Fast cars and fast driving

The highway has replaced a former track

By Gerald Butt

One of the most dangerous and frightening roads in the Gulf, in my opinion, is the eight-lane highway linking Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the two main cities in the United Arab Emirates.

After only a few moments on this road, with all manner of vehicles hurtling past on all sides, you begin to understand why the casualty figures in the Gulf are so appallingly high. What's not so easy to comprehend is that as recently as 40 years ago there was no road here at all - just a track through the desert.

A shady landmark

That's how my parents experienced it in the late 1950s and early 60s. It was a featureless track, except for one tree about half way along it where you could stop and take a drink in the shade.

Being the only landmark, people would say: "See you at the tree," as they set off in their Land Rovers.

And coming to Abu Dhabi from Dubai in those days you had to time your journey according to the tide.

Roads are still lacking in some areas

There was no bridge across to Abu Dhabi island, so you could only drive through the shallow water when the tide was out.

And on the island itself - the site of today's high-rise, Manhattan-style city, there were few buildings apart from the ruler's fort, and no streets.

My mother, in her diary of 1959, described how the ground had been flattened and hardened to form an airstrip. But elsewhere your feet sunk into soft, powdery sand as you walked.

To drive in these conditions, she wrote, you go at speed, zig-zag fashion. Sometimes empty oil drums mark out the best track in a particularly soft patch.

Proper roads

As oil production began in the 60s and proper roads started to be laid, it fell to the British - the colonial power in the Gulf at that time - to create the rules for driving.

But, as the accident figures show, the highway code over the years hasn't had much of an impact.

In fact rules were needed even before road-building started.

Trucks and cars crossing the empty flats between Dubai and Sharjah were often crashing because they would be coming towards each other, not knowing whether to go to the left or the right to take avoiding action.

To decide which way they should turn was a task for a British diplomat who'd drawn the short straw to be posted to Sharjah.

And on the subject of colonial officials, there was the story at the time of Rupert Hay, the senior diplomat in the region with the title, British Political Resident in the Gulf.

Despite the oppressive heat and primitive conditions, he insisted on wearing full dress uniform, including helmet, when calling on the local rulers.

British withdrawal

One day as he was bouncing along the track out of Sharjah, his vehicle hit a large bump - and the spike of his helmet went through the soft-top roof, leaving him suspended by his chin-strap. His aide-de-camp came to his rescue.

Changing times: From camel racing to reckless driving

But while roads were late on the scene in the lower Gulf, elsewhere they were well established by the early 60s.

At the time I was a child in Bahrain. Each day I would be driven in a Humber Hawk, a quintessentially no-nonsense British car if ever there was one, to the school run by the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the airport.

In time, not only did the RAF base close as the British withdrew from the Gulf, but the taste for cars changed as well - with American, Japanese and German becoming the favourites as they are today.

It was all part of the phenomenal change that was happening in the Gulf as a whole, but was particularly noticeable in Abu Dhabi.

A retired diplomat from the days before oil, told me how he went back not long after the city had been developed to see the ruler, Sheikh Zaid.

He was told that the ruler was away camel-racing. On a programme lying around at the palace, the diplomat noticed that the first prize in the camel race was a Pontiac.

"I felt this was symbolic," he said. "Life was changing very fast."

Rivers of blood

What's changed most of all is the quality of the roads. As a traffic official commented at a recent conference in the Gulf, the roads are getting better and the driving is getting worse.

A Kuwaiti police officer described the reckless behaviour of drivers as becoming "scary and horrifying".

Stop the rivers of blood, screamed a headline in one Gulf paper recently.

Abu Dhabi: A high-rise, Manhattan-style city

Another commented that while in Britain the favourite topic of conversation was the weather, in America it was baseball, in the Gulf it was how bad driving standards were.

Editorials are written about the subject, campaigns launched in the press - but still the number of road deaths continues to rise.

While all sorts of bad habits contribute to accidents in the region, excessive speed seems to play a part in most.

One long-term British resident of Abu Dhabi said the whole culture had become frighteningly orientated towards fast cars and fast driving.

And believe it or not, alcohol is sometimes a factor - in those states where drinks are permitted.

Scary factor

For example the island of Bahrain has become a popular destination for Saudis who want to get away from the restrictions of their own country.

All they have to do is get in their cars and drive across a causeway. Very often, though, the standard of driving on the way back, shall we say, leaves a lot to be desired.

But for me, the maniacal driving along the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway takes some beating when it comes to the scary factor.

When I take this road, I like to imagine where that solitary tree might have been 40 years ago - not because of any dewy-eyed nostalgia for the past, but to take my mind off the horrifying prospect of what new pile-up we might soon be running into.