UAE residents think the country’s road infrastructure has improved, but a majority perceive an increase in examples of poor driving.

These were some of the findings of the seventh edition of the Road Safety Monitor, published by i-Insured in partnership with RoadSafetyUAE. YouGov conducted the survey in September 2018 and spoke to 1,016 UAE residents.

The percentage of respondents that feel road quality has improved was 83%, while 58% said driving has become more enjoyable.

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The proportion saying they’re seeing more speeding was 57%, up from 48% when the last survey was done in March; 59% said that tailgating has increased, up from 51% in March this year.

“It seems that we cannot take the foot off the pedal in terms of further educating UAE motorists about safe driving,” said Thomas Edelmann, Managing Director of RoadSafetyUAE.

“On the one hand we enjoy further improved traffic infrastructure which leads to greater driving enjoyment, but on the other hand UAE motorists must realize their increasing misbehaviour and we must improve our driving manners.”

The survey also found 69% of the motorists saying they have seen more cases of distracted driving, such as use of mobile phones, while 55% said their commute to and from work has become longer, despite better infrastructure.

“The ‘UAE Road Safety Monitor’ links the perception of UAE motorists to the main causes of road accidents,” said Frederik Bisbjerg, Executive Vice-President Retail at i-Insured. “Perception counts and we have seen a strong correlation between the research findings and the recorded number of accidents and fatalities.”

“Hence, this unique perception study provides valuable feedback about the impact of the involved stakeholders’ efforts aimed at increasing road safety,” Bisbjerg added.