RTA and Police must educated public in stopping at zebra crossings. There is no point to a zebra crossing if a pedestrian is unable to cross due to cars not stopping.
Something must be done…please.
Try and cross the road in the UAE on a zebra crossing that does not have a red light stop button.
I personally think zebra crossings are dangerous wherever they are in the world. I am from the UK and most of the zebra crossings have been replaced with crossings that have lights, the trouble comes when pedestrians automatically think that drivers have seen them and are going to stop, so they step out regardless.
In the UAE unless it is a single lane road or the pedestrian has already started to cross the road then I never stop at zebra crossings. The reason why is that I have seen so many near misses especially on dual lane roads. If I stop at the crossing in lane 1 and the pedestrian starts to cross, what usually happens is that as they step out past my car into lane 2 the drivers in lane 2 cannot yet see the pedestrian and do not realize I have stopped to let somebody cross so they drive through anyway narrowly missing the pedestrian, I can only assume they must think I have stopped to drop somebody off or that they simply aren’t concentrating. I also never stop if a car is close behind me because I cannot rely on the driver behind reacting to me stopping.
Unfortunately in order to drive safely in the UAE you cannot always stick to the laws of the road. There needs to be a concerted government campaign to change the attitude towards driving over here, it a boiling pot of impatience, aggression, lack of basic driving procedure knowledge and selfishness which just gets worse as the roads get busier and more complex.
You are quite right. No one stops for pedestrians in Abu Dhabi too. I make a point to stop if someone is already walking. If someone is waiting I watch the rear view mirror, make sure no car is coming from behind me on other lanes, stop and put on the hazard lights for them to cross. Best option to control the unruly drivers of the region are crossings with lights. They have to stop if light turns red.
I saw the other way in Sri Lanka. The moment someone puts his foot on the zebra crossing cars from both directions stop. Others behind or on other lanes (In city) also stop. In Singapore they stop “a mile away” if you are standing near a zebra crossing and gesture you if you wanted to cross before they move their car!!!
In UAE someone behind may overtake you if you stopped for pedestrian and scare away the pedestrian.
I almost watched someone get killed when I stopped at a zebra crossing and the idiot behind me decided to overtake after the pedestrian started to cross the road. Fortunately they missed the person by a whisker.
Stop signs have the exact same problem. The only way to enforce this is either with CCTV surveillance or with police patrols. Unfortunately the police don’t seem interested in stopping anyone except for speeding offences which, in my view, should be the lowest priority.