I've taken the metro a few times (my boss picks me up for work since I am staying nearby) to travel to some malls and etc and it's been really convenient and easy!
As a lifelong California native, public transportation has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I feel like a car is my only way to get from point A to B and relying on any other means is an odd feeling. When I visited New York City a few years ago, I got my first real taste of a metro system and realized the functionality and ease that it provides to its commuters.
Here in Dubai the metro system has two lines. One is the red line which travels from Rashidiya which is the east end of the city to west end at Jebel Ali. The other line is a green line which is a shorter line but travels north and south in the older part of Dubai and connects a few short distance areas including metro stops that go straight into the Dubai International Airport.
I traveled the red line to go back and forth for a few errands. I was a little nervous travelling the first time because I wasn't affiliated with the geography of the city as well as the the layout of where things were. All I knew was to take the Rashidiya train and get off at the Ibn Battuta stop (that's another post to come). There is luckily a metro stop right next to where I am staying so I walked to the station (side note: hot wind with sand = instant sweat, sand in eye and bad hair), crossed the bridge over traffic, passed through the metro card reader and found the train rail. The train is semi-segregated with a women and children cabin at the back and then a general seating area in the first few sections of the train. On my first ride I didn't recognize the symbols and sat in general seating. I was wary because I didn't want to accidently come into the men's cabin and get weird stares for the entire ride. But I found that there were men and women in equal ratios sitting or standing throughout the cabin. I elected to stand near a holding rail because the inner child in me wanted to semi-surf the metro ride but a gentleman pointed out that there was a seat a few rows up so I took the offer and sat down. The rest of the ride was fairly straight forward as the stops were first announced in Arabic and then in English and mirrored with video screens that displayed the same information.
The metro stations themselves are actually what inspired me to write about them. Since they parallel the artery of the city -Sheikh Zayyed Road, which is a 5-6 lane highway, you can see them standing alone a lot of the time and can admire their unique building design. I thought they looked very futuristic and they light up beautifully at night.
The stations are fully air conditioned with escalators and stairs for those who want to move quicker. The floors are all tiled along with glass panels everywhere. All the signs are written in both Arabic and English. The most exciting part for me was when I realized that the escalators were all energy efficient and moved very slow until they detected a person and then would speed up to normal speed. It is such a nice long term design feature that makes so much sense!
As a lifelong California native, public transportation has always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I feel like a car is my only way to get from point A to B and relying on any other means is an odd feeling. When I visited New York City a few years ago, I got my first real taste of a metro system and realized the functionality and ease that it provides to its commuters.
Here in Dubai the metro system has two lines. One is the red line which travels from Rashidiya which is the east end of the city to west end at Jebel Ali. The other line is a green line which is a shorter line but travels north and south in the older part of Dubai and connects a few short distance areas including metro stops that go straight into the Dubai International Airport.
I traveled the red line to go back and forth for a few errands. I was a little nervous travelling the first time because I wasn't affiliated with the geography of the city as well as the the layout of where things were. All I knew was to take the Rashidiya train and get off at the Ibn Battuta stop (that's another post to come). There is luckily a metro stop right next to where I am staying so I walked to the station (side note: hot wind with sand = instant sweat, sand in eye and bad hair), crossed the bridge over traffic, passed through the metro card reader and found the train rail. The train is semi-segregated with a women and children cabin at the back and then a general seating area in the first few sections of the train. On my first ride I didn't recognize the symbols and sat in general seating. I was wary because I didn't want to accidently come into the men's cabin and get weird stares for the entire ride. But I found that there were men and women in equal ratios sitting or standing throughout the cabin. I elected to stand near a holding rail because the inner child in me wanted to semi-surf the metro ride but a gentleman pointed out that there was a seat a few rows up so I took the offer and sat down. The rest of the ride was fairly straight forward as the stops were first announced in Arabic and then in English and mirrored with video screens that displayed the same information.
The stations are fully air conditioned with escalators and stairs for those who want to move quicker. The floors are all tiled along with glass panels everywhere. All the signs are written in both Arabic and English. The most exciting part for me was when I realized that the escalators were all energy efficient and moved very slow until they detected a person and then would speed up to normal speed. It is such a nice long term design feature that makes so much sense!
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