Dubai turns to companies to ease traffic crisis

Posted by: Jostein Svendsen Thursday, 29 May 2008 11:52 AM[UAE] - UAE

In order for car pooling to take off, RTA should look at ways to incentivice the drivers. Ideas that have proven to work well in the US is to introduce High Occupancy Lanes, to allow car pools (and buses etc) to drive in a dedicated fast lane. Here in Dubai, RTA could test another method: to give free passing through Salik during rush hour for registered car pool cars! I know I would not resist such an offer.

Posted by: A Sarkar Wednesday, 21 May 2008 1:45 AM[UAE] - Australia

I agree with Troesch ... marking bus lanes for buses and taxis. Between the years 1995 and 2004 that I was living in Sharjah and working in Dubai the traffic grew from bad to worse. I can only imagine the chaos and time that it takes to make the same journey nowadays. RTA need to start marking bus&taxi lanes to be used at least during the peak hours (say 6.00am to 8.30am and 5.00pm to 7.30pm). This needs to be done both within Dubai and Sharjah and also within each of these Emirates. The Dubai Transport public buses operating between Dubai and Sharjah were well utilized by the public but there was also the issue that the only pickup point was the starting station.

Posted by: rasha Tuesday, 20 May 2008 4:27 PM[UAE] - United Arab Emirates

I have experienced such promotion of car pooling in Kuala Lumpur in the early 1990s when Malaysia was begining to economically grow, I was young and we were taught car pooling at school in addition to the TV ads. I believe it's the best solution ever not only on the road and traffic levels but also on the personal and social levels where expatriates in this country can actually get a life, and instead of spending 4 hours driving to and from work per day they'll spend less hours and drive once every 3 days {assuming they are 3 car-poolers together} therefore decreasing the physical and psychological burden a third, they will also go and come in groups and therefor socialize, isolation causes human aggression and an unsympathetic style of life. Moreover there is the positive effect on traffic and the environment. In Abu Dhabi I get to go to the public beach as much as I want and work out in public parks or at the gym when I want without feeling tired, my relatives and friends in Dubai who have the same working hours as me as well as the same financial status never get the luxury of leading a normal human life they say the ultimate reason is traffic.

Posted by: Commuter Tuesday, 20 May 2008 3:16 PM[UAE] - UAE

Residents know it's painfully hot here, but still manage to use the crumbling Public Transport out of desperation. The road network is crumbling under the fast paced construction going on everywhere, and this shows lack of foresight and haste. What we need is a step by step plan for a gradual changeover from using our personal transport onto relying on the now unreliable public transport.

Posted by: Charm Tuesday, 20 May 2008 9:36 AM[UAE]

If our company service is going to pick me up from Sharjah and bring me to our office in Aweer and back again every working day, I would be ecstatic to say the least. However, they only provide pick-and-drop service to staff living in Dubai and hence I have to contend to driving myself 2 hours (times 2) everyday in the messy, chaotic and stressful Dubai-Sharjah road. Moving to Dubai is not an option either as the rents for flats are unaffordable unlike in Sharjah where our rent for a new 2-bedroom hall flat is AED 57,000 that has not changed for the past 3 years. I guess this is the same for most people out there who commute in single occupant cars and thus contribute to the heavy traffic on the roads. The restrictions and fines on "unregistered/illegal" car pooling do not help either which dissuades most of us to share our cars and probably have meaningful conversations with other commuters out there instead of just mumbling to ourselves or cursing at the sneaky drivers who cut our way to get ahead. I believe for now, public transport is not a viable option for most people and hopefully when the metro's gonna operate, the situation on the roads will get better, fingers crossed. For the meantime, traffic police officers or RTA officers should increase their presence on the roads particulary during rush hours to untangle the mess and probably discourage drivers to commit transgression on the roads. Most of the time, it is not the volume of the traffic that is the problem, but on drivers who do not know or ignore the basic rules of driving and do not know the meaning of common courtesy and waiting for your turn. If we followed at least two or three things that our driving instructors had told us, driving in the UAE can be an enjoyable experience.