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Dubai drivers are alarmingly 'suicidal': report
alarabiya.net — It takes a certain mindset to drive in Dubai: a take-no-prisoners attitude coupled with nerves of steel. This Gulf city, which boasts stunning wealth and spectacular skyscrapers, is also home to an alarmingly large number of suicidal drivers, and one of them was at the wheel of my taxi as we careened off a Dubai highway and onto a side road...
vick3ii- 409 diggs
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- DestroyFascism, on 05/12/2008, -8/+4Never mind, as soon as there is money the lawyers will appear and clean that mess up...
- diggnitarial, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2You don't know much about Dubai's economic status, do you?
- absurdist, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1I HAVE to think you forgot the sarcasm tag. That, or you're dumber than a crate of anvils.
- crazybugger, on 05/12/2008, -0/+26Dear All,
Come to India for a drive. Sample below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Doy_7sOoM
Thank you,
Indian.- ElAssoWipo, on 05/12/2008, -0/+14I didn't know Indians walked so fast.
- Domdogg123, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1That video is clearly sped up.
- protogenxl, on 05/12/2008, -0/+4Here is Jeremy Clarkson exploring driving in India
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4858073670 ...
Short version: When the majority of drivers have a deep belief in reincarnation you get a real life version of Carmageddon. - karan1003, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1It's taken us three hours to move mere meters on the freeway in Mumbai, and I've hit jams at 1AM.
Mumbai is the worst.
- radiantstorm, on 05/12/2008, -1/+12Sounds like a bunch of self-centered assholes. Sounds like the drivers in ANY city.
- CiXeL, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3not true, it depends heavily on the traffic enforcement. cops in LA enforce the laws very strictly so people in LA drive well. miami people drive like the world is ending. speeding around inches from your bumper at high speed. of course 50% of miami's drivers dont have insurance so you want to make sure you have uninsured motorists insurance. i am not kidding when i say that for many people from poor latin american countries, this is their first car. somehow they get financed for a car and get a cell phone and are driving around miami learning to use both for the first time simultaneously.
- momsshizzle, on 05/12/2008, -4/+8Take no prisoners! Take no sh**.... -Megadeth
- DesertDude, on 05/12/2008, -1/+4ta ta tatatat tatat tiriririr (the solo)
- whitezombie420, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2***** YEA, thats what i thought when i read that line too :)
- gl77, on 05/12/2008, -1/+4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexA0AZ-wl8
- doctordbx, on 05/12/2008, -0/+4I live in Dubai and the driving is certainly something to behold. With speed limits more of a suggestion than an actual limit, and radar cameras that rarely work and everyone knows where they are, bad driving does tend to be more of a custom than a problem.
- davidjunit, on 05/12/2008, -0/+9Maybe they are actually good (skilled) drivers. Many people in the US hardly pay attention when they drive and the way they just poke around on the road they must be leaving with plenty of time to get to their destination, that or they're always late. I've never witnessed a wreck caused by a "suicidal" driver but I've seen plenty of people wreck because they weren't paying attention and I regularly come up on the texting dumbass.
- notoneofus, on 05/12/2008, -0/+12I have a thousand bad Chinese taxi driver experiences. The worst was in Wushan. The beat-up old Citroen's horn was broken, so the driver stuck his head out the window, yelling obscenities at other drivers and pedestrians. We wound up the hill from the Yangtze River on bald tires, running several red lights, and finally screeched to a halt in the middle of an intersection after the driver's ex-girlfriend threw herself on the hood of the car. This resulted in them having a yelling match in the middle of the road. I got out of the car and found another taxi. Crazy.
- genome47, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2No tip!
- zimsters, on 05/12/2008, -0/+8still nothign compared to pakistan or india. at least dubai still has rules.
- hustl3r, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Agreed. Whilst i was in Pakistan it seemed more like a game where the cars had to dodge each other, avoiding collision rather than driving in an orderly manner. Dubai at least still has some laws, even if some are ignored at least they're put in place.
- Kyrgizion, on 05/12/2008, -5/+6I bet driving there will be a lot easier after it's been reclaimed by the desert in 50 years or so.
- bobcoxocn, on 05/12/2008, -11/+4Most popular form of suicide: Suicide Bombing!
- MasteRR, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1*Facepalm*
- blumpyX, on 05/12/2008, -0/+10Yep, it is crazy over there. I have probably only spent about 90 days total in Dubai but I have seen about 6 crashes. People will drive in the fast lane at 150mph, and as they come up behind you, not even sound their horn. One of their measures to stop speeding is to have this thing that makes a noise once you break the speed limit (70mph). It's very annoying but a legal requirement. Of course the way around it is just to remove it - seeing as the police cannot test it works unless they jump in your car and make you break the speed limit. I have seen some horrible crashes in Dubai and wouldn't advise any tourists to drive out there.
- CiXeL, on 05/12/2008, -1/+3alot of the crazy drivers in miami are trading in their cars for motorcycles which are alot less forgiving.
this one time we saw these cocky latin guys and a girl zipping around cars at maniac speeds cutting everyone off.
a few minutes pass and the traffic stops dead.
we finally get to the scene of the accident after a good number of minutes
the bike is all smashed up bu the center divider and there is a blanket over a body and you can see a broken twisted arm stuck out from underneath the blanket and the girl who was with them is crying over him.
it was a horrific scene that burned into our heads for days.
people here dont think of the consequences of driving like a jackass.
- CiXeL, on 05/12/2008, -1/+3alot of the crazy drivers in miami are trading in their cars for motorcycles which are alot less forgiving.
- cuoops, on 05/12/2008, -1/+2I go there quite often. I can't believe with all that money, they didn't build a better road system.
- daithiocoinnigh, on 05/12/2008, -0/+15GTA V
"Sultan City" - drex8, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1In that picture, the drivers are driving in the same direction on both sides of the highway
- i4ybrid, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2express lane?
- Nitin1, on 05/12/2008, -0/+0Thats near WTC of Dubai - The lane on the left is going to underpass and on the right is going towards Satwa(forget the names - Its only pasrt pic)
- i4ybrid, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2express lane?
- strafefire, on 05/12/2008, -1/+4Went to Dubai to see a friend just a few months ago, and thought I was going to die in a Taxi.
Went from Dubai to Saudi Arabia to visit a pen pal. Dubai traffic has NOTHING on Saudi Traffic!
And Saudi and UAE traffic have NOTHING on almost any city in India! Dear Sweet baby Jesus, you Indians got a death wish from the bowls of HADES! - DustinHill, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1In Dubai's defense, they are currently building a very nice looking metro system, or at least they were when my fiancé was there about two months ago. So at least they are trying to cut down on crazy drivers.
- ricsto, on 05/12/2008, -7/+2of course they are, their religion means they have no fear.
- cracked22, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1The reporter should come drive the 401 at rush hour in Toronto if he wants to see recklessness. Nothing like 8 lanes in each direction for some Friday afternoon fun and stress.
- zarvensha, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2Original article on Reuters:-
http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKNOA2 ... - sjinadasa, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3The writer of this article has never visited south asia...
- jbenson2, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2Suicidal? They don't hold a candle to the drivers in southern Italy.
- shtonkalot, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3I was in Dubai a few months back, this was straight after coming from Tanzania and Kenya in Africa.
The driving was quite different than what I'm used to in Australia.
In The African countrie's cities, the roads were packed with traffic and everyone drove about 1 inch apart. Traffic signals mostly were non existent / not working or ignored under direction of a policeman with a machine gun. Despite the seemingly chaotic traffic there was no horn beeping or road rage, if you could squeeze in front of another car you did and no one got upset about it, even if that car was trying to not let you get in front in the first place. traffic mostly chugged through the cities at under 30kmph
Dubai though... Similar car distances at times, much higher speed driving. Aggressive driving too. The line up for cabs was huge from some shopping centres and you could tell the drivers were keen to get as many jobs done as possible.
Great quality roads in Dubai though. Only saw one accident whilst I was there. I'm sure there are some big ones from the speeds some drivers travelled through crossroads and the like.- TheKingInYellow, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1i was in dubai about a month ago. maybe the accident you saw was the one i was in.
- whitezombie420, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1article seems to describe typical traffic in dallas.
- TheKingInYellow, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2traffic in dubai is horrible. i though i was going to die every time we got on the road. one day our driver actually did rear end someone at a yield.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti ...
other than the kamikaze drivers i thought dubai was a really neat place.- acetv, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Would you mind posting that somewhere where those of us without a myspace account can see it?
- Cyberdactyl, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2It also should be noted that many US corporations make it mandatory that their employees do not drive in many countries they are sent to. I know that India and Saudi Arabia are two that are on the ABSOLUTELY NOT list.
- reynolds3g, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2This type of traffic is pretty typical in most places in the world especially in any 3rd world country.
- tipexy, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1I just want to give a big shout out to all the dubai taxi driver diggers. Seriously I love you guys. You put up with a world of crap from the arabs, you are friendly, speak great english, keep your sense of humour, your cars are always perfectly clean, never try to rip off tourists, alway go the quickest way. You guys are the best cab drivers anywhere, better than over rated london drivers certainly.
You don't really have much time for digging though because of the 20 hour driving days so you mightn't catch this shout out, but you guys are ace.
I am not being saarcastic either, I hasten to add. - allocate, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Oh, I've seen this Dr. Who episode. It's a trap.
- inyearstocome, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2Speed limits in most US states are more for the police to make money than for safety. Its ridiculous that we dont have 80-90mph speed limits on highways by now.
- korvan504521, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1most vehicles get significantly less mpg at those speeds.
- bincoder, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Sounds like a place that could benefit from high gas prices that threaten livelyhood. If they have a choice between eating or having a roof over their heads and burning rubber to go followed by skidding to a stop and wasting all that gas for nothing, maybe they would chill out and slow down. I know that I did, since gas was at $2.25 even more so now that its $3.45. Funny thing is I still get there just as fast as I did when I did the race/brake type of driving. The traffic and stoplights do not care how much you race at them and how fast you stop. They will go green when they feel like it anyway and the cars in front of you aren't going to simply vanish into thin air to please you just because you are racing up behind them.
- namar777, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1This is embarrassing... they're spending billions on "appearances" how bout educating the population... !!?
- ASSASSYN360, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0More gas is wasted in traffic jams.
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