Poor People In Dubai May Have to Kiss Cars Goodbye
Being poor probably sucks everywhere, but it might just suck even more for the people in Dubai, as the city has announced plans for their latest dick move which would keep poor people off the roads, and prevent them from owning cars entirely.
Dubai’s director general, Hussain Lootah, is the guy heading the operation, and while he has cited a few different reasons for the plan, the main objective is basically to get the poor people off the road to make room for all of the wealthy people. Because, you know, the rich people matter way more than all of those poor assholes trying to get to work on time.
Lootah seems to realize that simply telling poor people they can’t drive anymore would be pretty harsh, so instead, his plan is to make the poor people feel like it’s their fault they can’t own a car. Lootah is talking about jacking up parking fees, fuel costs and insurance prices to make it essentially impossible for poor people to legally own a car.
There would also be a strict salary threshold and anyone that makes anything below the minimum salary amount would be banned from owning a car. There hasn’t been any word of what the minimum salary would be, but I have a feeling that residents making any less than the Dubai-equivalent of six figures would be getting a visit from the repo man.
This is probably what the “expanded” metro train system will look like if “Operation Fuck the Poor” is carried out.
The poor need not worry, however. There are still plenty of ways to get around. Lootah has reminded Dubai residents that the city has an excellent public transportation system. The metro train system will be “expanded” soon, but while the poor wait for that project to begin, they can always take a ride on one of the many “luxury buses” cruising around the city.
I can’t help but feel that there are less-dickish ways to go about this problem. The fact that Lootah wouldn’t even give up one lane to the poor people just seems ludicrous. Sure, segregating traffic between rich and poor people would be terrible, but it’s better than nothing. Either way, there just doesn’t seem to be a nice way to say what Lootah is saying. Guy has got some real balls, I’ll give him that.
There’s no word of whether or not “Operation Fuck the Poor” will actually take off, but I’m sure that all of the rich people in Dubai are shelling out disgusting amounts of money to help get all of those useless peasants off the road.
If you find yourself feeling bad for all of the measly poor people in Dubai, just remember that it’s their fault that they can’t drive. If those cheap bastards want to own cars and use the roads, all they have to do is make more money.
It’s really not that difficult.
That is a little sensationalist. Dubai currently has problems with traffic congestion so the idea is to raise the cost of ownership of vehicles in order to encourage more people to use public transport.
The cost of car ownership in Dubai is currently very low so these measures will simply bring it closer to typical costs in developed countries.
This move is similar to somewhere like Singapore, where vehicle licence fees are kept very high, or London, where there is a daily congestion charge for entering the city centre. Measures like this reduce the number of cars on the road. The additional revenue raised can be used to subsidise and expand the existing public transport systems, as Lootah says.
Poor people in most parts of the world can’t afford to drive – it is, after all, a luxury to own and operate a private vehicle. It sucks that poor people will be priced off the road, but it is either that or suffer with the massive congestion the city is currently experiencing, and that doesn’t help anyone.
Traffic is a big problem in Dubai especially in Mirdif so this is a good move
From lootah
In other parts of the world, less effluent people have choice of walking, cycling or different public transport. I am not so optimistic about the sustainable transport in Dubai. This is not because Dubai don’t have metro or cycling facilities. A few news headlines about public transport didn’t change the deep rooted institutional obstacles in Dubai’s city planning. Everywhere we turned, the urban streets and fine grain have been changed to ‘Dubai standard’ – highway standard. R…ridiculously higher than our common sense about a urban street – 8-10 lane with huge utility easement. This simply makes Dubai a very hostile walking/cycling environment. So when the poor people are forced to the alternative transport, they have to deal with very dangerous roads, scorching heat and boring highway landscape between the destinations. Most Dubai metro stations take more land than needed so people have to walk a long distance. All these really defeat the purpose of building public transport in the first place. To encourage people use public transport, you have to make a city nice to walk around first. If Dubai keeps building highways, who wants to walk?