Surely, being given an 800 hectare plot of empty desert and the opportunity to design a whole new city from scratch must be the dream of every town planner.
What an opportunity!
The plot of land is completely empty, so you don't have to work around anything. The perfect blank canvas.
You'd look at the well-known problems that cities around the world have, and you'd plan so that they don't happen in your new city.
You'd consider the number of residents to be catered for, the amount of commercial space and the numbers of workers it would employ, and you'd plan the infrastructure around those figures.
You'd make sure you have enough water, electricity, sewage treatment, roads, parking, ways in and out.
You'd work closely with the authorities on public transport, to arrange that they provide adequate services and you'd plan your road system to allow for them.
Wouldn't you?
Not in Dubai.
This is highlighted again by another report in Gulf News about International City.
What the planners came up with was a sewage treatment plant designed at far too small a capacity, a lengthy sewage-in-the-streets problem, and the main point of the report, ongoing - and increasing - traffic problems.
According to Nakheel's website the Residential District alone will be home to 120,000 people living in 23,847 residential units, with 5,254 retail units.
There are only four entrances/exits.
The first entrance filters three lanes of traffic into one - the perfect design to create jams.
An alternative entrance filters from a petrol station slip road. There's a road built next to the petrol station which has been closed for a long time, which has apparently now been temporarily opened. Motorists can now go through the petrol station and over a temporary sandy surface.
A dangerous U-turn (one of many in Dubai) was designed but has now been closed.
A new bus service was introduced but the buses often block the road because the layby was designed too short.
Great planning again.
Gulf News story is here.
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4 comments:
Sim City didn't exist prior to Dubai being built... but you'd have thought by the time International City came about, the powers that be would have at least given the game a shot....
Coupled to this are the long lines of sewarage tankers in every direction adding to the congestion and chaos.
International City should be used by Nakheel as a case study in how not to build a development....
seems like someone used cheat mode while playing Sim city...
Seriously, can we not just send a copy of the PC-video Game "Pharaoh" to the Dubai Municipality? I love this game, it's easy to understand, and you receive points on how well your city is constructed. If you make a mess of it (i.e. flooding of any kind of liquids) the people become very unhappy and start DYING of disease. Maybe they'll prefer this to SIM CITY, as it has funky Arabic background music... Have a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh_(video_game)
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