On road to catch up with water taxis

Dubai: As the media group took off from Al Sabkha Abra Station on the water bus for a more scenic trip to Al Ghubaiba across the creek, I clicked the milometer to zero and headed for Al Maktoum Bridge. The time was 5.17 pm.

Surprisingly there were no traffic jams on the way and I zipped through green lights, past the Dubai Municipality headquarters and Dubai Customs and reached the bridge six minutes later at 5.23pm.

The rush hour crowd of office workers heading home was much less then usual, maybe because many residents are away on their summer holidays or because it was a Thursday, the beginning of a weekend for some.

Meanwhile, my colleague had already arrived at the opposite side of the Creek in Bur Dubai. The trip took him all of four minutes as the distance is a mere 1.7kms.

The first long stop for me was at the Metro work near the BurJuman Centre.

The three-lane diversion was so narrow that a courier service motorcyclist idled his engine along with us motorists instead of trying to slip off between the lanes.

Another hurdle

At Starbucks, a car breakdown held up traffic a short while before we reached the traffic signal at Mankhool Road.

The signal takes a little longer to turn green here because of the construction work .

Abra passengers can either purchase pre-paid cards at the stations or pay by coin at the machines.

A Dh36 card gives you an extra Dh4.

The trip costs Dh4. A trip by taxi would set you back Dh30 through my route.

I reached Ghubaiba Bus Station at 5.38pm and a minute later reached the Abra Station; nine kms in a good 22 minutes.