DUBAI, 1 July 2007 — Dubai is officially the most congested city in the Middle East, according to the latest survey by GulfTalent.com, the region’s leading online recruitment portal.
The survey, which was conducted during the month of May and released yesterday — just a day before the launch of Dubai’s new road-toll system, known as Salik — found that professionals working in Dubai spend on average one hour and 45 minutes each day commuting to and from their place of work, the highest drive-time in the region.
The journey times are particularly long for those commuting to Dubai from neighboring Sharjah, home to many expatriates working in Dubai. Although just 15 km away and connected to Dubai via two express highways, Sharjah residents working in Dubai reported spending on average two hours and 44 minutes commuting, much of it in slow-moving bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The survey finds that many employers in the Emirate are becoming increasingly concerned at the impact of traffic-related stress and exhaustion on the productivity of their staff.
Cairo came in second place in the ranking, with an average commute of one hour and 33 minutes.
Many Jeddawis might be surprised to find that Jeddah saw the lowest reported commute time in the cities listed in the survey: 46 minutes.
Based on survey findings, Dubai also tops the list as the city with the most acute parking shortage, with nearly half the respondents reporting difficulties in finding parking space near their place of work. Many reported having to leave home much earlier than necessary to avoid the morning rush and to secure a parking space close to their place of work. Dammam was the easiest city for finding parking space on the list, with only 21 percent reporting shortages.
GulfTalent.com’s study was based on a survey of 5,000 professionals in 14 major cities in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, aware of the traffic problem, the Dubai government is taking drastic measures to reduce congestion by introducing an urban road-toll system, the first of its kind in the Middle East. It is also building a modern urban rail system, the Dubai Metro, expected to come into service in 2009.
However, residents living in Sharjah and Ajman say that Salik, the new road toll system with a four dirham fee per transit, would affect them economically and physically because they will have to spend more money on commuting or suffer driving through the congested alternative roads.
“The road toll system has been set up in many countries, but those nations have a fully functional road network, transport and metro systems,” said Jay Shankar, who has been living in Singapore for the last three years.
Meanwhile, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) advised motorists to go through the details attached with the Salik welcome kit and read the instructions to install the tag on the car windshield.
The road toll starts today and several Salik outlets experienced a huge rush yesterday.
Officials of the Roads and Transport Authority said that people who cannot find a Salik card in a designated place should call the toll free number 800-72545 and the cards will be immediately delivered.
The Salik tags are being sold at various outlets in Dubai, including 180 Emarat petrol stations, 70 Eppco and Enoc stations, 37 branches of Dubai Islamic Bank and all the branches of Emirates Bank.
