Bike Lanes in Dubai's future? Probably Not

As I mentioned recently, there doesn't seem to be much progress on the Bicycle Master Plan front. None of the phase one routes are being built, and they haven't even bothered to stencil bicycles onto the beach road path (a recommendation of the BMP). I did recently discover Dubai does indeed have a bicycle stencil, as I saw some bicycle pavement markings approaching the beach path (not to be confused with the beach road path). I had heard about the beach path, but hadn't actually seen it until recently. I think that mainly has to do with the fact that it goes from no-where to no-where. Literally, there is only one way to get on, and it's in the middle. I personally can't think of anything more boring than riding around in circles which is probably why I hadn't ever seen it before (and why I don't drive out to Nad Al Sheeba to ride). You might as well get a trainer and ride your bike in your living room while watching footage of the Tour de France - it would be more interesting.

Speaking of recent discoveries, I attended City Scape last week (or was that two weeks back? I am a bit lazy in my blogging duties), and was quite impressed with the Meraas Jumeriah Gardens project. Not only was I impressed that they had the cajones to exhibit a model (since they clearly are not working on the project, they knocked down half of Satwa and then sat on their collective hands), but I was also impressed by their actual vision for their development (should they ever actually build it).

It seems the Meraas folks are new urbanists! Everywhere you looked there was dense development, public transportation, walkable streets (with closely spaced signalled intersections), and... wait for it.... BIKE LANES! Not even just bike lanes, bike lanes and bike boxes at the intersections! They even went so far as to have little cyclists in their models. It was truely heartwarming to see.

There are 16 bikes on the first block alone! But in a bow to reality, two buses are blocking the bike lanes

Not so sure if putting the bike box in the crosswalk would be standard practice, but I like the grassy median and the sidewalk cafe!

I really like that they were on-street bike lanes as well. I don't think cycle tracks are going to work very well in this city since no one bothers to stop, much less look when making right turns (and thus you would need to come to a halt at every intersection and wait for traffic). If you want to actually get anywhere, you are going to have to mix it up with traffic.

The more I ride around Dubai, the more convinced I am that they should shelve their BMP and just take about 35cm from each travel lane and donate it to a bike lane (a three lane road like 312 road behind DIFC could easily handle a nice 1.05m wide bike lane). Standard lanes in Dubai are 3.5m wide, and must be a minimum of 3.0m, so there is plenty of room. Also, narrowing lanes generally leads to slightly lower speeds, which is an added bonus!

I had heard of the Jumeriah Gardens development before, and besides that whole tearing down half of Satwa thing, I thought it was brilliant in that they decided to build it right in the middle of the city rather than off in never never land (AKA Dubai-land, or some other hard to reach location). The only way this city will ever become a true city is if it creates a dense core and makes that core incredibly pedestrian, transit and bicycle friendly. I always thought the high rise district along SZR was a bit silly; who centers their city around a highway? Plus, its all too linear. Some of the new buildings in the DIFC will help on the east side of SZR, but the Jumeriah Gardens development would really flesh out the area and make it a dense urban district. Then all you have to do is submerge SZR between the trade center roundabout and the 1st interchange and cover it up with a park! Could you imagine? It would restore the street grid to the area and make the whole district one piece again.

Bike Culture in Car-land

Recently whilst trawling the blogosphere for interesting liveable streets news I came across a link to an interesting article in LA Magazine, Postscript: Bike Culture. It’s a rather in-depth piece on cycling culture in LA; from the established bike coalitions to the newer hipster infused Midnight Ridazz. The article examines the rise of the nascent bike culture in LA, which until recently couldn’t boast much in the way of cyclists, much less a movement, especially when compared to cities like San Francisco and Portland.

It really has to be one of the first pieces I have read which both accurately depicts the constituent parts of cycling culture and cycling advocacy, without devolving into trite stereotypes. Not once is the word spandex mentioned, which is something of a milestone in itself for an article covering cycling. The closest they come is, “type-A roadies”, which I would say is not an unfair description of roadies and avoids the ever present clichés.

LA is apparently a huge melting pot of bike culture (which must be quite recent since I was quite lonely when riding around several years ago). The older guard is represented by the LA County Bicycle Coalition, a traditional advocacy group. In the middle are dedicated bicycle advocates working alone or in groups to lobby / harass those in charge to make changes to the streetscape and ingrained anti-bike attitude of some city agencies (namely the police). On the very left you have a whole array of newer riders, some drawn in by advocacy, but many purely for the alternative culture. Whereas many cities have one critical mass ride per month, LA can sometimes reach double digits.

Critical mass, Midnight Ridazz, C.R.A.N.K MOB, Crimanimalz; each has a different M.O. Midnight Ridazz are more critical mass-ish, but the C.R.A.N.K. MOB appears to be more of a roving bicycle rave, and Crimanimalz like to ride on the freeways during bumper to bumper traffic to illustrate the futility of the automobile. How is it that so many different groups popped up in a city like LA? Is it a backlash to the reigning car culture? A sudden mass migration from San Francisco? The article posits that perhaps these groups will provide the necessary “sip of Kool-Aid” that will sell people on joining the larger bike culture (commuting, running errands, regular advocacy, etc).

Midnight Ridazz, who perhaps should be called Midnight Standazz, as I could find very few photos of them actually riding (perhaps they can't cycle and shoot at the same time)

One of the advocates who straddles the line between the ‘anarchist’ mass rides and the more mainstream advocacy groups has a great website about ‘vehicular cycling’ called cyclistview.com. A topic I believe I covered earlier, but warrants another mention here. The basic concept is ‘taking a lane’, that is, taking the space that the law gives you. If you ride in the gutter, you just make it easier for cars to pass you without giving you enough space. If you ride out into the lane, they will firstly SEE you, and second, need to change lanes to go around you. Some might call it being obstructionist, but I (and many others) see it as being safe, and riding within the law. I believe it is THE best way to ride in Dubai given the shenanigans of some motorists here. People may honk, but they will not run you down. Stand your ground!

Be the little green man!

The thing that intrigues me about the article is that this is all taking place in LA! LA, a place that is not all that dissimilar to Dubai in terms of physical layout and near universal allegiance to the motor car. LA faces many of the same physical obstacles as Dubai in becoming a slightly less hostile place to ride. LA DOT’s bike coordinator is interviewed for the piece and basically cops to being unable to help out much at all. To take away parking or a lane of traffic is beyond her remit and for others – political suicide. I would imagine a similar fate for bicycle infrastructure here.
LA is in the midst of drafting a bicycle master plan (coincidentally authored by the same planning firm which wrote Dubai’s BMP). From what I have read it is not going very well, with some activists advocating for torching the current plan and starting over. Apparently the plan bows a little to far towards status quo and auto / traffic interests and doesn’t do much to relieve the plight of cyclists. After looking at the Dubai BMP and speaking with those involved, I am quite sure something similar happened here. Not that the RTA is actually implementing the plan anyhow, but what they have approved is basically window dressing and not much help at all for anyone who actually wants to get around town on a bike in an efficient manner.

I seriously doubt that Dubai will ever spontaneously sprout a ‘bike culture’ like those in LA or Portland. Everyone sites the weather, but its not really much of a factor most of the year. As I have said before it is much more a psychological block. On top of that, I don’t really think Dubai has the right ethnographic mix of people to support a diverse bike culture. They’ve got the roadie bit down, and a few mountain bikers sprinkled around, but where are the young, just out of college, idealistic, artsy people who make up the bulk of most cities thriving cultural scene. I don’t think this is really the place they would choose to move – and I don’t blame them really.

Almost Famous

I debated about posting about this, but in the end decided I am not quite as famous as I had hoped I would be, so anonimity seems less useful (and I am leaving town soon).

YES, it was me in the National last week. That blockbuster below the fold article about a hapless young(ish) man who does not own a car in Dubai, but rather gets 'sticky' when he rides to work on his bicycle. Now the young(ish) man has a new alternative; the metro! Along with his trusty sidekick - Senior Brompton, he flies effortlessly to the metro station (easily beating the trailing auto-bound photographer (OK, so I ran a couple of lights)).

As far as I know, its the only non-roadsters, non-it will be here someday bicycle master plan, article I have seen in Dubai. Only in Dubai would I make the paper for riding my bike to work. Hopefully a couple of people read it and hopefully a couple of those people might think, hey, maybe I'll try that! Wolfi should stock up now, them babies gunna be flying off the shelf!


They must have taken about 500 photos, suppose they picked this one since it has the metro station in the background. Thank God they picked one where I wasn't wearing my helmet! Would have been dork-ville central.

Just for the record:

1. It is still quicker to ride the whole way than to ride and fold and take the metro (even when you take into account changing)
2. I never said 'sticky', I prefer, 'icky gross', or 'sweaty beast'
3. I do hope that more people start cycling, but not just when it gets cooler. Come on peeps, learn to love your sweat!