Localized Adventure Awaits

As you may have guessed, I've got me a little thing for the bi-cycles. Believe it or not, cycling isn't my favourite pastime. Indeed, running is the ne-plus-ultra travelling activity in my opinion. Sure, you can't get where you are going quite as fast (unless you are travelling on mountain trails), but one is much more mobile when on foot, able to hop over obstacles, cross loose soil, or traverse busy back alleys.

If I had a shower at work and my legs could take the pounding, I would more than happily run to work almost every day. In fact, I would love to run everywhere, I try to incorporate it into my travel plans as much as possible. This was a bit easier in say New York, where I could hop on the subway for the return journey, but I guess I'll have to wait until September to see how the Metro changes my running habits. Incidentally, running home from the bar is freaking awesome! You really must try it sometime; I sometimes feel like I am floating along. Plus, there is absolutely no way of getting pulled over for being intoxicated!

Unfortunately, my legs have a habit of failing me just when things are getting good, and it has been no different here in Dubai. I was just getting up to a nice 13 to 15 mile long run distance when the ole calf decided it had enough yet again. Luckily, the condition isn't permanent, and I have recently been back pounding the pavement.

While Dubai lacks interesting varied terrain and trails (my favourite territory), it does have an inordinate number of construction sites. Recently I have become decidedly more bold in my route choices and ventured off into the the great unmapped regions of Dubai (well, of Burj Dubai and Business Bay at least), and found them if not on par with great mountain trails, at least much more interesting than running on completed streets and byways.

My run this weekend took me over a completed yet unopened 4 lane overpass, then a decidedly incomplete overpass, over a big berm and smack dab onto the 'shore' of the new creek extension, AKA Business Bay. It was a rather lovely Friday Morning, and the construction traffic was light, so there wasn't much danger involved beyond turning an ankle (which is nearly impossible for me, mine are made of rubber from years of trail running). The workers who were unfortunate enough to have to work on Friday didn't seem to mind me running through, in fact they were rather amused, or perhaps bemused.

The route along the new creek offers quite lovely views, it was interesting to see all of the buildings from different angles as I ran along, and the waterside setting will be pretty sweet when complete in roughly 30 years (there are quite a few empty sites).

My route would have been completely impossible on a bicycle, but I think running brought a little something extra to it. Running gives you time to take in the scenery a bit more (though this was slightly impeded by the rough footing), and perhaps humanizes you a bit more to the people you pass.

A few weeks back I was running home from work and decided to take an unplanned detour around Zabeel Palace. I had seen it quite a few times on my rides home, but lacking a mountain bike, hadn't taken the sharp left turn at the Zabeel Club. I am naturally a curious person, and I didn't have much on my plate, so off to the east I went. I was instantly amazed by what I saw.

Suddenly I was plunged into a grove of trees, with little wild flowers scattered about. They were seemingly natural, as I am quite certain I didn't see any irrigation around. Chugging along I rounded a bend and what did I behold, but a peacock, just hanging out in the woods. I was agog; one normally doesn't run into peacocks, definitely not in the desert. As I ran on I saw another, then another, then a gaggle, or whatever a group of peacocks is called – there had to be well over a hundred of them. Obviously, they belonged to the palace, but they were free to roam at will, which I very much enjoyed.

After coming to what appeared to be the palace entrance road (and being swarmed by peacocks), I hit a fence (not literally), and had to swing another left. This took me back out to Zabeel 2 Road, where I hugged the fence around to the right. It was then that I figured out what the enclosure was for, the rare desert gazelle, go figure – guess Sheik Mo is a wildlife buff. Unfortunately the rest of the journey was devoid of trees (lots of construction), but I did happen upon another massive unused highway (perhaps its just a spare), and finally a policeman, who despite not speaking English, made it abundantly clear that running around the palace walls wasn't Kosher.

So I high tailed it to the south towards my homestead, only to run into another set of woods, but it was hiding a work camp rather than a palace. They had a very tiny plywood mosque, not much bigger than a childrens playhouse. I am not sure if it is culturally sensitive to say it was cute, but it was. It even had a miniature minaret.

Just beyond the Lilliputian Mosque, what did I find but yet another spare highway! This one seemed slightly incomplete as it met a giant soldier pile wall halfway through a tunnel under Doha Road, but lucky for me there was a scaffold to climb up and exit. From there it was a bit of deft overlanding straight back to the homestead, just before dark. It was up to that point my single favourite day in Dubai.

I recount these stories to make the point that adventure is where you seek it, and for the most part, people don't seem to be doing much seeking around here. Just think of what you have at your fingertips! A giant incomplete city, manned by workers who don't really seem to know or care about trespass laws! It's like a bizarro Roman ruin out there, in a state of pre-decay. All you need is a pair of shoes and a sense of adventure; have at it!

Magical Mystery Bus

This blog isn’t just about me riding my bike (and extolling its many virtues), I’m also out to cover other ways of getting around Dubai, like the bus!

My first two weeks in Dubai were spent out at the Marina where we were given a short term apartment while we looked around for a place. Unfortunately, my office is on the other end of town in Bur Dubai, which is quite a ways no matter what form of transport you take - but a bit far to bike every day on a folding bike (which is all I had with me at the time).

I can see the appeal of the Marina; its right next to the beach, and they have a rather nice walkable outdoor shopping street where Emiratees like to cruise their beemers on the weekend. But unless you work in Media city or thereabouts, it’s really not very conveniently located. There would probably be quite a bit less traffic in town if people decided to live closer to where they work (we looked into living in Bur Dubai, but the other half didn't fancy any of the available options). I realize this isn’t always possible based on price, but it makes a whole lot more sense than sitting in traffic for an hour.

Anyway, I didn’t much feel like taking a taxi everyday (or for paying for the taxi everyday, something along the lines of 50 Dirham each way, doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds up quickly), so I did some investigating and figured out how to take the bus to work! Finding useful bus information on the RTA website is not as easy as one might expect. Pretty much anywhere else in the world I could have found a nice legible map (or even a route planner) and plotted my course with little or no trouble, but of course this is Dubai.

I did manage to find the list of bus route maps fairly easily – its on the ‘public transport’ page, but, curiously there was no overall map of bus routes included. Being new to town and not knowing all of the place names I had to click onto each individual route map and see where it goes (there are surprisingly quite a few routes). Only later on did I find the map of the whole system, cleverly located under the ‘about’ tab on the left side of the page – for no apparent reason.

Website Randomness

Cleverly hidden full bus map

Neither map is entirely useful, leaving out quite a bit of key info, but I really dig the RTA staff photos, I do believe they are holding a beard contest. I believe the taxi guy is winning.


Here is the route map for the X25 express bus from the Marina, showing a variety of available bus stops (note, not the same stops as the full bus map). If your stop is not on the map, hit the stop button and hope for the best!

X25 Bus map as seen from space

Lucky for me I lived right at the end of the line, because otherwise I would have been very confused about where to board as there are no marked bus stops in the Marina! I rode that bus for two weeks and never could really figure out how people knew to stand in certain places to get picked up.

The X25, waiting stealthily in the fog at one of it's mystery bus stops

There was also the matter of ‘express service’, which of course meant we would skip some of the stops of our rival number 8 local bus. I am not sure how old the X25 route is, but somehow they haven’t yet managed to put up signs saying where it stops. Even further down the road in Jumeriah where there are clearly bus stops (nice air conditioned ones!), there is no mention of the X25. It makes it very hard to catch one in Jumeriah since it’s a bit of a guessing game as to which stop is express.

Its not all bad though, the buses are quite nice in fact, and the fare is a mere 2 dirham! There are small glimmers of hope for a logical system as well, like the new screens which tell you which stop is next. They would be great if they worked; the couple of operational ones I saw only updated the next stop when the driver opened the doors. Within 10 minutes we were a good 5 stops behind since we didn’t pick up passengers at every stop. Also, a new integrated trip planner seems to be in the offing. There is a link for it on the RTA website, but it leads to nowhere. Perhaps they are saving it for when the metro opens.


Trip time was pretty good considering the distance – and in general, buses in any city aren’t terribly fast (the M86 in Manhattan takes the ‘Pokey’ prize averaging just 3.5 mph!). It generally took about 1 hour from the bottom end of the Marina to the Al Ghubaiba bus station near the creek in Bur Dubai (this is about as predicted in the RTA schedule). From there I would either walk to work, or hop on my Brompton folding bike (easily carried on the bus) and shoot up to the office.

I didn’t see too many other western Expats (I think about 4 total in two weeks), but most of the bus passengers looked to be heading to office jobs. I had a co-worker ask if the people on the bus smelled. I was rather offended, since I was a person on the bus (a quick sniff of the pits said I was in the clear), but also at how racist people can become in this city. The whole affair is quite civil, and they even have a separate seating area for women up in the front (though women are allowed to roam freely through the bus as they please).

Bus interior with free roaming western female (and non-functioning display)

To the RTA’s credit, they are making huge improvements in service. They are adding 1616 buses, going from around 700 buses to over 2500 buses in a period of about 2 years! That in itself is quite a feat, and something to be lauded. According to Gulf News they are also claiming that when the metro opens, no one will be more than 100 metres from a bus or metro stop! This would be achieved by throwing 700 buses into service running feeder routes to the metro stations.

A 100 metre maximum walk from your front door to the bus stop would be quite an amazing feat considering some of the road layouts in town (think of the circuitous bus routes they would need in say the Springs). However, I think it might be a bit of hyperbole as a later article seems to suggest only 80% of Dubai will be covered by bus service at all when the metro opens. It’s a good goal though, they have definitely thought about how people might get to the stations in the summer time. I am going to guess the maximum walking distance for most people would be more likely around 400 – 800m, which still isn’t half bad.

I haven’t taken the bus since moving over to Downtown Burj Dubai, but until recently there wasn’t a bus to take. They have very kindly added a bit to the number 27 bus so that it now terminates at the Dubai Mall (though they haven’t updated the route map to reflect this, or put up bus stop signs). If it went straight to work I would be stoked, unfortunately it sort of veers off towards the Maktoum bridge. I might give it a go anyhow, variety is the spice of life, and I could catch this bus to the spice souk - thus squaring the power of variety available to me!

All in all, the bus is a pretty decent way to move about the city, especially if you have a route nearby your home or office. It can be a bit scattered in the newer developments, but I think this will eventually sort itself out. Why not be like Bizarro Billy Ocean, and give it a try!

So, you haven't gotten killed yet!?

I hear it all the time, "So, you haven't gotten killed yet", as though my route to work takes me through Mogadishu. It is quite amazing how skewed peoples ideas about cycle vs motorist safety is.

The thing that bugs me about the Gulf News article from the previous post is that so many of the people interviewed wanted to cycle, but haven’t given it a try because they feel it is unsafe at the moment. It is completely possible for all of these people to cycle, there is absolutely nothing stopping them besides fear. Granted, if someone isn’t already a competent cyclist, riding here could be unnerving. But I would argue that in terms of safety, riding on surface streets here is no more or perhaps even less dangerous than driving on the highways, and many people (even if they are slightly wary) have no trouble driving down Sheik Zayed Road despite this happening quite frequently:

Bicycles rarely burst into flames

A quick search for local accident statistics reveals that there were 1056 motorist deaths in 2007 in the UAE out of 6,813 accidents. With an estimated 2007 population of 4.4 million that means you had a 1 in 645 chance of getting in an accident and a 1 in 4,200 of dying as a motorist, and that assumes everyone who lives in the UAE drives (which is clearly not the case if you’ve ever been over to Deira you know what I mean). In fact, there is a handy modal split pie chart in the RTA’s Pedestrian and Cyclist Design Manual (A copy of which I obtained from my crack team of super secret operatives):

As you can see, in 2006 a mere 36% of the population drove, with another 12% hopping a ride with the drivers, and 3% going via taxi, which added up is only 51%. Heck, even add in the non-public buses at 24% (I don’t think public buses have a very high accident rate and generally don’t use highways) and you have about 75% of the population on the road in a vehicle. That changes your chances to 1 in 484 of having a collision, and 1 in 3,125 of dying.

It is harder to say how many people currently use the bicycle as their main means of transport. The BMP undertook an evening bicycle census at 20 locations throughout the city and counted 3,500 cyclists. Let’s compare this with a similar survey in NYC recently which counted 22,700 cyclists over a 12 hour period. Note that Dubai counted 3,500 cyclists in a short evening period, whereas NYC’s count was for 12 hours (7AM to 7PM). So apparently, per capita (NYC has roughly 8.1 million residents, compared with Dubai’s 1.5 million residents), Dubai has a higher percentage of cyclists than NYC! (though the demographics are decidedly different; I have yet to see a hipster on a fixie here, but I am sure it will come). We do know that cyclists as a mode share in NYC

We do know that cyclists as a mode share in NYC run around 2% of the population. From comparing cyclist counts we see that the two cities aren’t too dissimilar, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that 2% (and perhaps up to 6% according to the chart above) of the population of Dubai uses a bike as their main mode of transport. Therefore we can guess the number of cyclists in town to be around 30,000 to 90,000.

In terms of bicycle safety, the BMP states there were 70 to 83 reported collisions per year. That means, even if you take the lower cyclist population estimate (which I think is a bit low) there is a 1 in 428 chance of being involved in a collision. It isn’t stated what percentage of these collisions were fatal – so I’ll compare it with the vehicle accident statistics – at 1 in 484, you are pretty much statistically more or less as safe as in your car.

Note, accidents are rarely accidental; be it careless driving, speeding, recklessness, or pure stupidity (which isn’t confined to motorists). Case in point, the BMP cyclist counts noted a whopping 50% of cyclists riding against traffic which massively increases the risk of collisions at driveways and intersections. They also note that 2/3 of collisions occurred during the evening, which seems quite plausible given the number of my subcontinent homies I have seen sporting lights (zero) on their Atlas Goldline Super Extra Export Quality bikes as they ride the wrong way down the street sans helmet.

OK, so, lots of statistics, what does it all mean? From my perspective it means the perception of a complete lack of safety is overblown. Dubai has a fairly robust number of cyclists, who despite riding without lights or much sense seem to manage to not get into accidents any more than their crazy vehicular neighbours. So, if one were to say, wear lights when riding at night, ride on the right side of the road, signal when changing lanes and wear a helmet, their chances of survival seem fairly high – in fact perhaps higher than if they were to drive down Sheik Zayad road to work every day.

I am not lost on the actual (rather than perceived) safety issues with riding in Dubai. They include, but are by no means limited to: fast wide roads with no shoulders, huge round-abouts with traffic exiting from three lanes over, right hand turn lanes and their impatient overtaking right hand turning drivers, random construction barriers, massive high speed on-off ramps at highway crossings, lack of clear routes around huge highways, and of course the ubiquitous clueless driver (with an oversized engine).

However, having ridden quite extensively in several big cities, including: New York, LA, San Francisco, London, and Paris, I can say rather authoritatively that (other than the design of the infrastructure), the problems and risks of cycling are not that much different here than anywhere else.

There are quite a few cyclists from all walks of life in those cities, but it wasn’t always that way. Last Sunday’s NY Times had an interesting article about cycling in NYC now vs then.


While I don’t agree with everything Mister Sullivan says (and the headline doesn't exactly help out cycling much), the jist is – at one point, not so many people were cycling – it was considered dangerous and whacky, and slowly that has changed. This has not come about solely due to the striping of bike lanes, but through a slow concerted effort (still very much ongoing) to change the perception of cycling in the city.

Hopefully the same thing will happen here. Though, this being Dubai it will most likely come about in a different manner. If the RTA decides to implement the BMP, Dubai would easily outstrip NY in miles of bike routes within a manner of years. But if you build it, will they come?

A Distinctive Bicycling Destination

Before I moved to Dubai I did quite a bit of surfing around on the web, trying to find information about cycling in here. As I mentioned in the previous post, a lot of what I found wasn’t very helpful (or very constructive).

There were however several small glimmers of hope hidden within the doom and gloom. Explorer’s Dubai Complete Residents’ Guide (AKA, the bible, it seems like everyone has a copy) has this to say about cycling:

Bicycle

Cycling can be a very efficient way of commuting as it avoids a great deal of traffic and is a cheap mode of transport, however for most people in Dubai, the car rules, and bikes are used only by those on lower incomes. A lot of care is needed when cycling in the UAE as some drivers pay little attention to anything, even other cars, and much less cyclists. Also, in the hotter months, cycling is more arduous and it should be remembered that you won’t arrive anywhere fresh after pedalling in temperatures as high as 45ºC.

In the quieter areas, many of the roads are wide enough to accommodate cyclists as well as cars, and where there are footpaths, they are often wide and in good condition. Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has decided to try to encourage cycling in the busy districts of Deira and Bur Dubai by adding dedicated lanes and parking areas for cyclists. There is even talk of a network of cycle lanes that would eventually be extended to other parts of the city.

OK, not too bad. It doesn’t really tout the upsides of cycling in Dubai – 8 months a year of beautiful weather, flat terrain, flying by traffic jams (I suppose that is the extent of the upside), but at least it’s not all doom and gloom. I agree with their point that the majority of commuter cyclists tend to be from lower income groups, but stereotyping cycling here like that won’t really help change the situation. It’s nice that they point out there are quieter areas to ride, but they almost seem to suggest you aren’t welcome on real roads.

The Explorer makes a vague reference to improved cycle infrastructure in the future. Well, guess what? Dubai has commissioned and is perhaps in the process of implementing a Bicycle Master Plan (BMP)! Unfortunately, I could only find oblique references to the plan prior to arriving. I ascertained that the plan was undertaken, but I couldn’t find a copy of it anywhere or figure out if it was ever going to be implemented. It was like the BMP was some sort of state secret.

I sent an email requesting information about the plan from the consultants who undertook the work – Alta Planning + Design out of Portland Oregon. I haven’t yet heard back from them, or even an acknowledgement that my email was received. There is absolutely no mention of the BMP on the RTA website www.rta.ae/, which isn’t really a huge surprise as finding useful information on their site is about as likely as spotting Sasquatch. Lucky for me though, I have managed to locate a copy of an executive summary of the plan through my network of uber-secret sources.

As you can see from the front cover, the planners at Alta (and by default the RTA) want Dubai to become, “A distinctive bicycling destination.” Personally, I would settle for, “A reasonably affable cycling locale,” but why not shoot for the moon! I find the cover art for the BMP rather apropos; in Dubai you either have lower income cyclists on crappy bikes (NB, that bike rack is the only official one in the entire city), or roadies on $6,000 Serottas. If they update the plan they should put a picture of me in the middle – the lone middle class bike commuter (LMCBC). Sure, LMCBC is a bit of a mouthful and doesn’t have quite the ring of the ‘Lone Ranger’, but I really do enjoy riding in my eye mask and chaps.

Greedily delving into the plan for Dubai’s cycling future, I read through the 25 page document (I still have yet to get my hands on the full report; my team of crack operatives operatives are working on it). The BMP is full of great ideas, as one would expect from a firm the likes of Alta. If a raucous crowd were to give you a précis of the executive summary it might go something like:

Bullhorn Guy: What do we want?
Crowd: bicycle infrastructure, safety
education, promotional programs, and bicycle friendly policy changes!!
Bullhorn Guy: When do we want it?
Crowd: Rolled out in stages over the
next 10 years!

Whether or not Dubai will go ahead and implement the changes outlined, or embrace cycling as a legitimate form of transport is yet to be seen. The report was issued in January of 2008, and calls for 8 high priority stage 1 demonstration projects to be completed within 12 months – i.e. now (with further stages rolled out over the next 10 years for a total of 1351 km of cycle routes). The stage 1 projects can basically be broken down into three catagories:

-Extension of Jumeirah Beach Road path to Dhiyafa Road and Mankhool Road
-Creek loop
-Connector routes for getting the roadies out to their rides in Nad Al Sheeba

I haven’t yet done a detailed reconnaissance of all the proposed routes, but my travels around town have taken me through two of the three areas (haven’t been out to Nad Al Sheba yet), and I have yet to see any shovels in the ground.

It seems there might be a light at the end of the tunnel though. In January, Gulf News let us know all about a bicycling project that sounds very similar to our dear master plan, minus the Nad Al Sheba bit.

http://www.gulfnews.com/Nation/Leisure/10278606.html

The article is a little confusing as it starts out talking about a cycle plan, then launches into a description of plans for pedestrian bridges. If one reads a bit further down though, we get our required info straight from the camel’s mouth:

"We will seek to devise a comprehensive plan for the development of the cycling network that will include laying cycling tracks, providing the requisite facilities and framing guidelines and legislations for the use of bicycles," said the official.

Which sounds oddly like they haven’t started forming the BMP yet, despite the paper copy of it sitting here on my desk. If you didn’t know the RTA had already commissioned one of the leading planning consultancies to devise a plan, you may think they are going off half cocked, building bike lanes willy nilly.

The heartening bit is in the readers’ comments section. There was nary a negative comment about the proposed cycle routes. My favourite comment was:

At last my dream of cycling will come true... This is better late than
never.From A ReaderDubai,UAE

Here here ‘A Reader’! Though only a small sample of the overall population, this shows that there is a quite a latent demand for cycling in the city. This is backed up by a slightly more recent Gulf News article which quizzed people about their thoughts on cycling:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/02/01/10280845.html

In a recent Gulf News poll, 33 per cent of respondents said they would like to cycle to work, 29 per cent said there are not enough tracks, 24 per cent said they would never consider it, and the remaining 15 per cent said they love their car too much and would never give it up.

33% of the population wants to cycle to work! That would be rather amazing, as NY is struggling to get about a 2% share of commuting trips. Again, probably a small sample group, but really shows that there is a demand out there.

Bizarro Billy Ocean Wants YOU!

Like a Bizarro Billy Ocean Dubai Sans Auto is looking to get you out of your car and into my dream (my dream of you not being in your car). “But this is Dubai, I’ll die, and perhaps sweat!” you say! Pish posh, time to sack up my friends.

Bizarro Billy Ocean? For those of you who are neither:
1. A huge Superman fan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro
2. A huge Seinfeld fan (or perhaps a lesser Seinfeld fan with a good memory)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bizarro_Jerry

Bizarro superman is basically ‘opposite Superman’, thus exhibiting all sorts of non-Superman like qualities. Where Superman was all about truth, justice and the American way, Bizarro Superman, I believe, liked: misinformation, Judge Judy, and communism.

Bizarro Superman

But what of Bizarro Billy Ocean? Well, as you may recall, the original Billy Ocean sold millions of albums instructing you to enter your car (he never really said what to do once you get in there, but we’ll assume it was drive) and subsequently exit his dreams.

Therefore, a Bizarro Billy Ocean (BBO), would be instructing you to exit your car and suddenly find yourself in his dreams – his dreams of alternative transportation no doubt! Being BBO, he would no doubt be giving away his catchy instructive song on iTunes rather than raking in the millions.

Bizarro Billy Ocean (BBO)

This is all a very long winded way of saying, its time to dump that car (SUV, truck, stretch limo, etc), and see what Dubai’s roads have to offer beyond 4 wheels! This could be on two wheels (my favourite), no wheels (that would be walking), or perhaps many wheels (I believe buses have more than four).

In terms of cycling as an alternative to driving (I’ll get to the other modes later), its not really as bad as you would think, and I know exactly what you think! For I can read minds, or perhaps just bulletin boards – the collective wisdom of the masses. Take for instance this wonderful post which shows up on the first page when you Google, “cycling Dubai”:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=392867

Our friend Julie is a keen biker from Great Britain (land of track bike champions), and asks a valid question, can I ride in Dubai?

julieaddison

cycling? Fitness?

Just read somewhere cycling is not done in dubai due to the traffic and many parks prohibit cycling. Does anyone cycle? Quite a fitness addict, running and cycling, but also attend many classes at the gym, are there fitness classes and gyms that can be joined and used regularly? Thanks in advance Julie

Of course this is Dubai, so the reply is not positive. As everyone knows, cycling here is crazy yo!

BMW 318i

Re: cycling? Fitness?

Lots of people cycle in the gated communities as the roads are quiet, wife-swapping gets boring, and it is relatively safe. However, for the other parts of Dubai, it is only recommended if you are planning to die. Non-GC (gated community) people stick to the cycling machine in their gym, because it means they can watch TV, eat, and smoke simultaneously.

Hmmm, that doesn’t sound very encouraging. Somehow though, I doubt this person has ridden a bicycle since they were say 9 years old, note, their screen name is BMW 318i!! I assume they would say the same thing about cycling in NY or London since there are scary cars there too, ready to run them down. Remarkably both London and NY have quite a few commuter cyclists, why the difference in Dubai?

The answer is I believe - perception. While the drivers here are slightly more brazen than other large western cities, and the roadway layouts far from perfect, Dubai is not really that bad of a place to ride. I have been pedaling the mean streets of Dubai daily for well over two months now and have not faced a serious threat to life and limb. Yes, dirivers here can be brash and egotistical, but no one is out to run you down. The problem is no one knows this! Thus, the conception, nay, impetus for this blog; I am here to let the world know it is possible to ride your bike in Dubai!!! It seems all of the info out there in the blogo-webo-sphere-o is being proffered by the likes of the above BMW driver, and not informed cyclists.

To be fair, other posters in the forum mention the Dubai Roadsters rides as an outlet for your cycling fancy. I am all for roadies (I am in fact am sometimes a roadie in my spare time) but this blog is more about riding your bike as a form of transport (or walking, or taking transit). There is a definite lack of positive information about commuter cycling in Dubai out there on the web. I also believe there are people out there who might give it a go if they had the right info. Hopefully this blog will help fill the gap.