Oman vs UAE - How to identify

Type: Commercial

Shape: Long

Background: Red

Text: White

Additional details: In Street view blur the left side is heavily whitened, while the right side stays clean and red.

Type: Private

Shape: Long

Background: Yellow

Text: Black

Additional details: In Street view blur the left side is heavily darkened, while the right side stays clean and yellow.

UAE license plates vary by emirate in their numbering, lettering, and sometimes colour, featuring distinct designs for each of the seven emirates.

Private vehicle plates are typically white

Type: Commercial

Shape: Long

Background: Green

Text: White

Additional details: A white blur in the center-bottom of the license plate

Material: Plastic or metal

Color: Black or grey

Text: 3-leaf logo and the word ‘be’ah’ (only 1 e)

Household and street bins are usually large plastic wheelie bins in light green, yellow or black, often with Arabic and English labels

Usually you can find words like "General Waste" or bee'ah (with double e vs Oman with single e!)

Big and wide metal dumpsters are also common near construction sites or apartment blocks.

Sometimes they have chevrons with white background and red diagonal lines

White Background + red arrows

Background: Yellow

Arrows: Thin black

Additional details: Lots of arrows

The falcon emblem, officially the Hawk of Quraish, appears on UAE highway signs because it represents the national symbol.

Using this emblem on highways flags these routes as inter-emirate or national, helping drivers quickly identify major strategic roads.

Outer lines: Yellow

Center lines: Yellow

Rare (mostly white center) but possible. In Oman you can't find yellow center lines

Utility poles connected with an X (double or triple) can be found in Oman but not in the UAE

Many concrete utility poles carry small white ID plates with black numbers.

These labels show the pole’s unique code or location reference and are usually fixed at eye level.

Shape: Cylinder

Material: Wood

Top: Attached horizontal metallic bar with 3 insulators

Unique: A horizontal bar attached to the pole above the wooden post

A unique falcon emblem can be found on utility poles

• Green boards are for local roads within an emirate
• blue boards mark national highways that connect different emirates.

Green signs often carry the Dubai castle emblem, and blue signs display the falcon symbol

Some Gen 4 coverage in the UAE comes from a black car with a visible high brake light

Nearly all Generation 3 in the UAE was filmed from a white or silver/grey car (sometimes with visible black roof racks)

Sometimes car is not visible

vs Oman and Qatar: No Generation 3 at all

You can sometimes find rifts in old-generation Google panoramas