State of the pedal update

It’s been a while since I have posted about cycling – one might think I had given up on it or something. As my loyal reader will note, I NEVER give up on cycling! I guess I have just been preoccupied with other topics lately. I suppose it’s time we had an update, so welcome to my ‘State of Cycling’ post.

The biggest news on the cycling front is the arrival (FINALLY) of my new (old) frame for my fixed gear bike. If you read my post about the multitudes of bikes in my proverbial stable you may remember I had a fixed gear bike converted from an old Yokota road bike my friend John had given me. I ended up riding it into the ground (figuratively, not literally), and fracturing the head tube – rendering it rather useless for riding. Subsequently I went on a fruitless odyssey looking for a replacement frame, only to find one when I wasn’t looking for it (who knew my replacement frame was in Australia?).

I originally bought the replacement frame last November, but due to a many factors, I didn’t actually receive it until I was in London on my re-secondment (I’ve never been seconded from a secondment before! Very meta). It was a looooong wait, but totally worth it. I love my new (old) bike, and ride it to work every day now here in Dubai (when I don't wuss out and ride the Brompton to the metro).

I am fairly certain I am the only person in Dubai rockin’ a fixed gear bike, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that point. I’m not exactly your standard fixed gear freestylin’ hipster (I even have trouble doing track stands), but I do really enjoy the ride and agree with all the other platitudes people use about fixies (you feel connected to the bike, feel the road, etc). Plus, the minimalism appeals to me.

Also on the bicycle blotter, I finally went out for a cruise with the Friday Morning Fanatics (AKA. Wolfi’s wolf pack, AKA the Roadsters). A friend from work caught the cycling bug (unfortunately not the commuter cycling strain) a couple of months back and had been nagging me to come along for a Friday ride. I’ve never had anything against the ride, I just never really wanted to get up that early (unless it was to run 20 miles into the dessert).

I think what finally changed my mind was a recent ride I did in Massachusetts while I was on holiday. The trip was planned around attending my friend John’s wedding (the same guy that gave me the Yokota which turned into my first fixie, the only man with more bikes than me). John is an incredible athlete (we used to Adventure race and hash together), and his new wife is also an adventure racer and all around athlete, so the days leading up to their wedding were a crazy sports carnival (and drink fest). There was yoga in the morning, then a mini adventure race, followed by a ‘grooms road ride’ on the morning of the wedding, then I went kayaking, followed by a run.

In case you are wondering, "why did you bring a bike 8000 miles to a wedding?" Well, we didn't fly them over, just rented the bikes in Boston and rode down to the wedding. Oh, and after the wedding we did a 3 day bike tour up through southern Mass and Cape Cod - sweeeeet! I must give big props to my better half, who managed to fit all of her wedding kit (including hair dryer) and clothes for a week and a half into two medium sized panniers - Boo ya ka!

The weather was horrible for the grooms road ride – sheets of rain were falling, and I hadn’t ridden in a pack for a while, but I had the best time on the ride. I’ve never been a huge roadie, but that ride made me want to come out and try one of the roadsters Friday flings.

I have a big problem with driving somewhere just to ride your bike, especially when it is just across town; so I decided to ride over and meet up with the pack as they passed Safa Park. The website said a group would usually wait there for the main group, and it was easier (and quicker) to get to than the lime tree. I arrived around 5:30 and saw a group waiting, it wasn’t long before another group rolled up and we rode off to the east.

My friend had mentioned there would be a rest stop at 40km in, so when 50km rolled by I started to wonder what was going on. I asked a guy next to me and he said this group actually leaves earlier than the regular group, only stops once rather than twice and rode about 130km. Hmmmm, seems I had joined the wrong group – no one had mentioned the earlier group, my friend or the website, honest mistake.

I figured I could easily do the distance, but I was slightly concerned about the pace. How right I was. After about 60k, and without much warning, everyone took off like rabbits. I hung on for a while, but didn’t manage to catch the pack and they slowly pulled away doing about 28mph (I was managing 26, close, but no cigar). In retrospect I should have dug a bit harder to pull back up to the back of the group as it is much easier to draft than fight it out on your own, but I was under the mistaken assumption that they were doing a relatively short sprint. Such is life.

After about 5 minutes I managed to lose sight of them completely, but was saved (or so I thought) by a lone straggler who I figured had fallen off the back as well. After 10 minutes of pushing hard I managed to catch up to the straggler, only to find out the guy was out riding solo and not with the pack at all. I was never really worried, as I have a rather keen sense of direction, but I really wanted to know where that darn gas station was (I could have used a snack). I managed to make my way back home without any problem, averaging a pretty decent pace might I add.

My only regret is I didn’t bring anything to gnaw on, only two bottles of water (as I was expecting to stop at a gas station with the group and buy something). I was rather beat by the time I got home since I didn’t make any pit stops. Even so, I made an extra lap around the neighborhood to make sure the odometer read 100k rather than 98.7k. Total time – 2 hrs 50 min, which gave me an average pace of 21 mph, not too shabby for a guy who normally only rides 10k each way to work!

I may go out for another ride with the Roadsters (in a different group of course), but I can’t say I am all that fussed about it. I thought I would like it more after I had so much fun on the ‘grooms road ride’, but perhaps that was because I was riding with friends. Riding in a pack is nice, you can cruise along without much effort in the slipstream, but in the end, I think I would rather spend my time out exploring and wandering.

Driven to Distraction

Even though I was away, I didn’t forget about Dubai or its myriad of traffic woes. I kept tabs on the local press, searching out articles on traffic and the metro. I must say I have been very impressed with the recent reporting in The National concerning road safety. After the WHO report on traffic fatalities came out they stepped up the to plate and have been doing a good job of highlighting the woeful inadequacies of the built environment in the UAE as well as the horrendous local driving practices.

My favourite article was headlined, Young motorists 'fear ridicule' , on August 13th. I was excited to see the story as I had read a similar storey previously, but I was never able to figure out where I saw it. The basic jist is, young Emirates drive like complete nimrods because they are afraid of what their friends will say if they drive safely. It’s apparently even uncool to wear a seatbelt. I’d totally rather die than be uncool!

I suppose a certain percentage of the youth in any country can be pointed to as being complete morons. In LA one would perhaps join a gang, deal some drugs, and perhaps shoot at someone from a moving car. Here, drugs and gangs don’t seem to be so cool, so hey, instead let’s drive at high speed while swerving between lanes without signalling!

I think the driver behaviour here is a symptom of a larger problem with this society. The people who engage in these behaviours obviously lack some sort of key personality trait that links behaviour with consequence. They are basically kings of the castle, running around with big boys toys and little to no impetus to act in a way that benefits anyone but themselves. I’m not saying that every Emirate acts in such a way, but clearly there are enough doing so that one runs into them every single day – even on a short commute.

There is a definite sense of entitlement wizzing through the air here. For example, just last night I was hunkered down at the fish shack near Um Suqeim park enjoying some tasty fried fish and prawns. We were merrily munching away, sitting at our plastic table in a dirt lot when a car (piloted by locals) pulled up and started honking. It continued to honk until the waiter finally went over and spoke with them. Basically, they couldn’t be bothered to actually get out of their car to order their food! It happened more than once while we were eating, which was quite annoying. I finally yelled at another car to try walking into the restaurant themselves. They ended up tearing off in a huff – sans fish. It’s not like it was terribly hot outside, or there was no parking. They apparently just thought it was beneath them to actually lift a finger for their meal.

In terms of crazy road behaviour, it’s hard to top an email I recently received from a colleague. He sent around some photos that he took while driving home on Emirates Rd. Incredibly (or not so incredibly for Dubai), what he described was a series of about 20 cars driving down the highway at 120 kph with several people hanging out the windows and one guy literally sitting on the roof. As if that wasn’t enough, someone jumped from the roof of one car to another and then climbed in the window (unfortunately that wasn’t captured on film).

This isn’t an isolated incident either. Another friend told me last National Day he was driving to Abu Dhabi and saw a guy sitting on the roof of a car doing 120 kph as well. Another guy he saw had his seat fully reclined and was steering the car with his feet.

OK, so I have heard of this in the US as well, but more than likely this similar behaviour would also include a rural farm road and take place at well after midnight. This was a crowded Emirates Rd at 6pm on a weekday! WTF? Are they all training to be stuntmen? Have they watched one too many re-runs of CHiPs? It’s no wonder everyone drives like maniacs, they have little to no sense of consequence for personal danger – where were the cops? Are the lives of these young Emirates otherwise extremely boring? Do they need this in order to feel ‘alive’? I am genuinely curious.

Of course these were just outlandish examples of bravado by the young (and brain dead). In fact, the people actually driving were probably doing so a bit safer than normal since their friends were hanging out on top of the car. The real problem is the everyday driving habits of these same guys. If they don’t think sitting on top of a car is risky, then changing lanes at high speed without signalling is a bit of a yawn. But it’s all of those little decisions that they make that cause all of the big accidents.

Disturbingly, the actions of certain reckless drivers are apparently more contagious than swine flu. According to a recent article – again in The National – “Bad driving spreads like a “virus” among motorists who copy others’ negative behaviour and flout the law”. I have totally noticed this trend in Dubai, and I am glad someone has actually gone and quantified it (the study was done by a researcher from UAE University in Al Ain). I see westerners, who have completely been undone by the defacto ‘rules of the road’ here in Dubai. They drive more aggressively and more dangerously than they would at home, simply because everyone else is doing it and there is an utter lack of enforcement.

I have had colleagues tell me they didn’t realize how bad of drivers they had become until they went back to their home countries and hit the roads. They soon realized they were driving like complete lunatics – excessively speeding, tailgating, making unsafe lane changes – practices they rarely engaged in prior to living in Dubai.

What is going on here? What happened to this country? What is it doing to the people who live here? It’s like one of those horror movies where everyone gets turned into Zombies or infected with rage.

According to another article in The National, some people may actually need therapy to curb their whacked out driving. The article also seems to suggest that poor driving by local youth is the result of the breakdown of traditional family life paired with universal teenage unruliness. One teen was quoted saying, “During driving and that rush of adrenaline – the car becomes like ... I’m a superman, and I can do whatever I want to do.” Again, this could probably be a kid from any country, but the major difference here is, no one is stopping him.

Something really needs to happen; a societal change needs to occur. Hopefully the WHO report was the wake-up call that this country needed. Kudos to The National for not letting the report be a blip on the radar. Let’s hope they keep up the heat on the government, and on the residents of this country (local and expat), to make the roads a safer place.

Of course the problems on the road aren’t all caused by poor driving. The built environment itself encourages speeding, and there seems to be little impetus for yielding to more vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists). There is a slight glimmer of hope though, and once again it seems that Abu Dhabi is gaining the upper hand in converting their city to a more liveable place. According to yet another article in The National (they are on a roll), the city has created a new program to upgrade pedestrian crossings. Though small, it is a great first step in rearranging priorities on the road. In Dubai’s defence I have seen several new raised crosswalks dotted around Bur Dubai and Karama, but there doesn’t seem to be even the glimmer of any systematic change in design principles (such as Abu Dhabi’s plan 2030).

Both cities have a long way to go before becoming attractive places for pedestrians (according to the article, Abu Dhabi saw 26 pedestrian deaths in just the first 71 days of the year). Plus, neither of these programs is much more than a bandaid for the real problem, which is roadways which are designed purely to move as many vehicles as possible without regard for pedestrian or cyclist safety. Study after study has shown that roadway design greatly influences driver behaviour, and Dubai’s roadway designs say please speed!
I think it’s time for Dubai to reassess its relationship with the automobile. Hopefully the opening of the Metro will be seen as the moment when a shift started to occur; a shift away from designing for cars, and towards designing for people.

I'm Back! And the Metro is open!

My faithful reader(s?) may have noticed a slight drop off in Dubai Sans Auto blog posts of late. I have never been a consistent poster, but 3 months is a bit of a stretch, so I suppose I owe an explanation. Lately the ‘Dubai’ has been taken out of Dubai Sans Auto. Due to the recent financial… unpleasantness, opportunities for gainful local employment are growing rare for a hard working engineer. Long story short, I was shipped off to jolly olde England for a few months of chargeable time. Do not be alarmed though, rest assured dear reader(s?) as I am Sans Auto Sans Frontiers (i.e. I rode in London)!

I know what you are thinking, I totally bagged on cycling through the summer in Dubai even though I made grand pronouncements about riding all year, but honestly, it wasn’t my decision. Not that I minded being able to run and ride without fear of heat stroke.

I was actually back in Dubai as of late August (and rode in the 44 degree heat), but didn’t manage to post until now. In my defence, I was really busy (and or lazy), and I was only here for two weeks before heading off again (this time on holiday). But now that I am safely ensconced back in Dubai’s hot and humid womb (and less busy), I plan to be like the RTA and ‘Unleash’ a series of stupendous posts.

First of all, let’s pick some of the low hanging fruit:

Metro! Holy moley, it’s actually open! Well, sort of. For one thing, it didn’t actually open on 09-09-09. That really irked me, as I flew out of Dubai on 10-09-09 at 12:30 AM to go on holiday. Here I was thinking I was going to get to ride it to work on the 9th, and BAM! The RTA unleashes a worm into my proverbial celebratory apple. I entered the golden ticket contest, but to no avail. So at 9:09 PM on 09-09-09 I was staring out my window at the celebratory fireworks in the distance, being transported nowhere.

Second gripe, they didn’t open all the stations, and the ones they did open don’t necessarily seem to make much sense. They obviously targeted certain stations to finish on time, so it is rather curious that not a single one was adjacent to the marina which is probably the densest concentration of housing within walking distance to a station.

Third gripe, their information management leaves something to be desired. Up until right before the launch there was scarcely any information about riding the metro available on their website. To find out about fares, zones, timetables, etc one had to search the newspapers for information! Even now, the RTA website doesn’t include the individual feeder bus maps, which by the way are the most unprofessional looking maps I have ever seen. I could do better with Microsoft Paint (which is what it appears they were done in).

I am really having difficulty seeing the RTA’s thinking here (RE website/maps/graphics). If you look in the stations (or even close to the stations) they have really well designed maps and signage, why didn’t they extend that content (and level of design) to their website? I can forgive construction delays and first week delays due to bugs in the system, but they had all the time in the world to come up with a clear and coherent website and content for it. Why did they spend big bucks hiring Satchi and Satchi and not have them make over all of their graphics and info?

Despite the gripes, I was really looking forward to trying out the metro, and rode it to work as soon as I returned to Dubai from holiday. I’ve now ridden it several times, and I have to say I am quite impressed with the stations and how smoothly everything seems to be running (in an inadvertent stroke of luck I managed to miss out on the opening week teething problems).

For my first ride I set off from home and headed to my nearest feeder bus stop, which is a mere 4 minute walk from my front door. I knew approximately where it was supposed to be from the craptastic (looking) map for the F13A route, and I honed in on the exact location by looking out my living room window (we are on the 26th floor) and seeing the bus stop to pick someone up. Upon arriving at the stop I noted there was no sign, but it seems the RTA is experimenting with bus stop sculpture in lieu of signage – my stop is called red hairy moustache shovel tongue man. Dude is totally stoned…

Mr. Moustache bus stop

The morning wasn’t TOO hot, but rather humid. I did start to glisten, but didn’t reach anywhere near even the middle of the ‘MOIST’ scale. Luckily, there is quite a bit of shade near the stop, so it was a fairly pleasant wait. In any case, I only waited 5 minutes for the bus, which arrived nearly empty.

The bus took 13 minutes to reach the financial center station, and that was after just missing several lights. I can’t wait for my local ‘Burj Dubai’ stop to open, as the bus shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. The buses are quite nice and surprise, surprise, the ‘next stop’ screens actually operate correctly! Perhaps the RTA is reading my blog.

Interior of feeder bus with funcioning 'next stop' screen!

Upon arriving it was a short walk to the station, up several escalators, through the gates and up another escalator to the platform. I heard my train being called as I arrived, so I booked it up the escalator and ran onto the train… only to have it sit there for a minute and a half! Soon I discovered this was standard procedure at each stop. Anywhere from one minute 10 to one minute 30 seconds dwell time at each station. I seriously hope this is going to be phased out when the whole line becomes operational because it will easily add 30 minutes to the full trip time which is insane. A dwell time of 10 seconds would be more appropriate, especially for the number of people using the service (not many, there were about 25 people on my train).

Morning commute = empty train

In any case, the train finally pulled away and we hummed along the tracks without incident. The ride is nice and smooth and you can’t beat the view! I only went two stops, so the whole journey took eight and a half minutes. It’s the only time I wished I lived on the other end of town, so I could get a longer ride in. The trains are well appointed and comfortable to ride in. I could do without the background music though.

Upon arriving at Burjuman (Khalid Bin Waleed) station, I made my way above ground and trekked down to my office. Total travel time door to door was 44 minutes. Not too shabby! As a comparison, it usually takes between 20 and 25 min to ride to work, plus 10 min to walk upstairs and change. 10 min extra to arrive non-sweaty is not huge price to pay. Not that I will totally give up on cycling to work, but it is nice to finally have an alternate option!

The stations themselves (at least the two I have seen) are quite spectacular. This is one area where they definitely have everyone else beat - except perhaps Moscow. Though they may even surpass Moscow, check out this chandelier at the Burjuman (Kalid Bin Waleed) station:

The Cosmic Jellyfish chandelier

For the trip home I decided to test plan B, which is metro + folding bike! I had left my Brompton at work while I was on holiday so a colleague could use it for a test ride before deciding to buy one himself, so it was ready and waiting for my ride home.

The Brompton seriously sped up the commute. I even rode it the short distance from the office to the metro saving a couple of minutes. Again, my train arrived just as I was entering the station – there must have been some good karma coming my way after my months of bike commuting. The train was much more crowded than it was during my morning commute; plenty of room to stand, but no seats.

Plenty of room for the trusty Brompton

Commute home is slightly more packed. Check out the 4 posted hand hold!

Upon arriving at financial center station I unfolded and peddled off towards home. The ride only took 11 minutes, but I had decided to do it in my work clothes to see how I scored on the MOIST index. It was still fairly steamy, though no where near mid summer temperatures. I did sweat quite a bit – but not full cycle to work sweatiness. I managed to go out to dinner later in the same outfit without the missus even noticing – i.e. I didn’t stink.

Total travel time for Plan B? 29 minutes! That means the folding bike + Metro is on par with or (slightly) better than riding the whole way (when changing from bike clothes into work clothes is included in the time)! It should be even faster and even less sweaty when the Burj Dubai station opens. I could easily pop down there in 5 minutes on the bike; which in all but the hottest of weather won’t make me sweat horribly.

There is also a plan C, which is riding to the station on a normal bike and locking it up. This option will be slightly longer since I’ll have to walk from the station to the office, but then again, I won’t have to lug the Brompton around either.

So basically I now have a whole range of options for commuting. If I want to get around town, I’ll be taking my Brompton with me, since the feeder bus service is still a bit spotty (and subject to traffic). For getting to work, I’ll either still ride, or ride to the station and park the bike + metro. If I am planning on running home, I’ll catch the feeder bus + metro.

I am totally mobile, and LOVING it!

Riding in Dubai - Trickle down economics

Up until now I have been focusing mainly on the policy, safety and behavioural side of cycling in Dubai, but I realized I have neglected another key issue with regards to riding to work – BO! I would say in terms of excuses why people don’t ride more here, sweat and odour come in a close second to traffic safety issues. Valid point, it can get rather… warm in Dubai, and cycling in higher temperatures obviously makes one perspire – but it doesn’t necessarily make you smell.

I admit that the heat was one of my major concerns when I contemplated moving to Dubai. I figured I could handle cycling in the traffic, but I wasn’t so sure if my office had a shower. It turns out the answer was no, yet somehow (surprisingly even to me) I have managed to get by without one. I did check out the local gym – Fitness First – but they didn’t seem very interested in giving me a shower membership, and I was definitely uninterested in paying over 400 Dirham a month just to take a shower (I have a free gym in my apartment building, plus I don’t even like gyms – boring!!).

I resolved to stick it out, and perhaps resort to the gym when things got really bad weather-wise. So far, I still have managed to snub the gym! This pleases me, since I generally dislike gyms and I don’t really feel like giving them loads of cash. How did I do it? Quite simple really – I practice good hygiene.

Several factors are involved in my gym-snubbing good fortune. First off, my ride to work isn’t all that far, roughly 10 kilometres, which takes me an average of 20 to 25 minutes to cover. Second, a good portion of my trip (approximately 30 to 40%) is shaded - this is quite important, as direct solar radiation feels a LOT hotter than the ambient temperature. Third, I dress the part – I tend to eschew anything cotton in favour of breathable wicking fabrics. Fourth, I shower right before riding to work, and finally, I am fit, and therefore am slightly better equipped to expel excess heat than someone who is carrying a bit more baggage.

Sun dappled palm tree shade, the gold standard of shades!

Metro Shade, not quite a palm tree, but quite handy

As you can see, the first four variables can be influenced quite easily by each individual cyclist. I chose the location of my domicile to be near my workplace, I chose a route to work that was partially shaded and I obviously choose what I wear to work each day and how often I wash myself. To an extent, everyone also chooses how fit they are, and cycling can be a great way to improve that fitness!

I’ve noticed a definite variation in the distance I can cycle each morning prior to starting to sweat. This distance seems to be dropping precipitously by the day as the weather heats up; I call it the MOIST index (Moment Of Identifiable Sweat Trickle). The recent rise in humidity has driven the MOIST index to an all time low of 5 minutes recently; marked by an unmistakable bead of sweat on my upper lip by the time I reach 312 Road. I am sure if I went helmetless I could bump my MOIST score up at least one or two points, but it would be a bit of a moot issue since I am generally soaked when getting to work anyhow. Back in February, I could easily get to Zabeel 2 Road, or even sometimes the Trade Center Roundabout before becoming MOIST, ah, the good old days.

The MOIST Index - 6 month trend

Sweating when riding to work in Dubai is inevitable, even in the winter. This doesn’t automatically mean that one will smell though, and therein lies the big difference! Sweat actually doesn’t smell like much of anything, most of what our sweat glands produce is 99% water with some salt and potassium thrown in. What makes humans smell offensive ‘after’ sweating is bacteria. Everyone carries around a churning sea of bacteria with them both internally and externally. The bacteria in our guts helps break down food (and produces gas), while the bacteria on our skin laps up sweat and produces smelly acids as a by-product (the same acids found in smelly cheeses!). However, only the sweat glands in our pits and genitals, the aprocrine glands produce a viscous substance containing fat and protein that the bacteria feed on. That is why those regions produce so much odour.

My secret to smelling fresh as a daisy at work is to shower right before I leave in the morning, and then wipe down with a washcloth and re-apply deodorant before I change into my work clothes (lucky for me, there is a nice Superman changing room adjacent to my office – aka the disabled bathroom). I still manage to sweat for a good 10 or 15 minutes after changing and sitting down at my desk, but most of that sweat isn’t from my aprocrine glands, and the bit that is gets taken care of by the deodorant. True, it is a bit of a pain to carry another set of clothes and change when I get in, but like anything, once it becomes routine it’s not so bad.

When the Metro rolls around later this year, things will be even easier. As you can see from my MOIST chart, even in rather balmy weather I don’t start to perspire until around 5 minutes (meaning I can most likely ride in my work clothes, saving even more time). My nearest Metro station can be reached easily within that time frame, and I’ll bet the bike will be much more convenient than the feeder bus. If the RTA manages to install the 30 bike racks at each station that they have promised, my trip to work will be incredibly easy. I will still ride to work most days, but it will be a nice fallback for those days I am feeling a bit lazy!

Fare is Fair

The RTA today finally 'unleashed' their fare structure for the new metro system! The news was actually broken by the paper Xpress on June 4th, but I have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks.

As I figured, the fares are quite fair (har har), with the priciest ticket – a ride from one end to the other in ‘gold class’ coming in at AED 11.8, bargain! That is almost the same as a one zone ticket bought with an Oyster card discount on the London Underground, and slightly more expensive than a ride on the New York City Subway (no zones in NYC). I don’t think that either NY or London’s trains could be considered ‘gold’ by any stretch of the imagination either.

For your more average ride the fare will be even cheaper. There are a total of five zones, but the maximum fare is for three zones, i.e. if you travel between 4 or 5 zones the fare will be the same as for 3 zones. Further, there are discounts for pre-paid cards as opposed to single ride tickets (like the Oyster card). If you are going 3km or less, the price is even cheaper than the single zone fare. Here is the breakdown (all fares in AED):

A quick look at the price structure reveals that the gold glass is double the silver class and the student / senior fare is half of the prepay silver class fare (this would make sense since you need to get a special card for students and seniors and thus would be pre-paying).

The monthly rate is a bargain, with a 3+ zone monthly card coming in at a very reasonable AED 270 (cheaper than a monthly in NYC), two zones for AED 180 and one zone for AED 100. They only give the 3+ zone fare for Students and elderly (170 and 200 respectively), so I am not sure if there is a discount for shorter journeys (I would imagine so). A day pass is set at 14 dirham, though I would suspect this is only for one zone, no word on how much it will be for additional zones.

The cards are good for all forms of RTA transit including: Metro, Bus, and Water bus. One fare is good on all modes within each journey. According to RTA chief Mattar Al Tayer (via Xpress):

Using a unified card, riders can pay a single fare to ride the metro within one zone and then catch a bus within 30 minutes free of charge. The single fare will cover all transportation up to three transfers in one zone for a total 180 minutes, he said.

The ever cheery Tayer, shows off the blue Nol card - but where is his photo?

The fare structure will extend to the buses as well, so bus fares will be going up rather dramatically in some cases. For instance the X25 (which I rode when I first arrived in Dubai) from the Marina to Al Gubaibah bus station is currently a 2 dirham flat fare; under the new structure it would cost a minimum of 5.80 dirham, a 290% increase (assuming the distance would be at least 3 zones – a reasonable guess). Though this is still cheaper than taking the bus in New York.

The minimum fares will be available to those who buy the permanent ‘Nol’ card (which means fare in Arabic). These are available for 6 dirham, though you need to spend 20 dirham to purchase one – 6 goes to the cost of the card and the remaining 14 dirham goes towards your fare. You can add up to 500 dirham of value to your card at any one time.

The cards will come in four different varieties; silver, gold, blue and red. The silver card allows you to ride in regular silver class, and the gold in uppity gold class. The blue card is a registered card and will feature your smiling mug on the front. The blue card will also allow you to manage your account online and receive a refund if your card is stolen; they can be used for either gold or silver fares. The red cards will consist of paper tickets which can be used for up to 10 journeys or for 5 days maximum, there is no extra cost to purchase the red ticket.



The zones seem to be set up for quite a bit of system expansion, as the majority of rides at the moment will most likely fall within two zones. Here is the zone map:

Metro to the danger zone

Zones 3 and 4 aren't going to see a whole lot of use at first, and zone 1 seems applicable only to those working in Jebel Ali. I have lucked out, as it appears I will both live and work in zone 5, making my journey cheap, cheap, cheap!

All in all, I think the RTA has done a fairly good job. It seems like even the gold class fares are reasonably cheap. If the fares end up including free transfers to the buses, I would sum up my reaction in two words, bargain mate!

Dead Wrong?

Since I had been away for awhile I decided to check in with the local rag trade to see what doings were a transpiring in Dubai lately. For a while there it seemed that cycle-related stories were popping up left and right, but no such luck these days. Perhaps they should do a story on me, that crazy white dude riding a bike to work!

There was some interesting streets-related news though. Both the National and Gulf News had stories on the recently released World Heath Organization (WHO) study: Global Status Report on Road Safety.

WHO?

It seems (to no-one’s surprise) that the UAE is ranked quite poorly with a whopping 37 deaths per 100,000 rating (PHT). That is, each year 37 out of every 100,000 people in the country die in vehicle related crashes. Compared to other countries ranked in the high-income category (i.e. developed countries), the UAE has THE worst fatality rate.


In the high income category (where one would expect well designed roads, safe vehicles and traffic enforcement) The next closest is Saudi Arabia, which comes in at 29 PHT, followed by Qatar at 23.7 PHT. After that it drops down to 21.7 in the British Virgin Islands (which is probably skewed since there are only 23,000 residents and 5 fatalities) and then down to 16.9 PHT in Kuwait. There appears to be some sort of death wish going on in the Gulf States.

So who is WORSE than the UAE? Only 7 countries on earth rate that distinction, and none of them have a per capita income anywhere near the UAE.

Eritrea, 48.4 PHT, $230 per capita income (PCI)
Cook Islands, 45 PHT*, $13,098 PCI
Egypt, 41.6 PHT, $1580 PCI
Afghanistan, 39 PHT, $319 PCI
Iraq, 38.1 PHT, $1646 PCI
Angola, 37.7 PHT, $2560 PCI
Niger, 37.7 PHT, $280 PCI

So, lets see here; we have Eritrea, 6th poorest nation on earth, the cook islands (probably another anomaly due to low population, they had only 6 deaths), Egypt – a known driving crazytown, two war zones (Iraq and Afganistan), and two former war zones (Angola and Niger). Why is the UAE ranking up there with failed states? Look at the road infrastructure – brand spanking new, built to international standards. There is an operational police force who just last month handed out 107,000 traffic fines in Dubai alone!

Compare the UAE’s rate with other nations who have a similar per capita income, like say the USA, where there is a similar highway and car culture, but only 13.9 PHT, or the UK, with a startlingly low 5.4! The UK rate may be somewhat attributed to greater transit use, but the US has a similarly low percentage of transit users, and as far as I know the UAE uses the exact same AASHTO highway design standards. So why is the fatality rate in the UAE nearly 3 times higher?

So where does the blame lie? I would put in squarely at the feet of motorists. Just this morning on the way to work I had someone pass me at well over 100kph in a residential neighborhood side street with a 40 kph speed limit. What exactly is the point of that? Where do these people need to be in such a huge hurry? I am sure they aren’t keeping the same pace after leaving their cars. I have yet to see anyone dashing out the drivers door and sprinting down the street to their destination.

Of course its not just speed, anyone who has driven from Dubai to Abu Dhabi can tell you people completely lose their heads once they leave the city; weaving in and out of traffic at high speed, tailgating within inches of your bumper and flashing the brights if you don’t get out of the way – complete chaos!

The sad thing is people take it as some sort of given, as though driver behavior here is willed by God or something. The recent moves by Dubai to add more (as well as new and improved) speed cameras are a good first step, as are the speed-table crosswalks I have seen popping up around Bur Dubai. But these measures are too few and too far between. Dubai seems to have built itself into a corner here. They have enabled a culture of fast and reckless driving and now they are paying the price.

Its not just motorists who are affected either, a full 28% of fatalities are pedestrians – over 250 people a year! I am sure many of these deaths can be attributed to the complete and utter lack of convenient road crossings. Its as though the planners completely forgot that people have legs and just assumed everyone would naturally drive everywhere.

The Death Pie

Lets hope the government sees this report as a wake up call. Do you suppose a nation can be shamed into action?

A Tale of Two Cities

My loyal readers (I know there is more than one now!) may have noticed a bit of a drop off in my posting of late. Part of this may be attributed to shear laziness, but more-so to the absence of my honk inducing presence on the streets of Dubai. No, I haven’t given up riding – I’ve been on holiday! Sure, I booked the tickets in order to go to a wedding, but it also gave me a great opportunity to objectively compare my riding experience here in Dubai with that in New York City.

I hadn’t been back to New York since last November, and on that trip I wasn’t able to get out and ride due to time constraints. Plus, recently there has been a rash of new bicycle and pedestrian projects popping up all over the city thanks to the new leadership at the DOT. There are now several on-street protected bike lanes, along with loads of new standard class 2 bike lanes and a host of new pedestrian plazas – most strikingly in Times Square!

8th Avenue Cycle Track

I worked in Times Square for 7 years and did battle daily with the heaving masses of humanity coursing down the sidewalks. Talk about level of service problems, the sidewalks in Times Sq. would easily get an F if anyone actually cared to measure it. There have to be more people passing through on foot than in cars, yet cars take up, or shall I say took up, a lions share of the space. The only place in the city that I could see being worse off is 7th Ave and 34th St around Penn Station. At least there most people are commuters know what they are doing. Times Sq. is chock full of gawking tourists who walk erratically, slowly and stop suddenly without warning – much like children now that I think about it. I suppose this is due to the fact that wherever it is they come from, no one walks to get anywhere. Its more a strolling through the mall on a Sunday afternoon kind of crowd. I had a chance to visit the new layout in Times Square, and it is in one word, AWESOME. It is so much more pleasant to move around now, and it appears that both locals and tourists love the new layout. Even a cabbie admitted it helped out the traffic flow.

Broadway through Times Square (photo from NY Times)

Anyhow, I am getting ahead of myself. What I really wanted to find out was if my claim was correct that Dubai was no less difficult to ride around than New York or London. It’s always difficult to gauge rival experiences since it is impossible to actually be in both places at the same time. I could however manage to be in two different places within a day or so, which despite my notoriously bad memory, would provide me with a pretty good comparison.

I had always sort of been able to compare Dubai with NYC, but not so much NYC with Dubai since I hadn’t been back since moving here, it’s a strange distinction, but I think it holds water (one being a bit more distinct in memory than the other). The thing that really struck me and that I seemed to have not noticed earlier was the massive difference in average road speeds and how this affected the ‘feel’ of the street. New York has some fairly wide avenues to rival some of the larger streets in Dubai (not the great wall of SZR, but we’ll confine our comparison to surface streets). However, what New York also has is an abundance of cross streets (one every 80m) and a 30 mph (48kph) speed limit that is mostly obeyed (mainly because the lights are timed to flow at 30 mph). The massive difference in speeds made an equally massive difference in perception of the street. It ‘felt’ calm, at least in comparison to where I had just came from.

It was really a very strange feeling. I had lived in NYC for so long, and felt a certain way about the traffic – too fast, too loud, etc – but now here I was exposed to the exact same scene and I found it near bucolic! It was amazing, sort of like stepping out of a sensory deprivation chamber or something; this is what a real city feels like!

I was eager to get on the bike and try out the new bicycle infrastructure. Since many of my bikes were weeping gently in Dubai, awaiting my return, and I was travelling with my better half – we opted for the tandem. This is not the most comfortable bike to ride due to some gearing, geometry and seat issues (oh, and a bent pedal), but it’s quite nice since you can have a conversation and of course I get to drive.

The biggest coup was that we (cough) ‘forgot’ to bring helmets with us. I will generally wear a helmet whilst cycling around NYC, but for some reason don’t feel the need when I hop on the Schwinn. Perhaps it’s the relaxed pace, or the upright seating position, but I just feel safer. Seeing as how the tandem has one gear and a very low maximum speed, I wasn’t incredibly worried, but my riding partner is generally something of a helmet-Nazi, so this was a rare treat. I feel riding without a helmet (though perhaps slightly more unsafe if one gets in an accident) makes me feel more human somehow. I feel a smaller divide between me and the peds. I am less of a vehicle and more of a hyper-mobile human!

We headed south from my hilltop hideaway in newly landmarked Audubon Park (Washington Heights), down the Hudson River Greenway. It wasn’t long before I got my first taste of new bicycle infrastructure as they had completed a section of the greenway through Harlem in my absence.

Hudson River Greenway in Harlem

What was formerly a Fairway Supermarket parking lot was now a lovely riverside park with a separated bike path – Bueno! Further on down the path I saw the genesis of the long awaited 83rd street greenway connector (only up to the piling stage at the moment). At present one must divert landside up a big hill and back, but soon we’ll be able to stay waterside the whole trip from Battery Park City to the GWB.

By the time we reached midtown the inadequacies of the tandem were starting to take their toll on the booty, so we stopped for a spell at the newly renovated pier 66. Lucky for us the Lightship Frying Pan had just recently received its operating license from the city and we were able to sit back and enjoy a brew with an amazing view of the city and the river.

When we hit the village I turned left and headed inland. It wasn’t long before we found a nice cross-town bike lane (now painted green to stand out better), and cruised along easily over to the east village for some sushi. After lunch it we meandered over to Williamsburg Brooklyn, finding ourselves on bike lanes a good portion of the way. The massive increase in bike lanes was frankly spectacular – they seemed to be everywhere! It wasn’t that riding without them was that much of a problem, but riding IN them was something of a treat. Also of note was the stunning increase in cyclists. To be fair, it was a very pleasant day, but there were bikes everywhere. Quite a significant increase from two years ago from my perspective.

So what does this all mean? Are the mean streets of New York safer than the mean streets of Dubai? Why is it that there are so many more cyclists in New York than here? I think the second question is more important than the first; mainly because there weren’t always so many cyclists in New York for many of the same reasons people cite for not cycling here, like crazy drivers.

The recent efforts by the NYC DOT (over 200 miles of new bike lanes in three years) show that improved cycling infrastructure can help attract new riders, which in turn improves the safety of cyclists, which then attracts more cyclists. The roads are perceived to be safer, and in fact they are.

Crash Data vs Ridership

As you can see from a recent Transportation Alternatives study, despite a boom in cycling (more than doubling in the last 7 years, and a whopping 35% increase last year alone), the accident rate overall has dropped 25%. That means, despite there being twice as many cyclists on the road, there were one quarter fewer accidents. Not as a percentage, but overall!

Note that the drivers in NYC didn’t suddenly become saints, they still get voted the most aggressive drivers in the country, but what they did do apparently is start looking out for bicycles. This wasn’t out of some altruistic kindness, it was a subconscious response to seeing more bicycles on the road. Because there were more bikes they expected them to be there, and thus are more likely to avoid hitting them.

This is rather informative, and it ties in with my feelings riding in Dubai after returning from holiday. I realized that a lot of the near criminal behaviour directed towards me was due less to pure evil on the part of the motorist, and more to ignorance and surprise. People are genuinely surprised by my presence on the road (and more often than not, angered, since I tend to slow their supersonic pace by a hair). If there were say, 10,000 of me riding to work everyday, I would imagine traffic would soon grow accustomed to the sight of cyclists on the road and dare I say, be slightly less belligerent towards them.

So how can Dubai start attracting more cyclists? Well, building the bike lanes and tracks outlined in the BMP would be a good start. I know there are other commuter cyclists out there, hibernating, waiting for the proverbial spring thaw when they can mount their trusty steed and take to the streets. I don’t think many will though, until the bicycle infrastructure is in place – the perception of safety, or lack thereof is still too great. Hopefully the opening of the metro will spur some to at least ride to the station, and that ride might not seem so bad, which then might lead them to venture a bit further. It could be the seed from which our cycling tree grows!

I have heard rumours that the RTA is looking into starting a bike share program which would have kiosks at metro stations (this is also mentioned in the BMP). This would be a great step, even just the presence of bikes at the stations might stir some cyclists from their slumber. “What, I can ride in Dubai?” they might think, hmmmm, perhaps I will give it a try!