Driving/ orientation in Abu Dhabi

I was initially quite nervous about driving here - the word was that dangerous drivers were everywhere.  I've been pleasantly surprised that driving here is actually quite civil (I think Italy is much crazier and Jake says this is really no comparison to China).  It has still been an adjustment - lots of roundabouts and it is perfectly acceptable to turn from a lane that is not a turn-out lane.  But no one (I haven't seen one single car speed through even a changing yellow light) runs a red light. There is basically no such thing as an unprotected left turn so opportunities to try to dash in front of another care are quite limited.  I'm sure that was by design to try to thwart speed demons since this city has its fair share of very fast cars (mercedes, porches, etc. everywhere).

Typical street.  High rise apartments
with lots of retail underneath

The streets are lined up on large arterty streets (that I call "mega-blocks" and within each mega-block are a series of small streets.  These small streets all have the same numbers (2, 4, 6, etc.) so just knowing the small street number doesn't do you much good since there are tons of these streets.  There is no "address" system here so to get anywhere, you need the major artery streets as well as a description of where within the "mega-block" you are trying to reach.  Hand drawn maps are common (and necessary!) for almost anything.  I've spent an hour looking for a shop more than once... it's frustrating.  Fortunately, our villa is quite easy to find so we haven't missed deliveries or anything due to a hard to find location.

View of our villa complex from a main road

I'm also a North/ South/ East/ West kind of gal but the city is on an island that isn't square with the directions, that isn't very doable here.  The top of the island is a boardwalk/ road called the Corniche so that is how we orient ourselves (I just think of that as North when it's actually not really).

The kids' elementary school is 6 "mega-blocks" away.  It sounds walkable but it's really not (especially in this heat) - it's about a 10 minute drive with no traffic.  Each mega-block is probably something like 4-6 regular blocks (just guessing here).  I hear that after Ramadan traffic really picks up and the drive will take closer to 20 minutes.  That's going to be a hard djustment since school will start 1/2 hour earlier after Ramadan, too.

View from gate of elementary school (I counted 17
construction cranes from this one vantage point!).
Construction is going on EVERYWHERE

So all in all, driving is okay here - not biting my fingernails or anything.  And as I learn my way around better, I'm sure I'll get much better at finding these hard to find shops!

I've posted a few random shots driving around to give you a feel for what it looks like here.

Pictures of Sheikh Zayed (no longer alive) in various
places around the city.  He is basically
the UAE "George Washington"