Comments on: Abu Dhabi Street Design Manual

By: Brpod

Brpod — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:39:22 +0000

Interesting to see it refered to as Nelson Nygaards document, I am not sure the actual owner Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council, or the lead consultant for the development of the Manual, Otak Internaional, would agree with this claim!

By: Namaste

Namaste — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:01:30 +0000

http://www.upc.gov.ae/en/SustainableUrbanDesign/UrbanStreetDesignManual.aspx

By: Namaste

Namaste — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:49:07 +0000

Looks like the link’s disappeared. Anyone know where I can find a pdf copy of this now?

By: Vagabondblogger

Vagabondblogger — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:15:44 +0000

I clicked on the link provided by Charlie. I’m in Cairo, and patience is the word, every single day, so it did take quite a while to download.

By: MMA

MMA — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:28:11 +0000

Vagabondblogger, did you find a link to download it? I am looking for it but didn’t succeed at all. Would you share it?

Thanks.

By: Vagabondblogger

Vagabondblogger — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:40:40 +0000

Finally got the PDF to download (it took forever). I laughed so hard I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke, or some lofty idea that will never see fruition. And, if it does, it probably won’t be done right. They made bike lanes for the new Corniche. But, instead of adding them on the streets they installed them on the sidewalk, leading to instances of pedestrians, and roller bladers screaming and running for their lives. (The pedestrians were breaking the rules, but they didn’t know any better.) And I find this amusing coming from a government that at one time, when we lived there, would go around confiscating bicycles, because they didn’t want their city turning into a Little Delhi. The least I can say, is they’re giving their traffic / street use serious consideration. On the other hand, when I read, smaller streets, that just means they’re running out of land, and trying to figure out how to adjust traffic to meet residential growth, i.e. more new buildings and smaller roadways (they tear down decent buildings regularly to raise the roof for more profit.) Time will tell.

By: Vagabondblogger

Vagabondblogger — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:35:09 +0000

I’m in Cairo Egypt where we truly have roads traveled by a variety (donkeys, horses, carts, cars, motorcycles from Russia - everything imaginable) of vehicles. Somehow it works. I don’t like it, but it seems to work. We lived in Abu Dhabi for about 6 years, and during that time they renovated the Corniche. I liked the way the street system worked there, after getting use to it. Roundabouts, instead of multiple intersections, u-turns before intersections - you digest it, and learn the best routes. Whereas in the US, waiting for people to take turns to turn, people who use no signals, etc., can be frustrating. The system Abu Dahbi had, got rid of much of that, because it was believed that those rules (turn signals, stop signs, etc.) were just for the westerners. So assuming most of the people (from south Asia & the Middle East) ignore those rules, another model based on road design is used instead. Since I’m in Cairo & can’t download the complete file (the Internet takes forever here) I am assuming it follows with the previous thinking - design roads to go with the thinking, not try to change the thinking to make people drive differently. Maybe I’m off the mark here.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:37:38 +0000

You can, right here!
http://nelsonnygaard.com/Documents/Reports/Abu-Dhabi-StreetDesignManual.pdf

By: Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:23:16 +0000

If it were progressive, you’d be able to download it without having to pay for it. Kind of like we’re able to do here in the US.