Traffic crisis in Dubai

The UAE has a huge problem with accidents occuring in its roads everyday despite the very well organized traffic system implemented by the RTA (Roads and Transport Authorities).

The level of traffic offences is extremely high in 2006 compared to 2005. Only in November and December 2006 the number of offences exceeded 280,000 compared 220,000 in the same period in 2005 . In evidence to that the RTA said "The most dangerous offence of jumping red signals also increased to 7,000 compared to 1,719 in 2005.

The RTA reported 3,500 accidents only during the last eid (Bayram fiest), and commented to the report that this number is not totally accurate as these are accidents reported to police by phone calls and there still are minor accidents that are not reported by motorists .

There were approximately 283 traffic deaths from the beginning of last year 2006 until December . In the 11 months of last year, 257 people were killed in traffic accidents, compared to 236 in 2005. Not forgetting to mention that during 2006, 700,000 cars have been registered at the Roads Authorities compared to 630,000 vehicles in 2005 which is an increase of around 12% .

In order to solve these serious traffic crisis and decrease this huge number of accidents and death, the RTA started to take some severe actions starting from Jan 2007 .

- Number of Radars on Highways will increase to be around 700,000 radars and cameras all around the UAE by 2009

- Every traffic light will be having a camera to automatically capture red signal jumpers.

- Any red signal jumping will result in car seize for 6 month and driver license cancellation for 1 year.

- Fines' costs will increase considerably to avoid traffic offences as now the lowest fine is at 100 AED and it will be increased to 1000 AED very soon. This is to make traffic offenders think twice before breaking the rules .

- Driving licenses will not be granted easily to anyone as a 40 lessons course has to be taken by whoever is applying for a driving license regardless the fact that he has previous driving experience and his country driving license or not .Course then followed by a "0 mistake to pass" test implemented by the police. This also helps in reducing the number of circulating cars as only really eligible people will be able to buy vehicles as the driving license is necessary in the buying process .

So as we can see, the RTA is doing a great effort to assure safety in the UAE's streets . but the problem in not the system itself , it is a cultural problem . We can notice that in the UAE as a whole more than 90% of people driving cars and daily dealing with the traffic system are Indian and Pakistanis who actually don't have any traffic systems in their countries due to the high population and lack of financial resources . This is real problem of the traffic in dubai and the RTA is on the right track to make these people abide to the rules .