Roundabout Dubai

On Defense Roundabout (and sisters)

The name for this blog derives from a Dubai’s unique feature, or at least what used to be a unique feature, the roundabout! It’s ironic that the city that eight years ago struck me as a city of roundabouts is now fast becoming a city of flyovers, overpasses, and loops. Once the Jebel Ali Village double-roundabout is taken down (probably soon) there will be only one left over SZR: the Defense Roundabout (let’s call it DR for short), the dinosaur of all the Dubai roundabouts. And though I don’t quite remember now my first Dubai roundabout encounter (was it the one just outside the airport that was later replaced by a flyover?), I could never forget the horror with which I had to drive through DR the first time around! But that was then and this is now!

DR is probably the most ancient of them all, sitting on top of the 1st Interchange, not far from one of the first modern high-rises that adorned the flat sands of the city, namely the Dubai World Trade Center. It still sits there, almost unchanged, getting older and busier and smaller as more and more traffic flows through it (well, ‘flows’ may no be the right word here). I have my theory about why roundabouts are so confusing to so many people. The reason is so simple: roundabouts resemble life (or even the universe). I don’t mean only the obvious cyclical journey, but also the sheer unpredictability of it all, regardless of the existence of road rules and “rites of passage.” Well, in both of these senses, i.e. history and mystery, DR is the quintessential roundabout. Moreover, it is perhaps the most often cited land mark, directing Dubai’s lost tourists to their destinations and orienting disoriented residents, as taxi-drivers search in vain for recognizable symbols and street names. In a way, DR has seen Dubai’s launch as a modern urban center and, till now at least, is more of a land mark than its next door record setter and behemoth of a tower under construction, Burj Dubai.

I must have gone through DR several hundred thousand times since I came to Dubai, learning every time a new little trick of driving through the funky maze of vehicles, navigating the mad rush, plotting how to get to the exit I want without causing public panic, and squeezing in and out of its revolving lanes and bottle necks without being smashed by a massive truck or causing a chain accident. It’s a learning experience, and though I still occasionally give passengers riding with me a bit of a scare, I think I’m now fairly confident about entering DR and getting out of it in one piece. There is really a whole science about how to drive through DR, but regrettably I just don’t have the time or desire to explain it here!

Instead, I’d like to share with you some observations about the purpose of roundabouts. I did a bit of research and I was surprised at some of the findings, at least in light of my experience with DR and its extinct and endangered sisters in Dubai. Here are some of the facts:

Roundabouts are NOT the same as traffic circles!

Roundabout is defined as a traffic-calming device!

Roundabouts are SAFER than traffic circles and intersections.

If you think I’m making this stuff up, then I invite you to visit this Wikipedia article on roundabouts and educate yourself!

posted by bandicoot @ 3:37 PM