1. The ambiance. In short, there isn’t any. Khalifa City A is almost completely devoid of pavements, for instance, so street life is limited to driving. Even when there are sidewalks, there are few places to walk to and not much to see along the way, other than construction sites and the odd brightly coloured villa. (Whoever designed Khalifa B seems to have the idea, as the sidewalks seem to come as standard along most of its roads.)
2. The street signs. While the numbering system is useful, it’s largely arbitrary. Unlike the structured system on the island, there’s no obvious pattern on the mainland; and some of the same numbers have been used more than once, which makes giving directions difficult. Nor is there any guarantee that a road will keep the same number for its entire length – for instance, Street 16 becomes Street 40 and Street 20 switches to Street 24 for no apparent reason.
3. The roundabouts. There doesn’t seem to be any real agreement amongst the mainland drivers on the exact rules pertaining to roundabouts and when to take which lane. Also, certain roads could use a few more—the road that runs alongside Al Raha Gardens, for example, stretches for over 10km but has only three roundabouts.
4. The one-way system. In more spots than one, a road that looks to be two-way is essentially only one-way. You can cross from Mussaffah Road over to Sheikh Zayed Road by taking Street 16 to Raha Gardens Street, but try coming back that way and you’ll find you can’t turn left at the crucial intersection. (Just as well, though; this absence discourages incoming traffic from Dubai clogging the streets of Khalifa A.)
5. The overpasses. It looks as though the overpass that will officially cross over Sheikh Zayed Road at a spot that’s actually convenient for people living in Khalifa City A will be open soon. Until that day, though, we’re still wondering why is takes Khalifa City residents so long to get to their nearest shopping mall.
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