There’s an exciting new technological advance for Abu Dhabi in this photograph from 1979, first published in Al Ittihad newspaper.
You can see it on the far right of the image. It’s the traffic light.
Traffic controls were introduced in the capital by the early 1960s, first with a police officer who stood on a covered stand to direct cars around an impromptu sand roundabout at what was then the centre of town, near the souq and the beachfront.
Roundabouts remained the preferred method of traffic management when the first city plan was laid out in the early 1970s, but increasingly they were replaced with junctions and signals.
This set of lights is at the junction of Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Street, popularly known as Airport Road, and Zayed the First Street, sometimes called Electra. Also visible in the photo are two old-style city taxis – before the introduction of the white and gold model – and a splendid Toyota Land Cruiser pickup. Today, this junction is much wider, with a three-lane underpass beneath Zayed the First Street, demonstrating that Abu Dhabi, like traffic, must always be ready to move on.
* James Langton