Secret of the Numbers

Number plates in Dubai tell you something about the car's owner. And may indeed help you decide how to behave in some traffic situations.

Usually, as you see on the left, the number plates in Dubai carry a letter as well as a number - anything from single-digit to at least five figures (maybe even more, I'm not sure). The number communicates two things. First, the lower the number, the higher up in the public hierarchy the person will be. Second, people with a special number such as, for instance, "A 1111" are most probably rich. Because it costs to have your special wishes catered for. The number plate pictured in this post was supposedly sold for $850,000.

So, if you have started to feel comfortable in Dubai's traffic, pushing and honking your way through the congested roads, you may take that info into consideration. Because it may even get you in trouble if you don't. What I was told is: It might well be that, if you flash your lights at someone driving way to slowly in front of you, it could happen that this person deliberately brakes hard, so that you crash into his car. And if it's someone high up you hit, you will be considered guilty and will have to take care of the damage.

I'm not going to test this. Anyway, I'm more on the slow-but-saf(er) driver side anyway.