The Year of Walking Dangerously

There is only one thing worse than being a driver and having to contend with the insane traffic in Dubai, and that’s being a pedestrian. I read in Saturday’s national paper that 26 people have already been killed this year crossing roads in Abu Dhabi. Twenty-six people in only 72 days – and that is just in Abu Dhabi. In Dubai, according to the Dubai police, one person is killed every 48 hours in a traffic related accident. And, if that isn’t shocking enough, 97 people have died in various other kinds of road accidents in that emirate; 26 of these were pedestrians.

Apparently this is not a new problem either – last year 2022 pedestrians were hit by vehicles across the country, according to statistics from one of the Emirate ministries. The UAE has one of the world’s highest death rates (per capita) due almost solely to traffic accidents. They compared this to the number killed last year in NYC, which was 136, kind of a huge difference given the population size. I’ve noticed that many drivers here seem almost totally unaware of other drivers on the road, so fast, aggressive driving, sudden lane changing, swerving, cutting others off, never signaling and tailgating are the norm. It is even worse because many locals have all the windows of their vehicle tinted black, including the entire front windshield, so you have no idea if they see you, and even worse, you can’t give them the evil eye when they cut you off because you can’t see them. It is crazy and extremely frustrating. And don’t get me started about the Indian truck drivers who basically still think they are driving in India. They can barely stay in their lane and their philosophy is basically if their vehicle is bigger than yours, you’d better watch out.

I always thought Quebec had the worst drivers I’d ever seen (in NA that is, the Italians are a whole different story) because it always seemed that as soon as they spied you strolling across the street they would speed up to try to peg you. The drivers here make Quebec drivers look like the Sunday church crowd.

What I’ve noticed is that in the UAE, many drivers don’t even slow down at pedestrian crossings, despite all sorts of consequences – fines, demerits, even jail. It’s so bad that people are actually afraid to cross the street – hotels warn tourists to be extremely cautious when trying to cross the road – not exactly the promotional banner you want to be waving to encourage visitors.

While I’m on the topic of driving, there are a couple other unusual things about the Dubai road system, the first being the use of U-Turns (or as Sharuk, my affectionately named GPS navigation voice - says “make a legal u-turn at the next light). The U-Turn in the UAE is a standard part of the road system. Most intersections throughout the city have two left turning lanes, one for the U-Turn and one to turn left into the street – of course, you never quite know which drivers will decided at the last minute that they need to make a U-Turn, cutting you off or nearly pushing you into the median. The problem is, if you miss your U-Turn, you probably need to drive another 5 miles before you can even consider turning around so there is no easy way to avoid the U-Turns.

The other irritating thing is the length of the traffic lights in Dubai. At minimum, most lights are 3 minutes long, but often longer, depending on the intersection. Usually each lane has a minute or longer to allow its vehicles to move through the intersection and so you must wait while all 4 directions take their turn. The best advice I’ve received is to put your car in park/neutral and have a magazine handy, because if you have to wait at 5 lights in one trip, you could use that 15 minutes much more productively than just staring at the red light for 4 minutes thinking you are going to lose your mind if someone doesn’t move soon! I have taken this advice, and while it might not be particularly “productive” I’ve found these spare few minutes to be a great time to catch up on my celebrity gossip, so I am now keeping a copy of the latest trashy tabloid nearby, just for some mindless entertainment! It’s better than most of the drivers who whip out their blackberries the second the light turns!

At the end of the day, I think maybe staying home might be the best solution. : )