I am no apologist for the New York City subway. One of the reasons I bought a bike is to avoid its cramped cars, its smelly stations, and its under-repair delays. But at least when you step foot on our subway, there is no division of the classes. Everyone is more or less on equal footing and privy to the same illogical whims of this egalitarian form of transport.
Not so in Dubai. Its new $7.6 billion metro boasts a VIP section for customers who can pay extra to avoid having to intermingle with the lowlier masses.
The metro is a welcome improvement over the rickety shared taxis and barely serviceable vans that clog the city’s streets and will help make commutes shorter for many of the city’s less fortunate inhabitants. I appreciate its sleek design and bullet-train look. It’s also affordable, at 50 cents per ride. And I like that it is hooked up to wireless, something other metros should adopt.
But like everything else in Dubai, it seeks to sow ever-deeper divisions between the haves and the have-nots of society by creating a “gold class” section in the front of each train. This will ensure that Dubai will remain the annoying Meatpacking District of the world—a previously abandoned area that has seen a surge in hyper-development, SUV traffic, and over-the-top architecture, a place loved by nouveau rich businessmen but loathed by most sensible folks (perhaps not coincidentally both have been knocked off their pedestals in recent years).
When Boris Yeltsin wanted to come off as a common guy, a populist appeal for votes, he rode the metro to work. Ditto Mike Bloomberg one decade later. With VIP areas crowding out the rest of the world’s common spaces—ballparks, bars, and the like—the metro is the one place where everyone should have to rub shoulders, no matter their status or income level. It should stay that way, even in the showiest of places like Dubai.
Discuss
tim hall on September 10, 2009, 3:28 PM
Well, I would not like for a bug ifested man brushing against me at every left turn while I am trying to get my morning breifing on my IPod. A great looking bug infested woman would not be quite so bad. But I would not ride the transport if it continued to happen.
I think the real senario is the cost to the tax payer. If the ride is tax paid and the wealthy wants seclusion, then he should pay high seclusion rates. Or he should pay his service people enough to bring them to high enough social level that they begain to like always having great hygiene. I would go for the latter and get to set next to the good looking working girl without bugs. I would just act like I was downloading my morning brief. Take the long route with alot of hard turns.
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