all be filled will laborer’s
ps and i have money and a Audi TT soft top
i think it will worth while for Dubai to have a sky train. there will always be people who will use it. of course it will help a lot. I live in Dubai and use my own car to get to wherever i need to get to, especially to my office. I am more than happy to know that the train will stop just in front of my office and my Apartment. What a relief…………
There are plenty of people living and working on the route of the Red Line (and not all of them labourers or car-less, as Toxy apparently believes everyone outside of the Jumeirah Sea Front is), who will use the Metro. This will make a definite difference in traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road. Change cannot happen simultaneously in all parts of a city – it has to start somewhere. Stop dissing the Metro just for the sake of it.
I so much like DUBAI and it,s beauty. I have valid driving licence of Dubai of 3,5,6.
Dubai trafiq becames more and more at the rush hour. the link of sharjh and dubai also increase the trafic highly. the unplaned city is the main reasson for the trafic.You have to lose your very important 2-3 hours avg. in a day in the trafic. which no body wishes in his/hers life.
I left Dubai for more than 5 years back on 2000. Traffic was just fine. I do not remember that the city had such problems at that time as it does now. This congestion we face today I believe was totally unplanned. It wasn’t part of the civil and road construction authority’s plan to prepare for the unexpected. The unexpected is that sudden increase in population due to the incerase number of expatriates and immigrants in Dubai. I think our roadways were designed to hold a limited number of vehicles and that number has exceeded the limits. Poor planning is there and I am not trying to blame the authority, but If we do not speak out nobody will hear us and notice.
Many attempts to either increase number of lanes at heavy traffic roads or building new bridges at intersections or roads that uses Salik system were introduced to face the problem like what happend in Garhood, and Al tawar. Salik in particular had many drawbacks. Maybe it did reduce the number of traffic in Garhood only but it treppled number of traffic at Emirates road. It takes me somewhat 50 minutes to drive from the boarders of Sharjah to Dubai International Airport using Emirates road when it usually takes 15 minutes or less.
At this stage I do not think that there is anything that can be done except chaning the whole infrastructure.
I have been in California LA and Orange County. I am amazed of how they build up their routes and roads. There is still traffic even in Cali but it is handled well I think. Car pool lanes are used in most highways such as the 405 and the 5. Maybe we should implement something like that. Any suggestions from you guys will be glad to pass it to some managers at the authority.
Ps. One of the managers are a friend of mine .. be careful
The major problem is the fact that many people live in Sharjah and work all along Dubai. This causes traffic jams all along Dubai. These people will not benefit much from the metro. They still have to drive from/to Sharjah. There is a bottleneck in Al-Nahda underpass and the next one too. There are only three lanes of traffic available. One has been closed for such a long period. That leaves only two lanes.
Simply put, there are too many cars on the roads. The authority’s goal should be to decrease the number of cars on the road. Putting toll gates on the roads will just push the traffic to other places. It won’t disappear
wow this is amazing it takes 15-20 min to do what???????????????
hi everybody I lived in Dubai several years before the traffic jam thing started. I moved because I was getting married to this handsome man. Alll I want to say is that there is a lot of traffic in Dubai from 2005.
Thankyou for reading this message
god bless you
Thank you again
The Red line of Metro will make difference only when we have connectivity with Sharjah. If they can not extend the Metro till Sharjah then they should start Bus service from all parts of Sharjah and drop them on the first Station of Metro. the Poor people of Sharjah will use the metro as they can not afford the license forget the Car. they are sleeping 4 to 8 people in a room.
There has to be a bus lane between Sharjah and Dubai. so that people will be encoreged to use the Bus, as it will take only 15 minits to cover the distance com pair to 2 to 3 hours it takes now (around 5 km)
Public transport in Dubai is very good, compair to Shrajh, which does not have a bus system (they have started 1 or 2 routs).
I dont know why Sharjah is not doing the kind of work Dubai is doing.
thanks