The past quickly becomes a dream at best and worst–Dubai Dreamland.
Well, while I was dreaming about walking distance green and blue in local parks…
How does that shopping work if you don’t want to get into your car every day?
And what if I have to be driving through a neighbourhood and need to shop?
Dubai urbanification–this is the Coastal Zone. In fact, it is the heart of a growing 200km long megalopolis connecting Ras al Kaimah in the north to Abu Dhabi in the south. And it was once…Empty Quarter.
The serviceable part of a lot of those hi-rise apartment neighbourhoods is that ground floor has retail space. I don’t want to turn this into some kind of planners manifesto; but if you must live in an apartment building, it is hugely practical to have retail on the ground floor of hi-rise–especially if your goal is to reduce numbers of local auto trips.
That 200km megalopolis includes parts of six different Emirates. Within each Emirate there are independent systems, though only in Dubai are they distributed enough to offer alternative to daily car use. And there has been talk of a train system linking all the Emirates. More recent info may be available by searching.
A 200km megalopolis? Sounds like hell to me. What’s public transport like?