Driving standards????

[Maz25]

This is a really good initiative but unfortunately, some people are totally deaf to good advice. The worse thing I find with Abu Dhabi is that despite the number of fatal accidents on the road, drivers still refuse to drive according to the law. As soon as they pass the scene of a really horrific accident, the shock wears off and the racing starts again! I actually have a colleague who is the perfect example of a dangerous driver and someone whose license should be revoked and his car impounded until the day he steps on a one-way flight out of the UAE! Unfortunately, with people like that, they never seem to pay any attention to their own dangerous driving, rather they are more preoccupied with what other people are doing and are quick to judge and criticise (normally criticising those who drive safely )!. My colleague even tried to convince me that he is not tailgating because there is still a gap of 2 inches between him and the car in front!!! Either I'm stupid or he is because by my understanding, if there is no gap, then you've crashed and from there it goes downhill!! The thing that really gets my blood boiling is the fact that hates to be tailgated and will preach to anyone who does it when he himself is a downright menace on the road!

I would say to keep on driving safely. One more safe driver on the road makes a lot of difference.

[Ella_and_Yousef]

4 x 4 won't make your driving in any way safer. I'm driving Pajero and I have to be more than awake to escape many accidents from drivers who are talking on mobile, eating or simply not looking where they go. So just make sure if you're sleepy, stay in a right lane and don't exceed 60km/h ))))

[Grass hopper]

I just got back from a short trip to Beirut and I have promised myself I'll never complain about the driving standards in Dubai and never ever at home back in Aus! It's all relative and compared to the craziness of Lebanon Dubai is suddenly not so bad!

Having said that when I first arrived I was shocked at the driving standards. I hired a crappy and very gutless Mitsubishi Lancer and people were constantly cutting me off, pulling out in front of me etc etc. I've now bought a nice fast and very impractical sports car and get treated very differently on the roads. I am by no means an agressive driver (I've even got a defensive driving certificate to prove it ) but people seem to do way less crazy things in front of me and sometimes even move to get out of the way. I think you get used to the driving and not reacting to being flashed and honked at when a maniac is driving recklessly...or stopping to let someone cross the road at a pedistrian crossing....or when someone drifts out of their lane and nearly right into you...

I have a theory that every blinker in Dubai is broken...and there is a worldwide shortage of replacement bulbs. Except mine...I try and do my bit by not letting my standards drop!

[Ahmad Bin Rashid AlOtaibi]

Originally Posted by Ella_and_Yousef

.... So just make sure if you're sleepy, stay in a right lane and don't exceed 60km/h ))))

If you are sleepy. you shouldn't be driving! Pull over to a safe parking area, get a nap and then proceed.

[Anna returning]

Originally Posted by Grass hopper

I just got back from a short trip to Beirut and I have promised myself I'll never complain about the driving standards in Dubai and never ever at home back in Aus! It's all relative and compared to the craziness of Lebanon Dubai is suddenly not so bad!

Having said that when I first arrived I was shocked at the driving standards. I hired a crappy and very gutless Mitsubishi Lancer and people were constantly cutting me off, pulling out in front of me etc etc. I've now bought a nice fast and very impractical sports car and get treated very differently on the roads. I am by no means an agressive driver (I've even got a defensive driving certificate to prove it ) but people seem to do way less crazy things in front of me and sometimes even move to get out of the way. I think you get used to the driving and not reacting to being flashed and honked at when a maniac is driving recklessly...or stopping to let someone cross the road at a pedistrian crossing....or when someone drifts out of their lane and nearly right into you...

I have a theory that every blinker in Dubai is broken...and there is a worldwide shortage of replacement bulbs. Except mine...I try and do my bit by not letting my standards drop!

Like it, Grasshopper!
Well, I'm certainly getting LOADS of practice at driving, by virtue of constantly either missing my exit, or taking the wrong one, thereby getting hopelessly lost! I am having literally hours of road experience!!
I'm half-thinking of starting a thread to see if I have set any records for the time taken attempting to get from one location to another. I wouldn't be surprised ... in fact I'd be very surprised (and impressed) if anyone has exceeded my 'amazing' journeys. Who knew Dubai had so many miles of roads??

[Grass hopper]

Originally Posted by Anna returning

Like it, Grasshopper!
Well, I'm certainly getting LOADS of practice at driving, by virtue of constantly either missing my exit, or taking the wrong one, thereby getting hopelessly lost! I am having literally hours of road experience!!
I'm half-thinking of starting a thread to see if I have set any records for the time taken attempting to get from one location to another. I wouldn't be surprised ... in fact I'd be very surprised (and impressed) if anyone has exceeded my 'amazing' journeys. Who knew Dubai had so many miles of roads??

Hilarious...I went and played golf yesterday evening. I live at JBR and I got picked up by a mate...we (well I'm being generous...really he made them!) made two wrong turns and as a result ended up in Festival city (Ikea). We were heading to Emirates golf course! So what should have been a 2km 5 min drive was over half an hour and approx 30kms! So yeah I reckon I could contribute to your new thread Can you top that??

Oh and on Friday night they decided to close off the turn into the address...also where you turn to get into old town island/souk al bahar...so we had to drive up and do another u-turn which due to the traffic took about half an hour. So even when you do work out the right way...it doesn't mean it will be the right way next time you go there!

[Andy Capp]

I think driving standards would improve so much if we took the saudi attitude...

Women - Don't drive!

You Tube

[Anna returning]

Originally Posted by Grass hopper

Hilarious...I went and played golf yesterday evening. I live at JBR and I got picked up by a mate...we (well I'm being generous...really he made them!) made two wrong turns and as a result ended up in Festival city (Ikea). We were heading to Emirates golf course! So what should have been a 2km 5 min drive was over half an hour and approx 30kms! So yeah I reckon I could contribute to your new thread Can you top that??

Oh and on Friday night they decided to close off the turn into the address...also where you turn to get into old town island/souk al bahar...so we had to drive up and do another u-turn which due to the traffic took about half an hour. So even when you do work out the right way...it doesn't mean it will be the right way next time you go there!

I am SO glad to know it is not just me!!
My experiences over the past few days have blurred into this one horrendous nightmare that has me driving endlessly in and out of Dubai (and I've managed to get a long way out!) seeing where I want to be, but not being able to work out how to get to it!!
I think I've blanked most of it out, but, here's a taste:
Giving myself half an hour to get from JLT to just opposite Trade Centre for a business meeting, and giving up after one and a half hours, because 1) I missed the Trade Centre roundabout 2) I missed SZH on the loop back!! And there had been 3 crashes, so nothing moving anyway.
Attempting to get into The Greens but ending up in Media City THREE times. Gave up and got my friend to pick me up from The Marina.
TWO HOURS from Ibn Battuta to JLT trying to get to a petrol station because the tank was very very empty, but couldn't work out how to actually access any of them, and then once I had petrol, getting so seriously cut up as I was about to exit Highway that I missed the exit and don't know where I went. Then so stressed because car had very very nearly conked out on SZH, that I went to the wrong but identical apartment block. Key wouldn't fit door. Got security to open it. Flat empty. Thought it had been burgled. Only then did the guy say "ma'm, are you staying in 1 or 2?? I'm in 1... it was 2.
Ending up way south of Jebel Ali port trying to find Jumeirah Village!!
Ended up way further inland than I thought Dubai went when trying to find some other residential area that I can't even remember now.
That's just a few of my recent trips. I think my daughter's car has clocked more miles in the past 6 days than in the previous 2 years. And tomorrow I have to find Downtown Burj Dubai. Oh joy!

[M123]

I'd have similar stories to tell, but usually when I get to the point where I'm driving in the middle of the night, and have ended up on a road where everyone seems to be driving a million miles an hour, I'll just switch on the sat nav.

I've mentioned it before, but it has been my most useful purchase. Admittedly a month on it does get used less, but it's a good way to avoid the fun some of you people appear to be having.

[Seven Seas]

Driving here is hard to get used to.

It feels like a battle.

Please be careful, everyone.
Back hoem we knopw the stereotypes, we know what to expect.
We know the habits of taxi drivers, of Ford Escort drivers, of Manta drivers, of Holden Commodore drivers....

Here we don't.