So perhaps you can see why I am peeved at having my perfect record sullied by a Dubai speeding ticket. At the moment, I am finding only small consolation in the fact that, much like getting groped in Cairo, getting a speeding ticket in the UAE is more a matter of when than if. The speed limits are odd enough, and sparsely marked enough, and the speed cameras ubiquitous enough, that it's just something that's going to happen to everyone, eventually. But I was proud of myself for going this long without getting caught.
The worst part is that it wasn't like I was intentionally speeding for an awesome reason. It was late at night, on the way home from Abu Dhabi, back when my mom was in town (there is considerable lag in getting a traffic ticket and finding out about it. As it is, I am only finding out about it now, and not at my annual vehicle registration, because it happened in a rental car). At the time of the infraction, I was heading from the E11 to the 311 by way of Al Khail Road. The speed limit on the E11 is 100-120kph. On Al Khail Road, it's 100 kph. On the elevated road in front of the Dubai Mall that connects the two, the speed limit is apparently much, much lower, since the automatically generated citation claims I was driving at least 21kph above the legal limit.
Hmph.
I only wish the ticket included the photo of the car taken by the automatic speed camera. I would have liked to see my last moment of traffic-ticket-freeness caught on film.