Abu Dhabi: Transportation

It has been six weeks since Rob and I have ventured into Abu Dhabi, UAE. Coming here for a life-change, to see different sights and people and the "Why not?" factor. Since entering on September 3rd, 2010, we have had a lot of "highs" and we have had a lot of "lows" in this new country. As it was to be expected when you sell and leave your life of 30 years in the same place and take an adventure into another country, this one has taught us a lot in its mere six weeks, and will continue to do so throughout our trip.

For the next blogs to come, I am going to express my thoughts of how Abu Dhabi (or perhaps the UAE) is a society that is stuck between the cultural values to which they have relied on in their history and the modernization to which they have flung themselves into since discovering the oil and becoming world known. Transportation, School, Money, Housing, Food, Shopping, Environment and Expats are my topics...so obviously, I'll be blogging more often then I have been! :)

Transportation
"Wow" "Are they for real?" "What the f&^%?" should just about sum up this subheading. LOL.
Transportation in the UAE consists of crazy driving and parking with what seems to be "no rules" (at least for Emirati's that is!)

ROADS: The roads are extremely clean and large! On average, any street you find here will be three to four lanes one way. The "U Turn" is as common as turning right on a street, and medians everywhere promote such turning. On the highway, the minimum speed is 120 km/h and let me tell you, it's a scary thing to ONLY be going 120 km/h. I've never had to depend on every mirror that is attached to my car and constant re-checking of them to watch for the crazy people that could and would do anything to go past me. Not using signals, budding in, no "thanks" and cutting people off is what is done here. People even pass other cars and drive on the shoulders as if four lanes wasn't enough room! Accidents occur constantly here, and I've driven by more in six weeks then I have in the Toronto area since beginning to drive 15 years ago. So why drive you ask? Well, you have to. It's mid-October and still 32 degrees outside (too hot to walk), and everything is so far apart. Everyone owns or rents a car. My work is a 60km drive one way heading to Dubai, and takes me on average 40 minutes to get to and from it.

 Like so many highways, all have palm trees at the sides, fresh new asphalt, and wide lanes.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: You can take the bus (because they don't have a subway system) for 1 dirham (about 30 cents CAD), but it'll take you FOREVER and there is really no "schedule" to exist. Taxi's are readily available at any time and are all owned by the same company (the Emirati's). The cost of taxi's is relatively cheap, but then again, their price just went up. Workman buses are seen everywhere all the time. Construction workers, outside workers, etc. are all picked up in buses and driven to their location of actual work, and then bused back again to their places. You can tell a workman bus as the workers are almost always wearing a blue jumpsuit and sleeping on the jam-packed buses. School buses are in plenty as well as most kids take the bus to school and the others have "personal drivers".

TYPES OF RIDES: As you have seen from my pictures, the fancy cars are plentiful here. Maserati's, Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, Aston Martin's, Rolls Royce's, etc. etc. Common cars for the Emirati's can be any of these, or on my staff at school, the women have the largest BMW's, Mercedes, or Lexus' you can find (cars though, not SUV's). Jeeps are found all over here too...reminds me on my lovely Jeep I miss so much and had to sell...one day I will own one again. Lots of Toyota's and Honda's alike. Us? We have a mean white Mitsubishi Lancer 2011 that we rent. (If you are imagining the "Lancer" you see at home, think again. This is a cheap knock off of the bigger one). Our silver 2010 Lancer had an A/C breakdown - and with the weather feeling like 40 degrees, it just isn't a good thing, so they gave us the 2011. It works and rides a lot better so I'm happy! The one thing ALL rental vehicles DON'T have are tinted windows. For what reason? I have no idea. Everyone else has the darkest tinted windows you can imagine. They are basically black. You cannot see in, and they cannon see out. Hmmm....is this why their driving is so shit? Maybe. Emirati women drive with the darkest tinted windows and sometimes even have their black face veils on - hmmm... yup, that's why they are the WORST drivers around!

 Rolls Royce Phantom - worth $450,000.00 USD - nicccceeeee!

LAWS: Children in cars: Let's start with children NOT having to wear seat belts or sit down of any sort. Yesterday while driving, we saw a family in front of us where the kids were jumping up and down on the seats and hitting their parents that were in front of them...oh what fun! And we wondered why the car was swerving in and out of the lane. LOL.

Speed: It's a fact that you can drive 20km/h over the speed limit, but 24 is just too much. That will get you a 700 dirham ticket (about $215 CAD). But then again, if you are a woman and go to pay the ticket, one of the men might take your ticket, do "something" in the computer and voila! All gone.

Parking:  Parking your car anywhere and everywhere seems to be "okay" including double parking and parking in the middle of the street. There are colour codes painted on the HUGE curbs (that if you tried to go over would ruin your car) but no real 'ticket people' you see consistently. Parking in an "unauthorized" spot will land you a 500 dirhams ($150 CAD) ticket - we would know as my friends Nish and Miranda got one with me in the car as we had to go to the bank. We split the ticket three ways (blahhh).

Finding a place to park in Abu Dhabi is like a mall at Christmas EVERYDAY!

FROGGER: The most interesting thing I have seen driving to and from work are the amount of people ON the highways with NO CAR. Yes, NO CAR. These people/workers play "Frogger" right in front of you - jumping and hurdling their way to cross the street (while you are driving min. 130 km/h). Why are they even ON the highway? Well, the buses, taxi's, and work carpools all stop there. Yes. These vehicles actually pull over to the shoulder (when they see people) and pick people up - just like that. It's absolutely INSANE! I'm not sure of how many people have been hit (or where they even come from in the desert), but there's got to be a lot of casualties!

FOG: The fog is totally crazy and scary together in all measures, and apparently I haven't even experienced the "real fog" yet. We are talking about the thickness to where you cannot see ahead of you at all, and looks like you are going to hit a white wall. There are fog warnings and Rob was reading that the UAE has some of the WORST fog in the world. November to January will be the worst...GREAATTTT! I'm supposed to look out my window in Abu Dhabi and if I can't see the other side of the street, wait until I can and then leave for work. When I have been driving and fog comes out of no where (as I'm driving to the desert to get to school) I get in the slowest lane, turn on my flashers, slow down and hope to hell that no asshole is going to run into me because they think they are invincible in life (that's the persona Emirati's take on going about their lives). Last year on the Dubai highway within 1km of my school there was a 200 car pile-up. Totally scary. They now have "fog warnings" that occur in that area. We shall see how it goes!

The fog one morning on my way to work.

This is just a tease as I'll be lucky to see the guard rail when it gets bad :(

Driving in the UAE has to be done. You have to do it to do anything, so suck it up, pay attention, and use common sense (although it looks like all the people in the darkest tinted windows - hmmm Emirati's - don't have any of that at all!).

Till next time; Hope you are all well and smiling! xoxo *MEL

On my daily drive to work!