If you’re a licensed driver living permanently in the UAE or even if you’re just visiting, you need to be fully alert and to exercise caution, especially when plying the country’s major roads. Here 3 of the top tips you need to follow to ensure a safe driving experience while you are in the UAE.
Keep your distance
Dubai Police statistics reveal that many deaths caused by vehicular accidents in the UAE resulted from unnecessary tailgating. Such accidents seem somewhat inevitable considering most local drivers refuse to stay below the speed limit. As such, you should maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you, even in a narrow city street where high-speed driving is impractical.
You can apply the 3-second rule in maintaining distance. Under this rule, you count the number of seconds it takes for your vehicle to reach the point on the road which the vehicle in front of you has just vacated. If it takes you less than 3 seconds to reach that point, then you are too close to the vehicle you are following and should therefore slow down accordingly. Applying this rule habitually will give you a better chance of avoiding any accident that befalls the vehicle in front of you by giving you enough time and distance to properly step on the brake or decelerate and switch lanes without endangering other motorists.
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Practice lane discipline
Fast lanes and slow lanes are found throughout the Emirates, but it does not necessarily mean that many local motorists are aware of the restrictions that such lanes impose. For example, it is not uncommon for speeding vehicles to stay in the slow lanes all throughout their trip and for slow vehicles to hog the fast lanes even if the other lanes are clear of traffic.
Your best tactic in this case is to simply obey the rules by following the speed restrictions imposed by the different lanes. Specifically, you should not go above 60 km/h in slow lanes and below that speed in fast lanes. However, do not assume that other drivers will follow your example. Learn to yield to other vehicles even if you have the right of way. If you’re in the fast lane and you happen to be following a vehicle going 50 km/h or if you’re in the slow lane and you see in your rear-view mirror a speeding vehicle approaching from behind, use your indicator light and then switch lanes as soon as you see no vehicles immediately behind you in the adjacent lane.
Give way to pedestrians
As such, if you are approaching a zebra crossing and you see even just one pedestrian having set foot on it, you should come to a complete stop and wait until that pedestrian and any other pedestrians in close proximity have finished crossing it.
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