Traffic congestion: how do UAE motorists feel? How to increase car occupancy levels?

A few days ago, RoadSafetyUAE and Al Wathba Insurance shared the first part of their UAE traffic congestion study conducted in June 2025. This 2nd part of the study examines the emotional state and the behavior of UAE motorists caught in traffic jams, the level of daily road dependency and car occupancy levels.

“We want to give the concerned traffic participants a voice. We need to understand their feelings and perceptions with regards to the omni-present traffic congestion. We need to understand how much they depend on road transportation.  As one of the leading motor insurers in the UAE, and a customer-centric organization, we are committed to staying relevant to the evolving needs of our customers and improving their daily lives.  This is the reason why we teamed up with RoadSafetyUAE on this important research project,” said Muralikrishnan Raman, Chief Financial Officer, Al Wathba Insurance.

Thomas Edelmann, Founder and Managing Director of RoadSafetyUAE adds: “For most, traffic congestion means high levels of stress and frustration. This can cause misbehavior which carries the risk of accidents. Hence, from a road safety perspective, traffic congestions should be avoided. Testimony to that, UAE motorists notice a lot of rude or aggressive behavior in traffic jams and hence, the awareness for polite and caring manners must be raised. The dependency on road transportation is extremely high in the UAE and we need to find ways to reduce this dependency and a s consequence reduce the number of vehicles on the roads. Especially, considering the high number of motorists traveling alone in their cars without passengers.”

How big is the problem?

The study shows, that 86% of respondents state they typically experience traffic congestion. The highest values we see in Dubai with 91% and Sharjah with 90%.

80% of respondents witness more traffic congestion this year than last year, with Dubai topping the list with 85%.

How do UAE road users feel when trapped in traffic?

Almost half of the respondents (47%) feel frustrated, annoyed, very stressed or anxious. These feelings are more pronounced with females and younger road users.

29% can deal with it, as they state to be indifferent and used to it, or they stay calm and relaxed.

19% state they feel bored or restless.

Interestingly, a small minority of 5% even enjoys the downtime during traffic jams!

How do motorists behave in traffic congestion?

Unfortunately, only a small number of 18% ‘hardly ever’ witness aggressive behavior, and in Dubai this number dips further to only 15%.

Contrary, more than 1/3 of respondents ‘very often’ notice rude or aggressive behavior, and almost half of the respondents notice this ‘occasionally’.

Why are there so many cars on the road?

The dependency on road transportation is very high, as 92% of respondents state they depend daily on it by utilizing their own car, bus, minibus or taxi services. Only 8% use transportation by metro or alternative means like eScooter, Bicycle, eBike).

60% of respondents depend on daily transportation in their own car, which is the highest mention by far.

What’s the car occupancy?

Of the majority of road users utilizing their own car (60% see above), more than half (54%) travel alone in their car. In Sharjah even 62% of motorists usually travel alone, which might be a contributing factor to the problem of daily traffic congestion there.

In order to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, one opportunity is to gradually increase the number of people per car.  It is interesting to note, that Dubai represents the highest number with 43% of motorists usually carry one or two passengers. It would be interesting to understand the reasons for this and how other Emirates and especially Sharjah can learn from it.

The fieldwork of this research project was conducted in June 2025. It was commissioned by Al Wathba Insurance jointly with RoadSafetyUAE, and conducted by an international on-line research agency (representative UAE sample n=1,021).

The details of this survey can be found in the ‘featured’ section on: http://www.roadsafetyuae.com/statistics

About Al Wathba Insurance:

From the very beginning, Al Wathba Insurance has centered its business around people. Al Wathba Insurance has constantly innovated solutions to help manage risk in ways that meet the needs of the customer and the market. Now, with 25+ years of solid experience in servicing the UAE insurance market, a strong capital base and the support of a panel of internationally renowned reinsurers, Al Wathba Insurance is on its way to being the Company of Choice in the UAE, one that creates real tangible value to its stakeholders and provides the needed security and reliability to its customers. The Company is proud to be rated BBB- with a positive outlook by S&P global ratings and to have been recognized by the UAE’s insurance regulatory body for 2 consecutive years for its transformative digitized and smart technology.

About RoadSafetyUAE:

RoadSafetyUAE’s vision is to contribute to reducing the number of road traffic fatalities, injuries and accidents in the UAE. RoadSafetyUAE’s mission is to raise the awareness for proper conduct on our roads, in an engaging manner and on a broadly communicated and permanent basis. RoadSafetyUAE’s award-winning platform engages with the stakeholders traffic participants, governmental entities, the media, and more than 20 corporate social responsibility (CSR) minded partners. ‘Tips & Tricks’ are the content backbone, provided for more than 60 topics of road safety, all specifically relevant to the UAE. More can be found on www.RoadSafetyUAE.com