Cracking down on carpools!

You learn something new every day:

"The Road and Traffic Authority in Dubai has doubled the fine imposed against motorists who illegally transport passengers without a livery permit. ... Another widely used form of transportation, which is also punishable by law, is the car pool. It is a system in which office workers with cars pick up their colleagues from their homes and drop them at work and vice versa for a fixed amount of money. The car pool is heavily advertised in the classified pages of the local newspapers.

These illegal systems benefit commuters who have no alternative means of transport other than expensive taxis or irregular buses. Dubai, which is revamping its public transportation system by adding hundreds of new buses, is considered better than the neighboring emirates that do not have such systems in place.

Mohammed Obaid Al-Mulla, CEO of Public Transport Agency at the authority, stated that the fine has been raised to AED5,000 from AED2,500."

Here they get their own special lanes, there they get fined for "passenger smuggling"!