New names for Dubai streets

Dubai is currently bent on putting unique and meaningful names to its streets, which were originally designated by numbers only.

In a joint effort, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Dubai Municipality are hard at work providing more than 22,000 major and minor roads in Dubai with new names. This includes highways, flyovers, intersections, internal roads, and side roads.

They are keen on giving the streets unique names that will help people easily remember them. These names will be selected by associating them with the neighborhood around the street and at the same time promoting the Emirati culture and heritage of the city.

As a strategy, they are giving streets in coastal areas, such as Jumeira, marine-related names like fishes or boats. Streets in the desert areas are given names of trees or local plants. Streets in historical districts like Bur Dubai and Deira are to be given names significant to the history and heritage of the emirate.

This project also comes with new signboards that are color coded accordingly for easy recall. Boards on highways are blue, and on internal roads green. Boards with exit signs from highways to communities will be white. Tourist spots and landmarks will get brown backgrounds, while constructions site have yellow backgrounds.

This initiative was launched in 2010, and have so far named 500 streets. The target is to name 10,000 streets by next year.

With the new street names, it will become easier for tourists, regular motorists, and taxis to navigate around the city. It will probably take a while for the residents to get used to the new names, but in the long run, it will be beneficial for all. As long as the names are not that long and are easy to remember, all should go well.


Photo credit: Wikipedia, 
Source: Gulf News