Monday, September 08, 2008

Where's my North?


It seems that every time I come back to Dubai after a vacation, something's changed. A new road, a new building, or a blocked road...or a building that's been demolished...

This time is no different. Maybe I just hadn't noticed before but apparently all the road signs that used to indicate "Abu Dhabi" or "Dubai" have now been switched to "South" or "North"...And so we now have "Sheikh Zayed Road North" or "Sheikh Zayed Road South".

Why is that? Does anyone know the reason the reason behind this change?

The whole North/South thing is a bit confusing if you ask me... Today was my first time encountering the new signage, and I headed North thinking I was going towards Abu Dhabi, only to find out that I actually needed to be heading South (I am very directionally challenged by the way...always have been and always will be!). I don't think I'll make that mistake ever again but I will have to think twice whether I need to head North or South from now on.

Bring back Abu Dhabi and Dubai! I don't like this North/South bullsh*t!

11 comments:

redstar said...

I agree! By all means have north and south, but keep the Abu Dhabi and Dubai directions. Very odd move.

moryarti said...

Anyware heading to Sharjah and beyond is always "North" (hence Northen Emirates Ajm, RAK..etc).. but it has never been fomalized.

This is part of RTA's new street address system. Like the US street address system, North, South, East and West will be used to swiftly discribe on which Direction of Sh Zayed (and other streets) is your location place.

For example. If want to discribe to you the location of a certain building on SZR, I'd have to say "Its the 3rd red colored one on your right hand side, after you pass Shangri La hotel, on your way to Abu Dhabi before the first interchange"

With this new system - hopfully, it would be - - "Its number 56 on Sh Zayed Road South"

RTA is making all these claims saying that its innovative and bla bla bla ... RTA is only reinventing the wheel and this system is already in use all over the place.

I just hope its friendly to the "directionally challenged" ... :) :) :)

Anonymous said...

The Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's brother. What a guy!

Anonymous said...

The Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's brother. What a guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIwHyrDRPqQ

Jayne said...

I'm hopeless with directions & would end up in the Empty Quarter if I had to rely on North or South!

Did you watch that video???

Dubai Sunshine said...

I did! Pretty messed up!

ColOman said...

Jayne,

I would rather be in Empty Quarter any day over Dubai's Traffic :)

Keef said...

But hold on a minute: Abu Dhabi is south-west of Dubai. If you headed due north from Dubai, hoping to get to Sharjah, you'd end up in the Gulf!

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