Tailgate sensors should be put on private cars too

Readers discuss whether tailgate sensors in taxis should be put in all cars. Other topics: Marina traffic, reporting violence, architectural heritage and technophobia.

Readers praise anti-tailgating sensors but say private cars need them more Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

With regard to your news story, Sensors to be installed on Dubai taxis to prevent tailgating (April 24), I would love to have a sensor that records the number plates of drivers tailgating me.

Perhaps then something would happen to repeat offenders who bully everyone else on the road.

Samantha Attfield, Abu Dhabi

In my experience, it’s private cars and not taxis that tailgate, flash their headlights and kiss your bumper.

Drive between Abu Dhabi and Dubai any day and you’ll see and experience this first hand.

Mj Uy, Abu Dhabi

This will add to journey times. When you leave a gap as a safe braking distance, some idiot will just see this as an opportunity to pull in front of you. This means you then have to slow down and recreate that gap again, only for someone else to also pull in front.

I wonder whether this really is for safety purposes? If it is, then why aren’t all vehicles in the UAE being fitted with these sensors as a standard feature?

Name withheld by request

How do you free the Marina’s roads?

I read Kevin Hackett's opinion piece (The air bag: Dubai Marina needs urgent artery surgery, April 24) with interest.

This is a high population area so the tram, the metro and buses are probably not a viable mode of transport for the majority who live there if they work further afield in the city.

Fiona Cooke, Dubai

The Marina is a lovely area but unfortunately the roads don’t seem to have been designed to handle the increasing amount of traffic.

Ismail Adams, Dubai

Witnesses need to report violence

Your news report, Father arrested for beating teenage son to death, Dubai Police say (April 25), made for bleak reading.

The matter is before the courts to establish what happened, but it would be extremely sad if the allegation is proven that this boy was beaten on a daily basis before being fatally injured.

If this is true, it is concerning that the violence was not reported to the authorities by the neighbours. Had they raised the alarm early and stopped the beatings, this boy might still be alive.

To me, neighbours who hear this going on and do nothing have to share the culpability for what happens later.

Fatima Suhail, Sharjah

I think many people are concerned about what will happen if they report this kind of thing. Will the police take it seriously or will they turn on the person reporting it?

I don’t understand how a teenager can go to school with such injuries without anybody at the school noticing. It’s time for the proposed act protecting children in the UAE to be made law. Children should not grow up in fear and the police should respond as protectors of the children.

Jen Bishop, Abu Dhabi

This makes me so sad – I can’t even imagine hitting a child. My little boy is also 13 years old and all I want to do is hug him.

Ellen Soumilas, UK

Rough diamond is a hidden gem

In relation to your story (History hides in a diamond that has long lost its sheen, April 25), I hope they restore this building because it has such an important history.

If the building could talk, it would tell so many stories of a time gone by.

Brigitte von Bulow, Abu Dhabi

This building could be restored into a cafe, a workspace or as a venue block, perhaps with a garden on the roof.

Sohan Dsouza, Dubai

A technophobe in a smart city

I was 50 years old when I became a proud owner of a Nokia mobile phone. It was a basic model but I found it difficult to become proficient in using it.

Then smart phones came. I have one, but I don’t know how to download apps, much less how to use those apps.

All this is to say that while I commend the rapid progress of the UAE – and Dubai in particular – to become smart cities with government apps for all services, I doubt if all the old timers such as myself will be able to benefit from these services.

I urge the authorities to please start an information campaign along the lines of: “How to use Apps for dummies.”

Please do not leave behind the old while you gallop towards the future.

Name withheld by request