The most common driver comment is, "Oops, I took the wrong exit."
Even the taxi drivers can get befuddled. One new taxi driver, giving up, said to his passenger, "Just tell me right or left." The passenger was new to the area too. Somehow between the two of them, she got back to the hotel.
We met an Australian couple, who, to further complicate things, are used to driving on the left side of the road. They confessed that when they first came here, they would get lost six or seven times a day, now a year later, they only get lost two or three times a day! Such good progress!
Sheik Zaad Road is eight lanes in each direction, with multiple clover leafs, overpasses and underpasses, flyovers and flyunders,...so much so that our new GPS can’t distinguish the layers...never mind the roads that have been adjusted, changed, or added since the maps were made...or since yesterday. This is no joke.
"Recalculating" is a favourite word of the female voice of the GPS.
Once Wayne hauled out his brand new GPS to try to learn the roads and the taxi driver had a really, really good laugh. He said, "Forget the GPS, it'll just take a month or two to learn the roads". Easy for him to say, he's on them all the time.
So what would we use...the obsolete maps? ...the non-existent addresses? ...the non-existent street names? Dubai is slated to acquire thousands of street names and address numbers in 2012, in one fell swoop. Won't that be a fun adjustment!
Currently, people navigate by major landmarks. "I'd like to go to the Iranian hospital" or "I'd like to go to the Dubai Mall", one says to the taxi driver.
However, "I'd like to go to the (obscure) Cosme Surge clinic or "I'd like to go to the Avis Rent-a-Car (one of a dozen) in the Jabel Ali Free Zone", is a tad more complicated.
"Do you have a phone number?" asks the taxi driver. "Yes," had better be your answer if you want to get there, and even then its dicey. You punch in the numbers on your phone or his, get someone on the line and pass the phone to the driver, who is guided along to the destination. Did I mention cell phone use while driving is illegal? Oh dear...then you'll have to talk to the person on the other end yourself and relay the information...Filipino English to Canadian English to Urdu English, with all of the tenses missing or rearranged!
Pity help you if the directions are for the birds and the meter is running. I've been in a taxi where the phone is passed in turn to each passenger..."maybe you can understand what he's/she's saying". When that happens, and it certainly does, the taxi driver usually says, "I want to call a friend".
Lol, you really do need lifelines on the Dubai roads.
