Petrol

AUD$0.30
Yes that is the correct price for a litre of petrol!

Dubai is a growing centre in the Middle East so the government has to build multi-lane highways to cope with all the people, hence loads of cars, coming to work in the UAE for their little share of riches. There are five and six lane highways which are fine to negotiate as long as you’re driving straight. But it’s only when you enter four lane round abouts that when you start to sweat, you entered easy enough but how do you get out without causing a major accident! There are enough troubles with two lane round abouts back home.

Cars are left hand drive and you drive on the right side of the road, like America (hand me a bar of soap, I need to clean my mouth out after I said that word). Though there are speed limits and basic road rules, they are often not observed due to people from numerous different countries practicing their countries road rules in Dubai. Of course like always, the locals are the worst offenders behind the wheel and get this, locals don't loose points on their driving licences but expats do! And do people changing lanes with indicating tweak you? You ain’t seen nothing yet, having other drivers use their indicators is a luxury here – so get used to people nilly-willy changing lanes without notice!
As much as we love walking to as many places as we can, it just can’t be don’t here. Not because of the distance, it’s the heat!! The only time you can walk is during winter when the temperatures between 15ºC and 20ºC. Don’t even entertain that thought in summer, walking equals suicide in the 40ºC to 45ºC heat! So you have to drive everywhere even if it’s a short distance.



The public transport system is basically non-existent at the moment. Compared to the number people, there just aren’t enough buses and it won’t be til next year that the monorail system will be completed. Many employment packages include a transport allowance – people are thinking why be at the mercy of the public transport system when you can drive.

It’s not much incentive either to take public transport when the prices of cars are quite a bit cheaper then Australia, due to no taxes and possibly no shipping costs, and a liter of petrol costs AUD$0.30, yes you read right that was not a typo! To top it all off sadly there’s an unspoken clear class system in practice here. It’s mostly the “working classes”, retail sales people and construction workers largely made up of Pilipino and Indian, who catch public transport.

I guess it’s a combination of all this that ultimately contribute to the major traffic jams on the six lane highways even though you’re only traveling a distance of 15km it may take you one to two hours to reach your destination. Of course like any other country when an accident occurs, traffic is backed up depending on the number of lanes blocked and adding to the bottle necks are the onlookers slowing down to take a geezer at what’s happened.

But people manage to turn up at work on time everyday so the road system may be chaotic at times but it works none the less. Visiting Dubai and experience the roads for yourself, take it as a dare if you like!