Abu Dhabi warns of risky pedestrian and e‑scooter habits at crossings

Dangerous behaviours on crossings

Drivers across the Emirates have noted that pedestrians often step onto crossings without checking traffic, stare at their phones or scroll through social media, move at an unusually slow pace, or ignore designated crossing points. At the same time, e‑scooter riders frequently zip across pedestrian zones at high speed, leaving drivers little time to react. The most common offences include stepping onto the crossing without looking, staring at phones or scrolling through social media, moving at an unusually slow pace, ignoring designated crossing points, and e‑scooter riders speeding across zebra crossings, which confuses motorists. Such actions raise the risk of hit‑and‑run crashes, obstruct traffic flow and can cause vehicles to collide when drivers brake abruptly.

Driver and rider perspectives

A still from a real incident shows a car striking two pedestrians as they cross the road; the image is credited to Supplied.

Driver Ahmed Hussein said: “I face frequent dangerous situations while driving because of pedestrians crossing the street with their eyes on their phone screens. Some of them even wear headphones and do not pay attention to the movement of cars. What is more dangerous is people who walk extremely slowly on the pedestrian crossing, which forces us, as drivers, to press the brakes hard and suddenly, which may cause rear‑end collisions.”

Sultan Ahmed agreed with him, saying: “The biggest problem currently is the sudden rush of electric scooter users, as they pass at high speed across pedestrian crossings without stopping to make sure the road is clear or to slow down, and they do not give the driver enough time to react.”

He stressed that “adhering to safe crossing requires the scooter user to get off and pull it across manually, while crossing the pedestrian crossing, which does not happen most of the time.”

Amira Ahmed pointed out that, although authorities have run awareness campaigns about safe crossing, some pedestrians still avoid using footbridges or tunnels and prefer to cut across undesignated spots to save time. She warned that this behaviour endangers drivers, particularly on high‑speed roads where a person stepping onto a carriageway travelling at 80 or 100 km/h can cause an unavoidable collision.

Footage recently shared by Abu Dhabi Police together with the Monitoring and Control Centre on their social media channels prompted reactions from viewers; the clips depict real‑world incidents where pedestrians were struck because drivers failed to yield at marked crossings, as well as cases where individuals crossed the road at non‑designated points.

Abu Dhabi Police urged both drivers and pedestrians to follow traffic safety regulations, cautioning that crossing the road outside of authorised zones increases the likelihood of run‑over collisions.

Motorists were advised to stay alert for people on foot and to lower their speed when approaching crossings, while walkers were encouraged to use marked crossings, footbridges or tunnels and to obey pedestrian signals so that everyone’s safety improves.

Official response and penalties

The General Command of Abu Dhabi Police called on e‑scooter riders to travel safely, follow all traffic rules and use the lanes set aside for them, and the Traffic and Security Patrols Directorate added that scooters should be ridden exclusively in those designated zones.

Under the Federal Traffic Law, pedestrians who ignore traffic signals or cross the road outside of permitted locations are liable to a fine of Dh400 for endangering themselves and other road users.