UAE | Traffic and Transport
Roadblocks and mass confusion cause hours of traffic misery
Even for Dubai traffic, it was excessive. For one man, it took seven hours to travel from his home to work, a distance of 27km.
- By Mahmood Saberi, Emmanuelle Landais and Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporters
- Published: 01:22 January 15, 2008
- Image Credit: Devadasan/Gulf News
- At Nad Al Sheba, traffic was delayed for almost six hours due to an unexpected roadblock at Safa Park interchange.
Dubai: Even for Dubai traffic, it was excessive. For one man Monday, it took seven hours to travel from his home to work, a distance of 27km.
Matthew, who left Sharjah at 8am to reach his workplace on Shaikh Zayed Road, said he spent seven hours on the road on Monday. He finally reached his office at 3pm.
"It was wonderful on the empty Emirates Road," he said, till he reached Defence roundabout (first interchange). "The nightmare began here," he said, who adds that information was the main casualty. "Nobody knew what we should do."
Wrong way
"This is extraordinary, how can one man bring everything to a halt like this?" said Ruth Law, who was taking a flight to Bangkok, commenting on the lockdown of the city yesterday.
"I have no idea if I can catch the flight. I will have go to the airport much earlier," she said.
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In Rashidiya, motorists were forced to park their cars and walk home because of the blocked roads. Khaled, a motorist, said he was amazed to see a long line of cars coming straight at him. "They were all going the wrong way," he said. When he asked a policeman where he should go, the reply was "Anywhere you want to go, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, but not Dubai."
Motorists zipping into Dubai from Abu Dhabi came to a halt just before the Umm Suqeim flyover where a police barricade was set up. The long snaking queue of cars were then shunted off to a muddy side road back to Jebel Ali.
There was a roadblock on Al Sufouh Road, adjacent to Knowledge Village. One couple got out of their taxi and started walking down the empty road towards Madinat Jumeirah.
Waleed Salman, in Ras Al Khor, was going through his own nightmare. "I was turned away from everywhere I went," he said. "I saw the police sometimes let one or two cars through," he said.
Samir, who works near Airport Road, said he got a circular in the late afternoon, saying that Monday would be a holiday. "The streets were deserted last evening when we started for home," he said. Some shops coped by getting their staff to work at 6am.
Gulf News readers recount
I needed to get to Sharjah's international airport from Bur Dubai. After reading on the internet and in the newspapers that Emirates Road ... could be accessed via Al Wasl Road, I left home four hours prior to departure. Shockingly, all roads were closed in Bur Dubai. Police stood blocking all possible roads leading to Al Wasl Road or Jumeirah ... I had to miss my flight to Mumbai. Instead of this chaos, why was proper information not given?"
- Sunil Vasandani
UAE
I started from Sharjah at 5am this morning [January 14] and reached my office at the Dubai Dry Docks at 8.15am. Initially people were informed that the road closures were from the morning, but the roads were closed from the previous night. It's a total waste of ... time."
- Sujith Menon
Sharjah
I left my house in Dubai at 7.30am to try to get to work in Sharjah. Police had blocked most of the roads around my house. They were ill-informed about alternate routes, so I drove around for almost an hour, desperately trying to get to Al Wasl Road. I gave up eventually! Fortunately for me I have a very understanding boss!"
- Greg S.
UAE
My husband left for Jebel Ali at 5am and he could not find any route open until 10am to return to the main part of Dubai."
- Nina
UAE
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