DUBAI // You need to make a right-hand turn through a bus lane. Do you make your move five metres ahead of the lane, or 10 metres, or wait to the last minute? Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will try to clarify traffic questions such as that with programmes to educate motorists, both those driving public transport and those in their own cars, about its new lanes.
The RTA is building dedicated bus and taxi lanes on four roads in the city centre at a cost of Dh8.5 million (US$2.3m). Drivers of those vehicles will have to know, for example, at which points they can enter the lanes and make turns so as not to snarl traffic. "We first have to educate our bus and taxi drivers on when to let a motorist into the lane when they need to turn," said Peyman Younes Parham, the RTA's director of marketing and corporate communications. "Then we will start a campaign on radio and in the newspapers to educate drivers on when they can and cannot enter the lanes."
Although police will start fining drivers Dh600 from May 15 if they are caught using the lanes improperly, motorists will have to enter them to turn into some side streets. Motorists will not be fined for doing so, police have said. One limited access lane will run for 1,400 metres along Al Mankhool Road from the Satwa roundabout to Sheikh Rashid Road. A second on Al Khaleej Road will run for 3,600 metres from Khalid bin Al Waleed Road as far as Al Musalla Road.
The notoriously congested Khalid bin Al Waleed Road will have a 220-metre bus lane from Al Mina Road to Road 16. And there will be a 320-metre passage along Al Ghubaiba Road from the intersection with Al Mina Road as far as Road 12. eharnan@thenational.ae
