UAE traffic rises as 8 in 10 drivers face road rage, study finds

Almost half of motorists say they feel frustrated or anxious during traffic jams

The UAE has launched infrastructure projects to improve the flow of traffic on the nation's roads. Victor Besa / The National

Road rage is an issue for drivers during traffic congestion in the UAE, according to a survey that found more than 80 per cent of motorists experienced regular aggressive behaviour.

An in-depth report on driver behaviour, produced by Road Safety UAE and Al Wathba Insurance, looked at factors that contribute to how motorists respond to situations on the roads.

Researchers asked 1,021 drivers in June about their road habits, with 86 per cent saying they were regularly caught up in congestion. Almost half of respondents (47 per cent) said they felt frustrated, annoyed, very stressed or anxious when stuck in traffic jams. A further 82 per cent said they regularly witnessed rude or aggressive behaviour on the roads.

“For most, traffic congestion means high levels of stress and frustration,” said Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of Road Safety UAE. “This can cause misbehaviour, which carries the risk of accidents, so from a road safety perspective, traffic congestion should be avoided."

Motorists in the UAE "notice a lot of rude or aggressive behaviour in traffic jams and, hence, the awareness for polite and caring manners must be raised", he added.

Criminal offence

Road rage has become a catch-all term for poor behaviour from motorists. It is defined by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as cases when a driver commits moving traffic offences that endanger another person or property.

In the US, about 66 per cent of traffic-related deaths result from aggressive driving, the administration said, with men under the age of 19 the most likely group to commit road rage. It is a common problem around the world, with Highways England in 2022 reporting 12.5 per cent of road casualties were caused by aggressive driving such as tailgating.

Road rage is a criminal offence in the UAE, if it results in a crime such as causing an accident resulting in injury or death, or if a driver use offensive language or gestures.

The latest UAE road survey also looked at how common congestion is and the reasons for it. It found 80 per cent of people experienced more traffic than in 2024 and more than half of respondents (54 per cent) were driving alone, rather than sharing lifts.

“The dependency on road transportation is extremely high in the UAE and we need to find ways to reduce this and, as a consequence, reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, especially, considering the high number of motorists travelling alone in their cars without passengers,” Mr Edelmann said.

What is being done?

Considerable improvements to road infrastructure are well under way across the country, to ease congestion in some of the UAE’s most notorious choke-points.

The Dh750 million ($204.2 million) Emirates Road development project is the latest initiative aimed at tackling on the thorny traffic issue. The two-year project is expected to get under way in September and will increase the number of lanes from three to five, connecting a 25km stretch of road between Al Badee Interchange in Sharjah to Umm Al Quwain.

Once completed, it will allow a 65 per cent increase in capacity on the road to about 9,000 vehicles an hour.

The project, launched by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, follows the Dh689 million Hessa Street expansion that began in 2023 and aims to cut travel times on one of Dubai’s busiest roads, as well as the Umm Suqeim-Al Qudra road improvements that are more than 70 per cent complete.

Positive driving culture

A YouGov study of more than 1,000 drivers in February 2018 found that most (72 per cent) experienced a positive driving culture in the UAE. Of the drivers surveyed, 65 per cent said they were considerate on the roads and were happy to give way to other motorists.

The most unfriendly acts on the roads in 2018 were sudden lane changes, drivers running late, speeding and bullying or aggressive behaviour such as tailgating.

Muralikrishnan Raman, chief financial officer at Al Wathba Insurance, said it was important to understand the changing nature of road behaviour so positive changes could be made.

“Through this survey, we wanted to give concerned traffic participants a voice,” he said. “We need to understand their feelings and perceptions with regards to the omnipresent traffic congestion, and also to understand how much they depend on road transportation.”