Caprine Confusion

The Goat admits that he is nonplussed. The new UAE federal traffic rules were announced on about 29th June 2017 for implementation from 1st July. Some penalties have been increased; others have been decreased; the maximum legal window tint has been increased from 30% to 50%.

But here is where the confusion appears.

It has been normal custom and practice in the UAE to allow a 20km/h over the posted limit. Logical and not unreasonable, given instrument inaccuracy and the known fact that nobody NEVER sneaks, even inadvertently, over the posted maximum. And we are assured that this situation will prevail.  

 

And yet the new list includes a fine of Dh300 for exceeding the posted limit by not more than 20km/h.  

 

So is exceeding the posted limit by say 10km/h a punishable offence or not?

The Goat was surprised and annoyed to receive a speeding ticket earlier in 2017 for doing less than 110km/h in a 100km/h zone. In Fahrenheit, the Goat got busted for doing less than 68mph in a 62mph zone.Incidentally, just past the first 100km/h sign after a long, long stretch of 120km/h highway.

 

This is in accordance with the old Law 183, but is still well inside Dubai's tolerance level. But it's Sharjah; not Dubai.

 

The Goat suspects that these federal rules apply, but because Dubai is Special, Dubai chooses to ignore speeding less than 20km/h over the limit. Other emirates, it would seem, are not as tolerant.

The Goat also observes 1279 fines on the first day. Obviously this count does not include the speed and red-light cameras because the results from these take a few days to come through the process. Moreover, he suspects that most would have been offences under previous laws. But the fact the we see punitive action rather than compliance rather suggests that the system will take a while to become effective.

Or perhaps the novelty will wear off after a few days or weeks, and we will be back to the highway anarchy that we all know and love.

It is gratifying to the Goat to note that, at last, traffic laws pertaining to the American system of having a STOP sign on school buses have now become official. 

 

Compliance and enforcement? Remain to be seen; last time the Goat stopped behind a school bus with its STOP sign out he was hooted at and verbally abused by a nasty man in a large black-windowed Tahoe.

And finally, Law 155. Transporting inflammable ale is right out.

The complete list, should anyone be interested, is here.

]}:-{>

You know nothing

So much for the Goat’s PhD. In the previous blog post he noted that it wasn’t a thesis, which is just as well because it was easily demolished by an Anonymous commentator. The basic population Dubai figures are so wide of the mark that they might as well be a Michael Fish weather forecast.

Referring to the Expatriates in the UAE Wikipedia page is a useful, or lazy, shortcut to a summary of populations. Of significance is a reference to 240,000 Brits in the UAE, which is extremely wide of the 11,000 in Dubai previously cited. And there are doubtless others. And measuring the consequences of traffic collisions as a ‘per population’ requires accurate population figures if there’s any hope of producing meaningful data.

Another point is the Dubai Police figures for Accidents by Nationality of Accused Driver. Those 2013 figures show Britain scoring 4 fatals out of 20 total. Further down the same table, UK scored one slight injury. A bit of a difference. Who knows how many other errors there may be in the same form. Conceivably Britain may be a misprint for Bahrain, but this is speculation solely based on Bahrain not appearing elsewhere on the page. 

Anyway, the Goat reworked the Fatal per 100,000 population, making the assumption that 60% of the UAE population lives in Dubai unless actual Dubai figures were available. Looking at 30% and 80% as alternatives actually produces very little change in the overall results, and obviously the relative values don’t change at all:- 

• The “High” scores are Angola, Brazil, Khazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, New Zealand, Oman, and Pakistan with 20 to 250. 
• India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Russia, USA, UAE, Yemen get “Medium” scores of between 4.5 and 12. 
• Everybody else manages less than 4.5 and counts as “Low”. 

So, a few corrections; an apology to everyone the Goat may have misled, especially the British who score around 4.8 and not over 36 as stated before; and a note to self that Goats and PhDs are probably incompatible.

Oh, and naturally these new figures are also subject to the Goat's incompetence, so E&OE.

]}:-{>

Let he who is without sin...

Dubai Police periodically publish statistics for traffic accidents in Dubai. The latest figures available are for 2013. Leaving aside that ‘accidents happen’ whereas ‘vehicle collisions are caused’, which is why the preferred term in the UK is ‘collision’, (although the Goat prefers ‘crash’ or even ‘prang’), let’s not get buried in semantics here. Local law requires that the police attend every vehicle incident however minor; the data collected should be comprehensive and reasonably accurate.

One of the tables is appallingly racist: a list of the numbers of accidents by 68 different nationalities of the accused driver. What we find is that in 2013, Pakistanis caused 373 accidents, Indians 315, and Emiratis 298. Further down the scale we learn that British drivers caused 20, Filipinos 18, and Canadians a mere six. So south Asians and locals apparently can’t drive. QED.

“But,” the Goat hears you protest, “There are so many more Indians in Dubai, therefore…”

Fair comment. The Goat actually found some figures for the demographics of nationalities in Dubai. Various uncited sources, because this is a blog and not a thesis, come up with several conflicting sets of figures, all broadly showing similar things:-

Dubai’s population in 2013 was around 2.11 million.
Around 340,000 are south Asians living in labour camps, and probably don’t drive.
Around 260,000 Emiratis.
Approximately 740,000; 340,000; 190,000 Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis respectively.
Filipinos make up some 61,000 of the population and “Britishers [sic]” a mere 11,000.
The “Others” comprise the remaining 168,000.

A widespread measure of risk is “per 100,000 population.” It’s generally perceived by the luminaries who keeps such scores that low scores represent better, or at least safer, drivers. Numbers of road deaths in the range of 5/100,000 population tend to be scored in the over-regulated and over-policed northern Europe, whereas across equatorial Africa scores of around 20 are more common. The worst one on the Goat’s list is Eritrea at 48.4/100,000.

Smeed’s Law (1949, based originally on 1938 data) relates traffic death rate to numbers of vehicles and population, and predicts around 24 for UK, which is almost the same result as Dubai in 2013. As the current figure of less than 4/100,000 it is possible to infer that British roads are safer than they were in the 1930s. Given seat belts, drink-drive legislation, decent brakes, headlights that actually work, tyres that grip, and frankly better roads, this isn’t rocket surgery, is it?

Anyhoo, by the measure of accidents per 100,000 population we learn that:-

• The best drivers in Dubai are Filipinos, scoring 30;
• Indians and Bangladeshis are next, with scores in the 40 to 45 range;
• Emiratis and Pakistanis score a less impressive 110-115;
• The British manage an atrocious 182;
• The very worst drivers of all are these mysterious Others with a horrifyingly spectacular score of 270. 

Many countries don't require police attendance at damage-only crashes, and a lot of these can go unrecorded. International figures, Smeed's Law, and that stuff all concentrate on fatal accidents only. This morbid measure of deaths per 100,000 population shows us that:-

• The best drivers in Dubai are Indians, Filipinos and Bangladeshis, scoring 2.6 to 3.8;
• Emiratis and Pakistanis score a less impressive 9.5 to 12.0;
• These mysterious Others have a horrifyingly spectacular score of 34.5...

And what of the British, we who cockily consider ourselves some of the best drivers in the world? The sun must get to us, because in Dubai we score an appalling 36.4: Brits drive ten times worse in Dubai than we do at home.

The elephant in the room is of course the absolute magnitude of the figures. Scoring 36 in Dubai when at home you score lower than four is rather like picking up the cleaner end of a turd. Unlike equatorial Africa, the Dubai fleet consists largely of new, modern vehicles with the latest in safety technology. Vehicles are subject to annual roadworthiness tests. Roads are of exceptionally high quality with road budgets far exceeding those of comparable UK highway authorities, and policing – especially through the use of red-light and speed enforcement cameras – is widespread.

The Goat will leave it to commentators and the Letters page of 7DAYS to come up with how this little corner of the world should be put to rights.

]}:-{>

No pictures!

Tarmac Tantrum

It's been well documented, first in the UAE media and then internationally, that the way to deal with a minor hit-and-run traffic collision is not to hunt down and assault the other driver.

In this recent case, it seems that the Indian van driver nudged an Emirati's Toyota Land Cruiser and failed to stop and await the police. The Emirati chased the Indian and stopped him; I would have done the same, as would many drivers, I suspect. But then the Emirati set about assaulting the Indian. Common assault in a public place in front of eye-witnesses. (Believe me, I was tempted to rearrange someone's face with a tyre iron following his attempt to kill me with a blunt instrument (a GMC truck), but I value my liberty too much and instead awaited the arrival of the Law.)

Anyway, back to the recent case. One of these witnesses had a video camera, and he caught the assault on video and then chose to post it on YouTube, from where it proliferated. Despite the YouTube video being taken down, the images are now on the internet until the end of time. This in itself is worth remembering: if you upload something on to the internet it'll be there for ever.

It seems that in the UAE, it is against the law to photograph someone without their permission. It is also possible to defame someone by telling the truth, as Alexander observed over on Fake Plastic Souks.

My dictionary defines 'defame' as "attack the good name or reputation of, as by uttering or publishing maliciously or falsely anything injurious..." I suppose "publishing maliciously anything injurious" is what this amateur videographer seems to have done; I had always thought that "publishing falsely" was the critical bit. Merriam-Webster says that defamation is the same as slander, and that is definitely "...utterance of false charges." I think I'll leave the courts to sort out this one.

EDITED 30 JULY: According to The National, all charges against the Emirati and the Indian videographer have been dropped. The Emirati was fired from his job over the incident.

And then something occurred to me. If it's illegal to photograph me without my permission, even if I'm committing a criminal act, and post the pictures on the internet, then in principle all traffic cameras are illegal. If you go to the Dubai Police website and type in your (or anyone else's) car registration number, up will pop all outstanding traffic offences complete with a link to a nice picture of the offending vehicle's licence plate.

If I gave implicit permission to be photographed if I exceeded the speed limit or ran a red light when I took to the road, then surely all of us give our permission to be photographed when we enter a public place.

I'm not the only one this has occurred to. The Arabian Business website ran an article on 20th July that suggests that the law may be changed to decriminalise taking pictures of illegal activity. But if you catch an illegal act on camera, you have to submit the images to Dubai Police. Uploading to YouTube remains mamnua'a.

]}:-{>