Thursday, October 16, 2008

Morning fog

Friends overseas are surprised when I talk about the thick fog we get in Dubai.

Fog in the desert? There sure is, and we had some dangerous stuff this morning.

This is the major crossroad at the Dubai Marina/Media City junction:



I was pleasantly surprised at the driving. Even the usual suspects - the labourer buses and Land Rovers - were driving within the limits of visibility.

But there's still the stupidy of the lights question. Thick, thick fog with visibility in places no more than 10 metres and there were plenty of vehicles with no lights on.

Amd of course, the morons with their hazard lights going, like this bus:

7 comments:

Keef said...

I am sooooo happy that I don't have to drive in the fog in the UAE: the things I saw scared me shitless.

Abid said...

THats surprising!

LDU said...

Sometimes I wonder whether they have driving permits...

Seabee said...

LDU, they do, but many licenses (such as Oz, UK, USA) get you an automatic UAE licence, no test necessary. Others do have to take lessons and a test, but then you're up against the highly questionable standard of the instructors, and of course the driving cultures in so many different countries.
Compare the perfectly normal driving standards in, say, Cairo or Mumbai with, say, European cities, then add in the flat, straight, multi-lane highwys here and it's a recipe for disaster.

Dubai Photo Story said...

Hey...check out 'foggy pics' at my blog!!!

The fog was so bad that I had to pull over and park on the side of the road till the fog cleared!!

Anonymous said...

With reference to hazard lights during a fog, I stumbled upon a US website that states:

If you must drive in fog, follow these safety tips:
4. Turn on all your lights-including your hazard lights. Use low beam headlights and fog lights.
6.Turn on your 4-way flashers to give vehicles approaching from behind a better opportunity to see and notice your vehicle.

Here's the link.

The tips are attributed to the National Safety Council, the Tennessee Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Insurance. With holders of US driving licenses able to automatically get a UAE driving license, they would never know that the rules here are different.

Seabee said...

JadAoun, total stupidity of course. Hazard lights are not high intensity so the only thing they do in fog is to create confusion - the driver can't indicate to others whether he's turning or which way.