Screwed by Salik
I am still waiting for Etisalat to hock up our building. Its been almost 6 months now and we are still on Etisalat's to-do list to get telephone and Internet. Unbelievable!
Yup, you guessed it right. Salik is the reason why i re-surfaced today.
I didn't want to comment on Dubai’s latest money collection scheme. Though I did stick the orange tags on all our cars, this toll system is not supposed to affect me or my wife's travel to work.
My trip to work is a 5 minutes drive that doesn't involve having go on Sh. Zayed Road in the first place. My house is actually (and geographically) located outside the so called "Salik-Zone".
This morning I discovered that I could never be more wrong.
As I drove out of my house heading on my normal route out of Barsha northbound toward Jabal Ali, I noticed the short/tiny side road that I take every morning was way too active than it usually is.
Then it all got revealed: a 2KM long queue of cars lined up all the way to the end of the road.
It was Sharjah deja vou all over again.
Knowing the way around my own neighborhood, I took the first turn out of that street. Few lefts and rights and I am forced into to getting on Sh. Zayed Road, on the opposite direction to work and straight under the first Salik panel, forcing myself into a U-trun, under passing the second ugly pale-orange panel in the opposite direction again. Total damage: Longer trip plus chucking Dhs 8.
So, here is the deal:
Before Salik:
My trip to work took up to 5 to 6 minutes max. And I don't have to get on Sh. Zayed Road anyways.
Thanks to Salik now, I have 2 options:
(1) Pay: Forced to get on Sh Zayed Road, my trip is 15 to 20 minutes longer and it costs me Dhs 8 /day more
(2) Don't pay: My trip will take at least 30 to 45 minutes longer to get to work.
If RTA is reading this, I hope you are proud.
Yup, you guessed it right. Salik is the reason why i re-surfaced today.
I didn't want to comment on Dubai’s latest money collection scheme. Though I did stick the orange tags on all our cars, this toll system is not supposed to affect me or my wife's travel to work.
My trip to work is a 5 minutes drive that doesn't involve having go on Sh. Zayed Road in the first place. My house is actually (and geographically) located outside the so called "Salik-Zone".
This morning I discovered that I could never be more wrong.
As I drove out of my house heading on my normal route out of Barsha northbound toward Jabal Ali, I noticed the short/tiny side road that I take every morning was way too active than it usually is.
Then it all got revealed: a 2KM long queue of cars lined up all the way to the end of the road.
It was Sharjah deja vou all over again.
Knowing the way around my own neighborhood, I took the first turn out of that street. Few lefts and rights and I am forced into to getting on Sh. Zayed Road, on the opposite direction to work and straight under the first Salik panel, forcing myself into a U-trun, under passing the second ugly pale-orange panel in the opposite direction again. Total damage: Longer trip plus chucking Dhs 8.
So, here is the deal:
Before Salik:
My trip to work took up to 5 to 6 minutes max. And I don't have to get on Sh. Zayed Road anyways.
Thanks to Salik now, I have 2 options:
(1) Pay: Forced to get on Sh Zayed Road, my trip is 15 to 20 minutes longer and it costs me Dhs 8 /day more
(2) Don't pay: My trip will take at least 30 to 45 minutes longer to get to work.
If RTA is reading this, I hope you are proud.
posted by moryarti at
7/01/2007 08:07:00 AM
16 Comments:
My way to work is also Salik free (SHJ > Emirates Road > Barsha) but of course it was congestion (at surprisingly 7 AM) all over the place.
Sigh.
And people are still on holidays
By
KJ, at July 1, 2007 at 11:23 AM
I love the town planing of Dubai it is awesome.the basic rule My way of High way .. Cheers
By
Anonymous, at July 1, 2007 at 11:28 AM
i can see after a while every one will get amouned to this system and things will get back to normal spend 1.30 hr to pass salik or spend 3 hrs to save 4 AED.. choice is yours i see few guys happy as they had salik and on first day there was no traffic but as many people will get it then they will not mind.. as parking tickets, rent hike etc is now part of Dubai's Daily life... and above all 40% of your income has to be consumed somewhere in tax free country.. this is called smart act.
By
Anonymous, at July 1, 2007 at 11:33 AM
I also live have a "salik free" commute, but lately, as people have been practicing their alternate routes,I have noticed that my own commute has gotten awful. Karama through Zaabeel to the Al Ain Road and work takes me 17 minutes when there's no traffic, but the Palace Roundabout is now chocka with people coming off the BBB and zipping straight through at high speed to get to the TCR. It's impossible to get onto the Palace Roundabout some mornings. when I do get to the Al AIn Road, I then have to contend wit hteh BBB traffic that goes to the Hatta/Ras al Khor road instead to hook up with SZR! Two hot spots, and I don't go near a bridge myself. Thank you Salik. I'm glad I'm moving to Mirdif next week.
By
Mme Cyn, at July 1, 2007 at 3:51 PM
Salik now is a big big mistake.. Way too soon.
By
Anonymous, at July 1, 2007 at 5:44 PM
good to hear from you moryarti.. bas next time let it be for something bositive.
i'm sorry to hear about salik and your experiences today.. i hope this is all short-term and when the system is used to the people and vice versa then things will improve.
obviously etisasasasat are being really stupid but that's a different matter.
http://gulfnews.com/technology/blogging/10136101.html
when i read the first few words i knew it was you.. because ur the only one capable of resurfacing!
good to read ya!
By
BuJ, at July 2, 2007 at 1:10 AM
Thanks Buj, good to hear from you too bro.
Man, you do know more than anyone how Pro a Toll Systems in Dubai I am. I actually anticipated the whole salik business before anyone knew anything about it (go through my older posts last year).
I was very supportive of it as I know that it will really make traffic smoother.
Yet, timing, contingency and levels of indirect impact are parameters that determine the success (or failure) of any project.
In absolute terms, I am 100% with Salik, Heck, I say charge Dhs 10 if they can get away with it. All I am asking them to do is to do so when people have other choices, and not at the expense of other people (people who live in Barsha, greens, springs, Meadows...etc)
Man, I have friends who spent 1.5hrs coming from the greens to DIC! It is a 10 minutes drive for god’s sake!
Today, Salik didn’t solve the problem what so ever. It simply moved it from one place to another.
By
moryarti, at July 2, 2007 at 4:53 AM
I live in sharjah and work in dubai.. I don't have to go through the salik gates coz my office is in deira. Used to take me 35-40 min to get to work... now its 15 min longer... so its not so bad.. just 15 min.. but those extra 15 min seem like forever!!!
By
clayfuture, at July 3, 2007 at 6:11 PM
YAYYYYYYYYY! ABUDHABI!
(MUHAHHAHAHAHAH!)
SALIK btw can be changed around to mean something so profound if you jumble the letters a bit. hehehhehe
lik....
By
*, at July 4, 2007 at 6:28 PM
Oh another one !
Another one!
How salikious! snigger snigger
By
*, at July 4, 2007 at 9:22 PM
kaya, what's the word? SLIKA?
KILAS? SLAKI? KLIAS?
btw, Moryarti.. i am with you, wallahi.. but if this salik thingie was version 1.0 with many more updates and patches promised then i'll be so comfortable. however if they will keep it as it is without learning from their mistakes then they are just that. mistaken.
salik might actually damage dubai rather than help it in the long run.. however with the right amount of tweaking then it's potentially very good.
at the moment all i can see (from the media and friends) that some areas are indeed salik, but the traffic that used to go there is now dumped on other areas.
hence same amount on traffic on the road, just greater variance.
By
BuJ, at July 5, 2007 at 11:34 AM
The alternate word for SALIK my dear freinds is ASLIK
By
Unknown, at July 11, 2007 at 11:19 PM
Sorry forgot to mention, I never use that thing called SALIK...just cause its no where close to where I live or work for that matter. But but but....recalling the days that I was in california and whilst we were driving to Vegas, we came to a fork in the road...go right and you will get to vegas in 6 hours, or go left..pay a toll..and get to vegas in 2 hours...heck sounds good, i'll pay the damned 5 or 6 buck..go through the 25 lane toll highway and get to where I wanna be in no time. Okay, here, you guys are kinda faced with awkward dillema, those of you going back to sharjah from dubai can either.....go through maktoum and spend close to 2 hours trying to pass, or.....pay the toll, speed through garhoud for approximately 3 mins, given you'll feel that your kilometrage actaully exceeded 35km/h and then be surprised by another bottleneck starting by city center, jeez i like the sound of that....i'll chose neither, pay up pay up you have no choice, i never new that 3 mins of freedom driving would cost you 4 dhs until i met you SALIK, or should i say ASLIK hehehehe, regardos
Makdoodle
By
Unknown, at July 11, 2007 at 11:28 PM
We can stop SALIK.
Let us all tell all our friends NOT TO VISIT DUBAI.Each person spends 10,000 on hotel emirates air tickets shopping and entertainments and other things.
So if we stop 1000 persons we make them lose 10 MILLION PER DAY.
Set a slogon STOP SALIK OR WE STOP TOURISM.
AND by stopping trourism conferences exhibition visitors etc we are stopping crowding here.
LET THEM SEE POWER OF COMMAON MAN.
COME ON FRIENDS LET US STOP SALIK .write to all ur friends telling them : Please my friend dubai has got too crowded we beg you not to come to dubai until salik is stopped.
IF dubai looses 10 million per day they will stop salik in one week
STOP SALIK OR WE STOP TOURISM
STOP SALIK OR .... WE STOP VISITORS TO DUBAI
STOP SALIK ... OR YOU LOOSE MONEY ALSO
STOP SALIK OR.... THE REAL ESTATE BOOM WILL STOP
my friend , let us be positive and action oriented . let us not be like milked cows or sheep+people sheeple
++++++
Yearly 28 Million passengers enter dubai Airport.(Source is wikipedia with url given at the bottom. ) This is 70,000 per day .
Even if they stay for 5 days each on an average then they are an additional 350,000 people. In a city of normally 700,000 legal residents.
IF we can stop these people entering DUBAI until the METRO RAIL is ready then we will solve the traffic problem totally.
Instead of complaining of SALIK let us encourage all friends business contacts , suppliers , vendors , exhibition visitors , NOT TO VISIT DUBAI until we solve the traffic / salik / congestieon rust in dubai.
ONLY WE CAN STOP SALIK
By
Anonymous, at September 23, 2007 at 11:31 PM
Salik is only another great income for Dubai
It will never ever make traffic jams disappear.
By
Anonymous, at October 27, 2007 at 10:25 PM
RTA should be proud of destroying the quality of people's lives here by creating unnecessary shit like Salik and building roads in residential areas and leaving their fucking street lights on the entire night and.
By
Anonymous, at October 29, 2009 at 12:28 AM
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