UAE Road Safety Monitor delivers encouraging perception trends

Coinciding with the 33rd Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Traffic Week, the fourth cycle of the UAE Road Safety Monitor delivered encouraging perception trends that showed the UAE's roads had become safer overall.

The driving experience has improved, the commute time has decreased and fewer vehicles are speeding. Trends on other misbehaviour on the roads, such as tailgating, lane swerving and distracted driving, also showed stable trends, according to the UAE Road Safety Monitor.

The fourth cycle of this perception study of the UAE motorists, commissioned by QIC Insured, (Qatar Insurance Company) and Road Safety UAE, measured the motorists’ perception for the last six months. The study was conducted by YouGov in February 2017, and it is based on the views of a representative sample of 1,008 UAE residents.

"While the observed trends are positive or stable, further efforts in education, enforcement and infrastructure improvement are needed by all the stakeholders concerned, public and private entities and the media," Thomas Edelmann, Road Safety UAE’s founder and Managing Director remarked.

Frederik Bisbjerg, Executive Vice President MENA Retail, QIC Insured, stated, "We always want to be in the forefront of unique initiatives, and we are proud to be associated with this unique long-term perception study, as it demonstrates the efforts of QIC Insured to actively support the creation of safer roads, in line with the objectives of UAE Vision 2021."

The highlights of the fourth cycle were: The growing majority (83 percent) stated they 'strongly agree' the UAE’s road traffic infrastructure has improved in the last six months, resulting in higher driving enjoyment (56 percent) for the respondents.

The following perception dimensions, despite enjoying improved or stable trends, are still on high absolute levels and a lot needs to be done to decrease those levels: - Dangerous driving has decreased sharply (-5 percent), still, 49 percent stated traffic had become more dangerous.

- Speeding enjoyed a healthy drop (-2 percent), however, the majority 62 percent saw more speeding vehicles.

- Distracted drivers at 75 percent, tailgating at 68 percent and lane swerving with 67 percent showed stable trends.

- Fewer motorists (-2 percent) complained about longer commute times (61 percent).

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