A Love and Hate Relationship with Public Transportation

Good day, guys!

Now that I live in Dubai, I want to share the means of transportation with you. Here in Dubai, it is the Roads & Transport Authority(RTA) that heads all the public transportation which includes the metro, buses, taxis, marine transport, and trams.

The most important item that you should have to be able to use most of the public transportation is the nol card and this can be bought in the Metro Stations. You have to tap those cards on the reader as soon as you get inside and tap out when you leave. There's a silver nol card and a gold nol card, they both cost 25 AED and if you decide to purchase it you'll have a 19 AED e purse value. These nol cards are valid for 5 years from the date of purchase.

The difference between the silver and the gold nol card is that you're going to spend more with the gold nol card because the fees are double but using a gold card will give you the privilege to stay in the gold card cabin on the train which is exclusive. There's one feature that I really love and it's to personalize your nol card, though you need your Emirates ID for that.

The number one thing that you should be wary about are the fines when you use public transportation. There are a bunch of them and it's really going to be painful on your pocket
if ever you get caught. Here are some rules which I remember, you are not allowed to sleep, eat or drink inside the bus/train. If you're a man, you should know where to sit because there are seats that are designated only for women and it's usually in the front. If you get caught you will be fined 200 AED which is around 3000 PHP. But I noticed that most of the people who get fines are the ones who don't tap whenever they get inside public transportation.

If you want to travel around Dubai, you could use google maps and it would show you the route and steps to get there when using public transportation. It even shows the timings of the bus and metro. I use that app every day.

Experiences

I still remember my first experience being new here, our friend brought us to the Mall of the Emirates metro station and treated me a nol card. My first bus ride was also near there, and we came from the grocery. My friend sat with me at the back and she was explaining to me the things that I should do, there's a separate section for women on the bus and the men shouldn't try to sit there or else we'll get fined.

After learning the system, there came my love and hate relationship with public transportation here. The things that I really hate whenever I commute by bus are the timings, there were times when the bus comes super late and the worst time was when it ghosts you, wherein the monitor/applications says it's coming and it never comes(usually happens near our workplace). If you've been reading some of my posts, I really hate commuting on Sundays because there are no feeder buses. If there are no feeder buses, the buses are really jam-packed(look at the photo below), and if it's that packed, it seems that the aircon isn't working. It's always a race to get inside and find a seat. Traveling from bus to bus can also be a pain, especially during summer because you'll never know the delays and there are some bus stops that don't have shade, so you are going to melt with the heat of the sun.

I remember the days when I was new, I would be searching what the best route going to our workplace, I tried bus to bus, I also tried taking 3 buses and I finally settled with the route bus-metro-bus. It sounds like a hassle and yes I used to complain about it before but I just got used to it. My whole trip takes around an hour just to go to my workplace.

Here are some things that I really love about their transportation now is the convenience, you just have to use the metro and you could travel to other places around Dubai. I actually like traveling using the metro when it's not jam-packed, it's really nice looking through the window and seeing the different parts of Dubai. One thing I also love is the personalized nol card, I experienced losing my nol card, and I loaded it with a promo worth 3 months, I was so scared because that was worth around 330 AED(5k Php), I just bought a new one, headed to their app to cancel my previous one and transfer it to the new card, I got refunded the full amount after 4 days. I also get to save when using public transportation, unlike when you take a taxi the minimum is 12 AED which is around 180 PHP. I only end up spending 3 to 7.5 AED depending on the place where I have to go.

Metro Adventures

If you look closely, there's a symbol for women and children. They have cabins that are strictly for them only. I remember a story of one of my friends' friend, he told me that he stepped into that cabin and was fined for it. So I usually pay attention to where I stay.

Some of the Metro stations are unique, wherein the design inside looks different and has some historic pieces in them. I haven't gone to all the metro stations yet, I wonder when will I be able to haha.

I guess my favorite transportation here is the train because travel time is really fast compared to buses and you get to see a lot of things. I forgot to mention that there are 2 lines a green line(Etisalat to Creek) and a red line(Centrepoint to EXPO 2020). Here are some photos that I took while riding the train through the metro stations. I always have the view of the Burj Al Arab going to the second bus. I also pass by Lamborghini, which inspires me every day to keep on working to get one haha.

Thanks for reading stay safe always!

The photos used in this post are owned by me.