For people like me who spent most of their lives in India, there is a period of awe after setting our foot in a highly developed country like UAE – and one such awe-inspiring aspect is its excellent road networks and the wonderful cars speeding on these freeways.
During my initial days in DXB, I once had the opportunity of standing under a road bridge near Jebel Ali, and by being a stationary observer near the highway, i experienced the real momentum of the cars zipping by.. This particular road which connects Dubai and Abu Dhabi is known as Sheikh Zayed Road and is notorious for its fatal collisions (if you are a new driver, the only way to survive this road is to assume that you are cool with speeding) - In fact you feel nothing particular inside a car cruising at 120 or 140 kmph, and this is further damped with the increase in size and power of the car. Dreadful DXB!
I never figured out why Dubai is referred to as DXB, its the international airport code for Dubai - well, googling shows that Dublin airport has the code DUB, may be Dubai was late in setting up her airports - and had to settle for X instead of U, (hmm..as per high school math, X could be anything) or is it because of the X factor of DXB? i rest my case.
Back to roads : Few years back, it was just a matter of few journeys and one would get acquainted with the exact location of radars installed on way, just brake and slow down near a waiting radar and enjoy the remaining stretches at desired speed levels. Bejourn, a German engineer in my previous site used to claim that, by driving above 300kmph on the extreme left or right track, one could puzzle the camera and escape being clicked, useful piece of info, but the current radars and traffic fine system will make you think thrice...the fine multiplies in proportion to the variance from the maximum posted speed limit. The traffic department have recently implemented a new speed radar network in dangerous roads – these sleek networked radars spaced roughly at a kilometer has overlapping detection zones…the driver is forced to keep cool and this also caters for those radar-early-warning detectors some people install in their vehicles. The rumour mills even claimed that these advanced gadgets could identify if the driver is wearing a seat belt!!
I never figured out why Dubai is referred to as DXB, its the international airport code for Dubai - well, googling shows that Dublin airport has the code DUB, may be Dubai was late in setting up her airports - and had to settle for X instead of U, (hmm..as per high school math, X could be anything) or is it because of the X factor of DXB? i rest my case.
Back to roads : Few years back, it was just a matter of few journeys and one would get acquainted with the exact location of radars installed on way, just brake and slow down near a waiting radar and enjoy the remaining stretches at desired speed levels. Bejourn, a German engineer in my previous site used to claim that, by driving above 300kmph on the extreme left or right track, one could puzzle the camera and escape being clicked, useful piece of info, but the current radars and traffic fine system will make you think thrice...the fine multiplies in proportion to the variance from the maximum posted speed limit. The traffic department have recently implemented a new speed radar network in dangerous roads – these sleek networked radars spaced roughly at a kilometer has overlapping detection zones…the driver is forced to keep cool and this also caters for those radar-early-warning detectors some people install in their vehicles. The rumour mills even claimed that these advanced gadgets could identify if the driver is wearing a seat belt!!
Anyway the good news is that the crazy driving and consequentely fatal accidents are on a notable decline & bad news is that poor Mahesh had two violations on same day worth Dirhams 1200 this weekend.
TIP : if you want to be a celebrity, cross a red signal and park in the intersection, one driver of my previous company had this wish list item crossed during a rainy day, the coaster bus he was driving skidded while braking, and turned 180 degrees around, in the middle of a signalized intersection in Abu dhabi, and he had the rare opportunity to face the opposite direction of the road he was supposed to be driving. And the cameras never stopped clicking. Poor guy had a bad time pleading with the traffic police.
hmph… perhaps one of the reason for the speedy recovery of Dubai from the grips of financial crisis could be the revenue generated through traffic fines.
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