Life & Style | Gadgets & Tech
Blogosphere: November 4
Gulf News web sub editor Samreen Hayat plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds
- By Samreen Hayat, Web Sub Editor
- Published: 00:23 November 4, 2008
- The new radar along Al Khail Road.
- Image Credit: Hadrian Hernandez/Gulf News
Gulf News web sub editor Samreen Hayat plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds
One of Dubai's many talking points, traffic, was driving the blogosphere this week as bloggers from across the UAE mulled over the daily commute, diversions and a lot more.
First off came the warnings. As Dubai police sought to make the roads safer by installing new radars on major roads, one blogger Umar in Dubai decided to caution our many patrons of the roads.
"Drivers beware! RTA Dubai has launched new traffic radars on Dubai highways. The new radars include a high speed camera which captures the picture of a vehicle cruising at speeds over the limit. These new radars are different from the old ones as the camera doesn't flash when the picture is taken so the driver will never know if he or she has been detected while speeding."
But it's not just that the stealthy new radars can catch even the slightest crossing of the speed limit that make them so special, he continued, its their placement that's key.
"What's worse is that the cameras are placed every couple of kilometres on Emirates road. So it's impossible to speed now. You can't just drive fast and slow down when approaching the radar because you will come across one every minute (if you are cruising over 120 km/h)."
Impressive
Elsewhere, the daily commute seemed to be the order of the day, much to our chagrin, as Alexander from Fake Plastic Souks blogged.
"The sandy snicket that provides daily relief to hundreds of 4WD owners dragging between Sharjah and Dubai was blocked over the weekend. Piles of sand, cones and tape and trenches have been placed across the open areas of sandy hillocks between the two emirates. Many people only found out about it on their way in to work. And golly, was the result impressive or what!
The whole area was reduced to a scene of the most marvellous chaos you have ever seen in your life. Cars all over the place, more stucks than the Gulf News Fun Run and an incredible, huge collection of frustrated, p*****-off people bashing about in an area of increasingly churned-up, soft sand.
So that's a couple of thousand more cars joining the daily car parking fun on the Ittihad, Emirates and Dubai by-pass roads."
But if those extra cars aren't contributing to the traffic hell, then maybe some of the new diversions that are being set-up will, Seabee over at Life in Dubai mused.
"You think Dubai's traffic is bad now? Just wait until the final work on the Creek extension starts!" he blogged.
With the planned three-phase extension that is supposed to last until the end of 2010, the blogger warned that chaos will definitely ensue.
Chaos
"This final stage is only just over two kilometres long, but it crosses Shaikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach Road… I hope by ‘three phases' they mean that only one road at a time will be affected.
"Bridges have to be built, which means some major diversions, which in turn means major chaos. Just think about SZR. Twelve lanes of traffic, six in each direction, with a 100km/h speed limit, to be diverted around a massive bridge that has to be built."
But while the rest of us complain about the sharpest thorn in our side, there are those lucky few, who despite the diversions, radars and increasing traffic seem to find some bliss, like Al from Al in Arabia.
Annoying
This lucky blogger is now "a fully fledged resident of Dubai," — meaning he no longer has to deal with the parking lot/traffic war zone that the Sharjah to Dubai roads most definitely are.
This blogger's only worry? Dealing with actually driving over the speed limit.
"The most annoying part of my drive to work now is the constant beeping of the 120 km/h speed warning in my hire car once I'm past the roadworks. It takes me about an hour to commute 70 km, whereas it used to take over an hour to commute 20 km when I stayed in Sharjah."
A small price to pay, most of us would agree.
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