Traffic and construction

Dubai’s inestimable Roads and Transport Authority is this morning reported to have launched a new initiative where residents may report problem hotspots for attention and action. The number to call is 8009090, and I imagine it will be well used, though I am less optimistic that the information given will be acted upon. Nevertheless, it is a commendable start.

I have a number of suggestions, and judging by the volume of traffic stationary in the jam beside me this morning, an equal number of similarly frustrated fellow drivers. Those of you who live in the Greens/Lakes/Springs/Meadows area, and who have reason to travel Dubai-wards on Shk Zayed Road, will certainly appreciate the first..

1) Sort out the chaos at the Greens, Al Barsha and Shk Zayed Road access. Every morning, there is a long, near stationary queue as every single vehicle from this large residential district tries to join the highway. All of them, no matter which exit from the various neighbourhoods, has to pass through a series of artificially narrowed pinch points in order to do so. The first is the uncontrolled and undefined junction between the Greens, the access road, and the new exit ramp from what might be called Al Barsha 2, the large residential development of high-rise accommodation blocks facing the Greens. Three into one is forced to go.

2) At the end of this first crawl, you are faced with the challenge of joining a slip road towards Shk Zayed Road, which carries every single vehicle leaving The Lakes by its Junction 5 exit, everything from Emaar Business Park and all the construction traffic from the Jumeirah Lakes Towers development opposite the Marina. Two into one must go.

3) Now these two streams of traffic must merge and pass through a small, single carriageway kink past ‘Al Barsha Station’. I find it barely credible that anyone with an ounce of traffic management experience could have possibly sanctioned this arrangement, but the location of the piers for the station makes it look worryingly permanent…

4) Pass this hurdle, and you straight into the back of the next. All of the traffic traveling from Al Khail Road has now joined the fray, and four lanes become three, then two, then one again before making the dash into the fast-flowing game of dodgems that is Shk Zayed Road at 8.00am in the morning. Here there is stationed a policeman, but his presence serves only to unsettle the already harried and aggressive drivers who have finally reached this point, and who are bent only on flooring their throttle and getting the hell outta there. More chaos. Four into one.

Overall, a total of 9 different streams of traffic converge on this single, awkward access, and the ensuing frustration and delay is as awful as it was predictable. Two things need to be done immediately – the route needs to be dualled throughout. And there need to be many more points of access to Shk Zayed Road – a further 8 would be ideal.

Long term, there must be a combination of education, enforcement and incentive, but that is the subject for another post.