Awareness campaign to educate drivers on multi lane roads. If you were to drive around the emirates’ roads, it will be very obvious that many drivers do not have a clue on the basic rules of driving on multi lane roads. I personally speak regularly to many known drivers and am surprised that majority of them have wrong notions. First of all, most drivers do not know which is Lane 1, Lane 2, Lane 3 etc. You will be surprised that many believe that slowest two lanes in multi lane road are for heavy vehicles, where light vehicles should not be driven. Then maximum of them insisted that they are absolutely right to stubbornly drive on the fast lane if the speed is reaching the maximum set for the road. They feel it is fine for a higher speed vehicle to overtake from slower lanes.
All drivers should follow the simple basic rule “pull over to the next slower lane when possible, if and when a faster vehicle approaches from behind, irrespective of the speed of vehicles”. If so, the traffic in all roads will be much more smoother and traffic congestion can be minimized. I often see (eg on a four lane raod), the slowest two lanes literally empty whereas third lane is with vehicle tail-ending each other and fast lane with vehicles moving in groups behind a slow moving vehicle finding it difficult to pull over to the third lane.
A well though after and animated video presentation showing the difference can be used for the campaign thereby explaining the benefits and rules of multi lane road discipline.
Another point is how to overcome the ‘curious drivers’ who slow down to watch and assess every single accident, even on the opposite carriageway. Spot fining by a policeman while other officers attend to the accident would convey strong message to deter this menace.
I could not agree more with this problem and hopefully a solution is just around the corner. People are often confused with lane discipline and often refer to the last lane or overtaking lane as the speeding lane. No country promotes speeding or over speeding which is often the incorrect terms used.
Additionally there is no limit to the education required on maintaining safe distances and tailgating, which seems to be the national hobby. As a responsible company, we are educating our externally provided drivers on a regular basis on legal requirements, as well as best practices that go beyond the law so as to ensure our brand is protected, but most importantly our internal and external customers.