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!

Recumbency - or - How I ended up with eight bikes

Now that I have relinquished my angst about traffic my commute is a much happier experience. My ride home consists of cruising along in a state of inner peace - ignoring the horn blasts of frustrated motorists, brushing off the sophomoric antics of poorly educated drivers and finding myself in no hurry to make the next light.

It was in this Zen-like state that I pulled up to the light near the Novotel on 312th Rd. Normally I would have been angling to jump the light so I could get a break from the traffic, but I decided I didn’t really care and I would just wait with the rest of traffic (which I find gives you some wasta with the motoring public). The next thing I knew I heard a voice from my left, it was an Emirate in a red BMW SUV. He had rolled down his window and started asking me why I wasn’t jumping the light, since I was on a bike and all. I replied that I just felt like obeying the law that day and was in no rush. Then we proceeded to have a short conversation about me riding to work each day.

The quick street-side conversation highlighted what I really enjoy about cycling. It puts you out there as a person, rather than a motorist stuck in your anonymous bubble. It creates random interactions with people, it basically ‘humanizes’ travelling. I had a similar thought a few weeks back as I was riding in the back of a friend’s convertible. I mused that if everyone drove a convertible, there would be fewer accidents and less road rage because you are faced with a person rather than sheets of glass and steel. If you ever really need to change lanes and no one will let you in, just roll down the window and stick your arm out – it’s like magic.

Now that I no longer have enormous bundles of angst about my commute, it leaves me free to worry about all sorts of other things. With the state of the economy such as it is, many people are rightfully worried about the security of their jobs. The fear of being made redundant is a powerful one, but I feel my job is fairly secure at the moment. I am honestly more afraid of being made recumbent!

This man has been made recumbent

For those of you who aren’t aware, recumbency is a horrible disease. Once one catches it, you become not only a pariah of your community, but also a tireless supporter of an unpopular cause. I am not sure any bike that I must attach a flag to is the bike for me.

Aerodynamic, AND has mag wheels, bitchin'

It’s a genuine fear for me, you see I have so many bikes already I am fast running out of different types to buy. Therefore, I am at a great risk of falling prey to recumbency.

It all started in college with a run of the mill Mongoose mountain bike I bought for commuting around campus. It was the 90’s and mountain bikes which would never see a dirt trail were all the rage, just like SUVs which were never taken off road became the ‘in’ thing in the aughts.

My Mongoose served me well, and of course came along with me to NYC when I moved. I was rather paranoid about it getting stolen (I had 2 bikes stolen 3 times when I was in high school, that isn’t a typo), but the worst that ever happened was someone stole my seat! That was an uncomfortable ride home.

In NY I fell in with an adventure racing crowd and my poor Mongoose quickly became obsolete for the task (having been basically designed to ride around town), so I went out and bought myself a nice new Rocky Mountain hardtail. Ahhh, nice bike. We spent countless days together flying around the country, riding for hours through seemingly endless bike stages.

One of my teammates had been riding for quite some time and had managed to amass an arsenal of bicycles. His first road bike, a Yokota, hadn’t been ridden in years and was in a sorry state hiding in his attic. Since I was road bike-less, he took pity on me and let me have it. After a bit of a tune up and some new tires it was good to go. The derailleur was already pretty shot, but I managed to put several hundred miles on it. This new (old) bike did nothing to assuage my growing thirst for new bicycles. I was like a junky, always looking for and looking forward to my next hit.

My biggest problem at that point was that I didn’t have a bike I felt comfortable leaving outside in NYC. I felt I would be more mobile if I could keep a utility bike on the street and just hop on and go whenever, instead of having to lug one downstairs and locate gear and such. Therefore, I headed out looking for a 3 speed! I found the bike of my dreams at a small shop in E Williamsburg (aka Bushwick) Brooklyn. They scoured the country buying up old schwinns and the like which they then repaired and sold. My dreams of utility cycling died when I laid eyes on a mint condition Schwinn Metrocycle circa 1970. Apparently it had been ridden twice and left in a garage for 30 years. They had put on some new tires and oiled the chain, but everything else was out of the box new! I loved it, but I loved it too much to leave it locked up outside.

Meanwhile, the Yokota had got me all hot and bothered about road cycling, but at the same time frustrated me with its ancient and worn down componantry. I started to lust after a shiny new road bike, but my finances were such that I couldn’t easily drop several thousand dollars on a new ride. I waited and waited and saved, and finally the day came. I walked out of the shop with a brand spanking new Cannondale R1000 with Ksyrium elite wheels and an Ultegra groupset. I know its not uber top of the line, but it rode oh so smooth compared to my Yokota. I could have gone carbon fibre with a cheaper groupo, but I like the Aluminum just fine.

mmmmm, speedy

Once the Cannondale arrived on the scene, my Yokota was of course sidelined. Down, but not out. As this was 2004, the fixed gear revolution was just getting into full swing. My ancient steel frame with it’s horizontal drop outs was just crying out for conversion! And so convert I did, self consciously walking into TrackStar in the E Village and buying some new handbuilt wheels and a fixed cog. The ride home was a comedic experience, as I was sporting some really annoying toe clips which were hard to get into even with a freewheel set up. I am surprised I didn’t end up on the pavement, but somehow I managed to make it home in one piece.

After a bit of practice I really took to the fixed gear, they are incredibly fun to ride and then there is all that jazz about ‘feeling connected’ to the bike and such which I found to be quite true. The best part really is how it forces you to be a bit more aware since stopping can be slightly more time consuming. In the end, I ended up spending much more time with my Yokota than my lovely Cannondale. Part of this can be contributed to the fact that I can’t lock up the Cannondale outside, too risky. But I think I actually like riding the fixie better.

One might think that having four bicycles would be adequate, but that person more than likely doesn’t ride very often. There were all sorts of bikes still on my list, I really wanted to turn my Mongoose into an XtraCycle (still haven’t done that), I figured I could do with a cyclocross bike, and a touring bike, perhaps a tandem...

One day I was reading through the Craigslist ads trying to find a decent 3-speed for a friend and I came across a posting for a vintage Schwinn tandem! I was so psyched, it was only $200, I was totally going to buy this bike! The only problem being I was in London at this point, and the bike was in NY. I quickly phoned a friend to enlist them as my buying agent, but they were headed out of town. However, they suggested another co-worker who was also on the look out for a tandem. I rather wanted full ownership, but decided since I was in London anyway that we go in halvsies for it. It was in the bike room at work the next day. I finally got to ride it when I went home for a break, seat posts are a bit on the short side and there is only one gear, but it is great fun to ride!

I only managed to bring the fixie on my trip to London with me, which it turned out was an ideal bike for the city (unless you were headed up to Hampstead). Unfortunately on a ride to work one morning my frame broke, literally cracked clean through the head tube. As fate (or bike geometry) would have it, the head tube also houses your stem, so I managed to not come crashing to a halt in a heap on the asphalt. The bike was a total write off though.

I searched in vain for a replacement frame (as the components were all fine), but this was the frenzied peak of the fixed gear revolution and old steel frames with horizontal dropouts were hard to come by or incredibly pricy. I finally managed (with some difficulty) to get my hands on an old Peugeot 10 speed. It was the perfect frame, huge head tube, great old yellow finish, only one problem… It was built just before the cycle industry switched over to 700c wheels and thus sported incredibly odd 28 x 1 ¼” wheels. This meant I couldn’t switch my Yokota components over, or even easily find new tires for the bike!

I was at a bit of a crossroads since I had hoped to ride the bike to Burning Man from Reno airport in a manner of weeks. I had already planned on getting a new rear wheel with an 8 speed internal hub that I could switch out with the fixed gear wheel for longer trips (Reno to BM was about 135 miles), so I ended up having two new wheels built to fit the Peugeot – thus leaving my Yokota components in a lurch.

Shortly thereafter it was time to pack up and head out to Dubai. Everything was going by sea, so we decided to take some holiday between London and Dubai so we would arrive at the same time as our worldly possessions. I’d never been professionally moved before, it was rather strange to leave your flat in the morning – with everything where you normally kept it, and then come home to find a completely empty place. Off we headed, spending some time in Australia and HK, everything was going swimmingly until 4 days before we were due to arrive in Dubai when both of our companies decided our visas wouldn’t be ready on time, in fact they would take another 8 weeks!

Dejected, we headed back to London with only our luggage, and into a temporary flat. I was soon chafing at not having a bike. It felt alien to have to take the tube to work every day, I longed for the freedom of two wheels! Noting our small living quarters and my current roster of velocipedes I quickly honed in on a gap in my arsenal – a folding bike!! Within days I was in possession of a shiny new Brompton with 6 speeds, dynamo lights and a brooks saddle. It wasn’t my idea of a sweet ride, but I soon grew to love my Brompton, even if I didn’t often use it as intended (i.e. actually folding it and getting on a train).

Two weeks earlier we were riding around Melbourne (on borrowed bikes), and managed to get a flat. Checking the city’s excellent bike map we found a nearby bike shop and headed over to get a patch kit. I was astounded as I walked in, this was no ordinary bike shop, more of a bike hospital where bikes were being operated on and also being born. I was surrounded by lathes, presses and all manner of metal working machinery, it was bike heaven! My attention quickly shifted from patch kit to bike frames, and before I knew it I was purchasing a vintage steel frame, having the superfluous pieces ground off and the whole thing powder coated. My Yokota would be reborn as a bright orange demon.

So there you go, the story about how I ended up with eight bicycles. When you say you have eight bicycles people look at you a little funny, but I don’t think I have really gone too far overboard yet. Each of my bikes has its place, each different trip has different requirements, I’m just making sure I have all my bases covered. That being said, hopefully I’ll be able to resist being made recumbent!

The five stages of grief – commuting in Dubai edition

As one might expect, cycling in Dubai is an acquired taste. Many dismiss it out of hand as being too dangerous; when in reality the barriers to cycling here (and to some extent in any dense urban environment) lie less in the realm of danger and more so in the kingdom of personal fortitude.

Luckily for myself I happen to possess an abundance of cycle related personal fortitude (owing largely to my own rampant sense of self righteousness combined with a curious lack of thanatophobia). Thus, before moving here I figured cycling in Dubai wouldn’t be such a big deal for me, and I was largely correct.

What I didn’t count on however was the progression of feelings that would wash over me during my first few months on the road. Previously, cycling had been a fairly straightforward activity for me. I would mount my steed, head off into the mean streets, battle for space and sometimes get in a huff with motorists, but I largely enjoyed my time in the saddle.

Here in Dubai it was a slightly different story. To begin with there was the ominous foreshadowing. Never before had I encountered so much negative energy around cycling, or travelling by any means for that matter. It seemed from my research that the streets and byways of Dubai were a battleground strewn with the bodies of cyclists, pedestrians and motorists alike. This lead to my first stage of DCCG - Dubai Commuter Cyclist Grief:

Denial

As I mentioned above, I possess copious quantities of cycling related personal fortitude. In fact I excrete it from my pores and it is scraped up by industrious Swedes and sold by Bike Nashbar as a fortitudinal supplement called ‘TudeMAX’. Its from this well of fortitude that I drew the strength to ride my bike from Reno to Burning Man last summer in one go despite the hysterical objections of fellow burners warning of reckless opiate-laden motorists at the helm of giant rented RVs on narrow dark winding roads. With so much fortitude actually seeping out of my body on a regular basis, I denied to myself and others that I would have any trouble riding in Dubai. “Not a problem!” I shouted from the rooftops to no one in particular. Then I arrived in Dubai.

Anger

My first forays onto the road were cautious. We were staying down at the Marina, and I was equipped only with my newfangled Brompton in its glorious cream finish (extra) and Brooks brown leather saddle (also extra). I had just purchased the bike in London a couple of months previous since all my other bikes were hanging out in a shipping container in Jebal Ali and I was rather suddenly visa-less and back in the UK (I can only go so long without a bike). The Brompton is a lovely bike, but is best for short distances and it isn’t very imposing, I look a bit tame on it to be fair.

Curiously how I look on a bike relates to how I ride it. When I ride my vintage Schwinn MetroCycle 3-speed I tend to ride slower (even though I can cruise), and less aggressively. Conversely, when I am on my sleek Cannondale R1000 with its zippy Ksyrium Wheels I tend to ride like a bat out of hell. Perhaps it is related to my body position; my set up on the Cannondale is more bent over and sporty (go figure), and the Schwinn is more of a sit-up-and-beg dutch bike style. Thus, getting back to the Brompton - which is not quite begging, but definitely not bat out of hell, I felt a bit cautious riding around town. I did end up riding home from work in Bur Dubai to the Marina one night, but I looked for back streets through Jumeriah and (GASP!) road on the footpath along Al Soufah Rd.

Once my other bikes were released from Jebal Ali prison and we moved into our place in Downtown Burj Dubai I set about my regular routine of riding to work every day. This is when the second stage of DCCG set in, ANGER! What were all these motorists doing? Accelerating like mad from lights only to get to the adjacent red light and wait for 2 minutes, honking like deranged madmen, passing too close when there was plenty of space in the adjacent lanes, basically behaving like a pack of self important well armed baboons. I had seen all of this behaviour before on the streets of NY, LA and London, but here it is incredibly pervasive and dare I say personally vindictive. Generally motorists infuriate cyclists by disregarding them completely, but here its that feeling combined with a rage that you even exist and a not so veiled desire for you to cease to exist.

This made me quite angry. I would arrive at work or home in quite a foul mood at times. I must note at this point that not every motorist in this city is a deranged psychopath, but they seem to live here in greater numbers than other cities. Some days I was quite happy while riding in fact, mainly because no psychopaths happened along that day.

Anger isn’t very healthy, in fact its quite oppressive, taking over from ones otherwise sparkling lovely personality and making one bitter and perhaps even close to becoming like the very people who enraged one in the first place. I believe this is how civil wars generally begin. I needed to curb my anger and change tactics fast, that’s when I hit stage 3:

Bargaining

Anger obviously wasn’t getting me anywhere. Whenever I would caustically approach offending motorists I would get nothing but vitriol in return. Everyone believes they are right and when attacked will tend to fight rather than roll over; especially self important motorists who recently nearly ran you down.

My tactics then turned to education, I would bargain with motorists for better behaviour! I started carrying around printed leaflets containing the RTA’s guidelines for motorist behaviour in regards to cyclists and proffering them to unsuspecting motorists. The key was sympathy, no one will be sympathetic to you when you come on like an attack dog. Therefore, despite feeling like I wanted to strangle said motorist, I would with a smile proffer the leaflet and point out that according to the relevant governing body in this particular Emirate, they were breaking the rules and it didn’t make it very safe for me to boot.

This was psychologically rewarding to me for a time. I actually had more sympathetic than angry responses to my leafleting antics. I came away happier that I had pointed out to someone that they were wrong, and they agreed. After a while though, the exercise became less useful. I started to revert to angry tirades, proffering my leaflet with an air of self importance, only to get angry replies. It takes quite a bit of effort to be civil to someone who shows no regard for your personal well being. More effort in the end than I was apparently willing to make for the given return. This triggered the fourth stage of DCCG:

Depression

It was clear that my bargaining ploy was a short term gain. It made me feel more empowered for a while, but after a while the crushing realization that even if I pulled over 100 cars a day I wouldn’t be able to have any effect on driver behaviour. Motorists would continue to annoy and endanger me and I really had no control over it. Depression set in.

I found myself not wanting to ride to work in the morning, or home in the evening. I didn’t feel like dealing with the constant stream of people who were so focused on their destination that they couldn’t be bothered to slow down for 5 seconds or so and merge slightly left whilst passing me. I felt defeated. I didn’t want to give up cycling, but I also no longer really felt like living in Dubai. The weight, the burden of the depression ended up colouring my views on the city in general, I developed a very jaded view of life here.

I plugged along like this for some time; trying to figure out what I could do to change the state of affairs. I would fall back into my former stages at times – defiant and bold, caustic and aggressive, leaflet man, but nothing really seemed to help. What kept me going was the little moments, the flickers of enjoyment that cropped up here and there. Slicing through a traffic jam, gliding along an empty lane, spotting a wayward peacock, things that wouldn’t have happened had I been in a bus or a car.

Then one day recently it happened, the last stage:

Acceptance

As I recall I was sitting at my desk contemplating the ride home. I had been meaning to print off some more RTA flyers since I had run out, but hadn’t gotten around to it. All of the sudden I had a thought. “What if I just rode home?” I know it sounds simple, but it was the product of an enormous amount of pressure and stress, sort of like a diamond - a gem of an idea. I would just ride home; I would ride and not let the buffoonish behaviour of others get to me. They would honk, I would shrug. They would drive recklessly, I would stay vigilant and resolute, but calm.

Why was I playing their game? Why was I getting sucked into their world of puss and vinegar, a world of stress and tension and a burning desire to get to one’s destination marginally ‘quicker’. I was like a born again Christian who is distraught by the hedonism surrounding them, frantically proselytizing to an indifferent public. I had been such a fool! The answer was there all along, Acceptance!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t accept that it is anyone’s right to drive recklessly and endanger me. No one has the right to honk and wish me off the road, no one has the right to cut me off, but I also have a right not to internalize all of the hatred that I feel towards those people. They do not have the right to make me angry or depressed; they don’t have the right to pull me down into their swirling cauldron of joylessness! I will no longer let those things that are beyond my control get me down – acceptance.

Of course! It all makes sense! I got out of the car to avoid all of those feelings – the frustration of being stuck in traffic, mad at the world, self righteous. All I really did was switch from petrol to leg power, but I never left the traffic. With acceptance came a renewed sense of joy, I am in traffic, but above it!

That night I rode home; it was the same route as usual, but something had changed. I got cut off, bummer, but no harm done - people honked, sucks to be you motorists - didn’t make a light, oh well, what I am rushing home for anyhow? You have no idea how light I felt, all of that rage lifted from my shoulders! It does wonders for the gray matter.

I am not so naïve to think that this is the end of my journey. There will be times that I am outraged, angry, full of vitriol, insistent that others know, realize, nay, admit that they are wrong. That is life. But the outlook has changed my dear readers. Sunny days are here again (metaphorically, realistically it hasn’t rained since March), I’ve put on a happy face. I faced down Dubai... and I won.

Another Day in Paradise

So it looks as though I can call off my Tour de Phase One (of the bicycle master plan). All that work, training, blood doping, hiding blood doping from the ICU, turning Amish, all down the drain!

OK, so I hadn’t trained that hard, or actually done any planning, but I had thought about going on a reconnaissance ride to determine the current state of the projects outlined in the BMP phase one. However, it seems the work has been done for me by our good friends at the National, as they reported yesterday the Phase One Works (POW!) are due to be completed by mid 2010, i.e. they haven’t started yet. BTW, not sure why they changed the headline in the online version, but the print version was titled: "Dubai paradise for cyclists... one day". BAM! I should have thought of that one.

As I reported earlier, the POW! were supposed to be completed last December, with phase two coming in soon after and slated for completion in September of this year to coincide with the Metro opening. Ironically, they didn’t include the phase two works in POW! Because they wanted to get it done quickly and the phase two bits are basically feeders to the metro which could wait until the metro opened. But now, POW! won’t even be done until nearly a year after the metro opens, and who knows when phase two is coming down the pipeline.

Perhaps the RTA will decide that attracting cyclists to the metro stations will be priority number one and they will leapfrog phase two projects into the phase one box. I would imagine this would require some tricky acronym-ing, so may I suggest: Keep Usable Nearby Guideways Phase One Works, or KUNG POW! I know I love tasty chicken, so this would definitely make me want to ride to the metro stations.

On a slightly more serious note, there was a quote from the one and only Wolfi in the article that rankled my hide (and my hide is not keen on rankling). It seems Mr. Hohlmann believes cycling in Dubai may very well be illegal!

“As well as providing infrastructure there is a need to establish the rights of cyclists. Currently it can be dangerous to cycle in the city, especially when crossing junctions. Dubai’s code of conduct even states that cyclists can be find for using the roads. These factors need to be addressed if cycling culture is to be established"

First let me say I agree with quite a few things in that statement; we do need to establish the rights of cyclists – in the minds of motorists! It is at times dangerous to cycle in the city, and the junctions I believe he is referring to are large roundabouts as well as entry and exit roads from highways (which can be two lanes wide and contain high speed traffic). But I completely and totally disagree that cyclists can be fined for “using the roads” in Dubai. Completely 100% false. The only place a cyclist can be fined is where they are not allowed to ride, which is on limited access highways (the great wall of SZR and others), and footpaths. I know this because I have read the BMP and the Pedestrian and Cyclist Design Manual, both of which clearly state the relevant laws. Here is an excerpt from the BMP concerning the current laws with regard to cyclists:

Dubai law concerning cyclists

I have contacted the National in regards to getting a retraction printed concerning Wolfi's statement. Telling people it is illegal to ride is not a great way to get people to go out and try cycling.

In other exciting news, I am not the only white man cycling to work in Dubai! In fact, there is another person who lives in my very development who rides as well! I noticed him (not so hard to do) as I was heading out for a run after work. So here’s a shout out to my cycling neighbour, good on ya!

Also, a quick thank you to the motorists of Dubai for their rather non-Dubai-like driving these past two days. Perhaps someone is bugging my apartment and heard the tirade I unleashed last week after a particularly horrific ride home (I handed out 3 'proper driving behaviour around cyclist' fliers, and pretty much lost my top with a whack job in a white porsche. Oh well, I guess things balance out in the end.