Dubai has seen massive development in the past one and a half decades and has turned out to be one of the most modern cities in the world; and much like other world cities, it shares some of the same troubles. The utopian city is riddled with traffic woes, but Dubai’s Director General Hussain Lootah has come up with an odd way to tackle the trouble. In a country which is absolutely crazy about cars, he has suggested banning poor people from owning cars in an effort to reduce highway congestion. Lootah blames Dubai’s rapid development and rise in wealth for clogging up the emirate’s roads with cars and believes putting up an ‘income threshold’ would prevent all but the important residents of Dubai from using the country’s high-speed highways.
A city where the police department has its own fleet of the world’s most expensive supercars and the parking lot of American University in Dubai looks more like an uber-luxury car club meet-up, it seems there’s no space for the poor. In addition to the salary linked restrictions, the municipal authority is also considering an increase on parking fees, fuel prices, toll road fees and insurance rates to further limit car ownership. But the question is will it be a prudent move?
[Via – Autoblog]
