| Kippreport.com

City of commuters

August 19, 2010 11:51 by Samuel Potter

Would you give up your car in Dubai? According to a new survey, the overwhelming answer to that question seems to be “no.”

Across the whole UAE, consumers are unwilling to give up their cars in favour of public transport despite a huge investment in the sector, reports the National. It’s quoting the results of a survey from Regus, a global serviced offices company. According to the stats, 91 percent of UAE residents prefer to use private transport to travel to work every day, with the largest segment – some 79 percent – using their cars. A further 12 percent opt to take a taxi. These figures dwarf the global average of those who opt for cars: 64 percent.

This is despite huge advances in the public transport network in the country. For instance, in the last two months the RTA has reported that more than 56 million journeys were taken on the Dubai bus system in the first half of the year, and in around ten months the Dubai metro carried 23 million passengers.

The survey gives some insight into commuting habits in the country. Unsurprisingly, given the road safety record in the UAE, less than one percent of commuters choose to travel to work by bike – either motorcycle or bicycle. And for 9 percent of commuters a bicycle is surely out of the question; they spend more than three hours a day commuting to and from work – that’s almost one in ten people. That was a shockingly high percentage for Kipp, but according to the figures the global average of people who spend this long traveling to and from work is an incredible 20 percent.

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