To old Dubai

I went into the city yesterday so I thought I'd give the Metro another go.

I was visiting Bur Dubai and then Deira and with only a few stations currently open there was a bit of walking involved. In this beautiful weather that suited me fine, I've always enjoyed walking and I love wandering around the old areas of Dubai anyway.

I went from Mall of the Emirates to Khalid Bin Al Waleed station (better known as Bank Street or Burjuman), it took twenty minutes and cost Dh6.50. That compares very favourably with driving, especially with the parking problems in the city.



To cross to Deira I wandered down to the Creek and, as I always do, invested a dirham in an abra ride.



Like all cities around the world with old and new sections the old part of Dubai is very different from New Dubai. It's grown naturally rather than being just plonked on some empty land, so it has soul, heart.

It's all a bit jumbled and scruffy in many parts but that's all part of its charm and I always get a lift in spirits being there.



I came back from Union Station and again it's about twenty minutes and costs Dh6.50.

By the way, on the way down to the Creek I walked through Bastakiyah, which I must explore again because there's a lot more going on than last time I was there.

Interesting food available too;

Al Khor

I was in my favourite part of Dubai yesterday and had my little pocket digital camera with me.



Coming in from New Dubai I find it easiest to park in Shindagah, where I can always find a space.

If I'm visiting Bur Dubai it's an easy stroll through interesting streets and if I'm going across to Deira I stroll through the textile souk and take the abra across the Creek, which is what I did yesterday.

There's been an upgrade of the abra fleet - now they have safety features for the twenty passengers...



Two lifebelts on each abra plus a sign about safety. I've never read the sign, I really must do that one day to see what they say.

The upgrade goes beyond safety though, or at least on the one I caught back to Bur Dubai - onboard cleaning solutions...



It was the middle of the day when I was on the Creek and half the fleet wasn't in action but those that were only took a couple of minutes to fill up with the full twenty passengers. We passed a few air-conditioned floating garden sheds, officially known as water buses, and each had only a handful of passengers.

RTA, there's a lesson to be learnt there.

I love the abras as they are. I know they're dirty, pollute with their diesel engines and all that but I'll miss it when they're converted to gas or solar, or whatever it was that was announced a while ago.

I love the dhows too. It's living history really, not very much about them has changed for a hundred years or more. They're built the same, from the same materials, they carry general cargo, much of it the same as they carried back in history, to the same destinations.

You'll see the cargo being carried on the backs of men as they struggle up wooden gangplanks too, as they would have done way back in time.

With the weather warming up - yesterday was 41C with humidity getting towards uncomfortable levels - quite a few of the dhows have canvas covers stretched over the cabin to give the crew some relief.

That's a bit modern though and it's good to see that others still use the traditional barasti palm fronds to give shade.



The dhow wharf, right in the heart of Deira, is always a reminder to me of how relatively crime-free Dubai is.

There are more than a few cities around the world where valuable items left lying around for days would soon disappear...

Ugly water buses are empty

I took a photograph of the Creek water buses the other day and was going to post about the ugliness of them.

Today there's a report that they're shuttling between Bur Dubai and Deira just about empty. The reason, people said, was the cost - the abra fare is Dh1 while the water bus is Dh4.

Commuting across the Creek each day, as many people do, will cost Dh10 a week the traditional way and Dh40 a week by water bus. That's a huge difference and simply not worth it for a few minutes of air-conditioning.

Maybe in the worst of the summer months their business will increase but I can't see them being a success for most of the year. And that leads me to a horrible thought - as they cost Dh700,000 each you don't think our beloved RTA might consider getting rid of the abra fleet to ensure their success do you?

But on to what I actually was going to say. The design.

What we were shown before they went into service was what I said at the time was a good, appropriate design. They had a sleek but retro look about them, fitting in with the look of the dhows and the abras that fill the Creek.



The real thing is a squat, compressed, ugly shape that looks horribly out of place on the Creek.



Too short, too compressed, too high. They look as though they were cobbled together by an amateur in his backyard.

Floating Bridge. Why not 24/7?

The long-awaited and overdue Floating Bridge was opened for business yesterday. That makes five crossing options for the bottleneck of the Creek, so it's very welcome.

It is, according to 7Days, giving drivers "a new route around the Salik toll" and according to the RTA quoted in Gulf News it will "help to reduce traffic jams by 37% on Maktoum Bridge."

The already choked Maktoum Bridge is taking more traffic because Salik operates on Garhoud Bridge, so now some of that extra traffic has the Floating Bridge option.

But although Salik controversially operates seven days a week twenty-four hours a day, the Floating Bridge will only be open from 6am to 10pm.

There is no comment in the reports about the reason. I expect the 'journalists' did what 'journalists' in the UAE do, simply wrote down whatever they were told and didn't ask the obvious question.

Why?

On that subject there are more questions that I would have asked had I been there, too, relating to the claimed 37% reduction of traffic on Maktoum Bridge. That's old research, that percentage was reported when the floating bridge was announced.

The obvious, to me, questions are: As there is no commercial or political confidentiality involved, will the research be made available to the public? Has there been research to determine the extra traffic using Maktoum Bridge since the introduction of Salik? What is the revised figure for the percentage that will be diverted to the Floating Bridge?

But back to the main question - if the bridge is closed for maintenance I can understand it, but I don't think that can be the reason - surely it won't need maintenance every night?

So, the question is, why is it closed every night between 10pm and 6am?

Anyone?

If you'd like to read all about it and see the photos, Gulf News has the story here.

Oh no! Please, anyone but the RTA!

There's a good report in Gulf News today on the Creek extension project.

Here's what had me groaning "oh no":

Phase five most crucial part of project.

The extension of Dubai Creek from Shaikh Zayed Road to the Arabian Gulf through Safa Park, Al Wasl and Jumeirah is the most critical part of the project...Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has been commissioned to complete Phase five of the creek extension project.

Yes folks, the RTA. Our shining example of ' world's best practice' in planning, thinking things through, making the right decisions. As I've been pointing out these past months.

Putting the inevitable chaos aside for a moment, it's a hell of a project. The Creek will double in length, changing from a simple inlet from the Gulf that sinks into the desert after 14km to a semi-circular waterway that has a second Gulf outlet further along the coast.

Gulf News

I must say I think it's a great concept, giving us more natural water through the desert and a new, and very large, focal point. There'll be plenty of walkways and greenery alongside the new waterway, it's an alternative transportation route and a leisure facility, so it's a plus for residents and visitors.

Photo: Jumana El Heloueh. Gulf News

The problems are going to be with the 2.2 kilometres stretch across Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road, Jumeirah Beach Road to the sea. That's what the dreaded RTA has been commissioned to carry out. They say that work will begin on this at the end of the year. As I posted previously, bridges are going to be built across the three roads, SZR with 12 lanes, 6 lanes each for the others.

Just think about the chaos with what will be needed - either one road closed for the Creek to be excavated and the bridge built across it while traffic is jammed onto the other two roads, or construction on all of them at the same time (and history tells us that'll be the way they'll do it) with diversions around construction, temporary bridges, temporary roads.

Then when it's finished and the landscaping has settled nicely, DEWA will get into its usual holescaping mode and tear it all up to dig trenches, surrounded by red and white cones & flapping plastic and piles of sand.

Actually, it's better not to think about it.

And yes, what you're thinking is correct - according to the report 'dozens' of villas will be demolished. I'd say 'dozens' is an understatement, picturing the density of villas from Al Wasl Road to the beach.

The Gulf News In Depth report is here.

They also have a story featuring Brig. Mohammed Saif Al Zafein, a gentleman for whom I have growing respect. He's talking about the terrible carnage with pedestrians that we have.

"The only thing that we are unable to control currently is run-over

accidents because there is another authority involved in the process,"
Brigadier Al Zafein said.

No prizes for guessing which 'other authority' the Director of Dubai

Police's Traffic department is referring to in this report.

Stand by for mega-congestion.

I posted a piece on Dubai Metblog about the approval of the Creek extension plan.

(We don't post Metblog items on our other blogs, so I didn't put it here. You can read it by clicking on the link over there on the right).

The new stretch will run into the Gulf at Jumeirah. It will be at least 100 metres wide and will cross Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Beach Road.

To cross the water, SZR will have a new 12 lane bridge built, Al Wasl and Beach roads will both have six lane bridges built.

Just stop and think what that means and about the congestion the construction of those bridges is going to give us.

Infrastructure catching up...

Slowly but, hopefully, surely the infrastructure in Dubai is catching up with the frantic growth.

The Metro is pushing on visibly and quickly, a new fleet of buses has been ordered, new water transport is ordered, new roads and intersections are coming on stream. And now the real bottleneck has some relief.

The fourth crossing of the Creek half opened last night, six of the thirteen lanes. That's the Business Bay Crossing which is about 1.5 km south of Al Garhoud Bridge. That should help to relieve the Dubai/Sharjah chaos, obviously easing some of the jams in the tunnel and on the other bridges but also on the approach roads. It all helps to spread the load.

Photo. Arshad Ali/Gulf News

It's part of a road corridor that will join Sheikh Zayed Road & Emirates Road through Bur Dubai and Deira and on into Sharjah.

The story, map and more photos are in Gulf News, here.

Creek 'water-buses' - a pleasant surprise

When I first read about the new 'water-buses' being planned for the Creek I was afraid they were going to be ultra-modern. That wouldn't have sat comfortably with the historic areas on the Creek banks and the origins of the area. There's so little of historic Dubai still to see and anything modern being introduced dilutes it even more. The lack of historic areas is partly due to the fact that there wasn't much of it anyway. It was a very small town even in relatively recent years, added to which is the fact that the building materials used were not long-lasting.

Just to digress for a moment to illustrate that point, here's a photo of Dubai taken in 1971. The photo is by Brett Langevad and I found it at www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/dubai1971



I repeat, this is Dubai in 1971, just 36 years ago.

Anyway, back to the 'water-buses'. The RTA has now issued an illustration of the design and I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. The RTA website says the design "combines the traditional form of Abra which draws from the UAE heritage and between modernity and the latest advances in modern technology in this area" and the illustration tends to support that claim.




They'll be air-conditioned, seat about 35 passengers and they'll initially run in a loop with two stations either side of the Creek. They'll run every 10 minutes between 6am and midnight.

The stations are in key locations in the downtown area, so it looks as though it has a good chance of working well.



They say that there will be tunnels to link the abra and 'water-bus' stations to the Metro too, a very good plan.

Eventually, and it seems the service will be implemented over the next 15 years, the 'water-bus' will be extended to run along the Jumeirah coast and include the three Palm Islands and The World.


The RTA website is here.