Dubai is a blindingly affluent city where Bentleys and Ferraris are nearly as common as Fords and Volkswagens. So it is no surprise that Dubai has a growing problem with traffic. The local rulers have explored all the conventional ways to get traffic moving again, including higher prices for parking, fuel and insurance. But at a recent conference in Hamburg, Hussain Lootah, director-general of the Dubai Municipality, revealed that the city might opt for a new approach: setting an income threshold for vehicle ownership.
This “income threshold” will allow only the wealthiest of Dubai’s residents to drive on the country’s high-speed highways. In other words, a salary limit will restrict car ownership to those earning above a certain monthly income. If you don’t make X amount of dollars, you will have to take one of Dubai’s luxury buses or other public transit options. A similar ban was implemented by another member of the UAE, Sharjah in 2008. Because of this ban, Sharjah people in 100 low-paid professions - nurses, cooks, carpenters, housemaids, watchmen, tailors, cafeteria waiters, unskilled labourers, gardeners and bakers, among others - can’t own cars and can’t get driving licenses either.
Mr Lootah’s approach is unlikely to be copied widely, but mayors of other big cities around the world are starting to think about taking drastic actions of their own, including outright car bans in inner cities. At some point they will run out of options: efforts such as inner-city tolls, pioneered by London and Singapore, or letting only motorists with certain number plates enter a city, as Paris did recently, might not be enough to reduce traffic and pollution. The problems will only get worse: the number of vehicles sold globally each year will grow from around 80m today to more than 100m by the end of the decade, according to IHS Automotive, a market research firm.
There are already a handful of car-free communities around the world. But these are typically small and often tourist destinations, such as Sark Island, in the English Channel, and Michigan’s Mackinac Island. The largest car-free urban area is probably Venice, where it is impossible to build roads and bridges to link the more than 100 small islands the city sits on.
Some cities are considering ways to limit core city access to “green” machines, such as battery-electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. Hamburg is building a “Grünes Netz”—a green network of parks, playgrounds, sports fields, bike paths and the like, which will allow pedestrians or cyclists to more easily navigate through the city. In other words, cars won’t be banned, but will get downgraded—a big deal in a country which loves its cars almost as much as America.
The number of cars is the “biggest challenge” for UAE’s future, explained Mr Lottah. “Everybody has their luxury life, but the capacity of our roads cannot take all of these cars without ownership laws.”
Mr Lootah dismissed the idea that residents could be encouraged to reduce car use through awareness programs, or carpooling.“There are more than 200 nationalities in Dubai,” he said. “I can’t see education and awareness having an effect, and soft regulations don’t work any more. Even in Europe and America it doesn’t work. Unless you go hard, no one will obey.”
Mr Lootah also encouraged residents to make greater use of public transport.“There are other alternatives — taxis, buses, subways. I will build more subways. We will expand it, station by station. We have buses, luxury buses — but the people don’t go for it because their cars are very cheap.”
Meanwhile, the mostly rich Emiraties and expats will keep their cars, whereas the mostly low-paid guest workers, who make up the majority of Dubai’s population, will have to settle for mass transit.
edited from The Economist and from The National UAE
