In Dubai, the real harbinger of things to come was neither the World Trade Center landmark in the 1970s, nor even the iconic Emirates Towers and Burj Al Arab prior to the freehold boom. It is the asphalt passages that crisscrossed the city – and continue their growth to this day.
Arterial road networks became interwoven with the extensive web of the city such that each part of the arterial and metropolitan tapestry are bound in a seamless framework. Even though the highway was a product of New York (the word was first officially used in Kings County in 1654), it has been in Dubai that the elements of modern highway design have merged with parkways, bridges and tunnels in a manner that is pathbreaking and far beyond what the original progenitors had in mind.
