For some UAE residents, the increase in fuel prices is not a big shift. They are not selling their cars, but small changes are beginning to show in daily routines, from office carpools being organised to metro rides replacing a few weekday drives.
In Al Tawoon, Sharjah, four residents living in the same building are preparing to start carpooling to work next week. Their offices are in Business Bay, Al Quoz and JLT, and instead of driving separately each morning, they plan to use one car and split the route.
Some residents who used to drive a few times a week said they are now reaching for their Nol cards more often. Others are keeping the car for client meetings or family use, while relying on the metro on regular workdays.
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The shift is small, but noticeable and it is happening at a time when residents are paying attention to how often they drive, how far they go, and whether a trip really needs a car.
For Mohammed Anees, an events executive, the latest petrol increase has helped turn a casual building conversation into an actual commuting plan. “All of us stay in the same building, so we thought instead of four cars going in four directions from one place, why not try one car and adjust the route,” he said, adding that they chose to use his Chinese-brand sedan as it offers better fuel efficiency compared to the others.
“Based on approximate road distances from Al Tawoon to Business Bay, Al Quoz and JLT, plus the inter-office stretches between those areas, the shared route would work out to about 103km a day,” said Anees. “At a fuel efficiency of 16km per litre and petrol at Dh3.28 a litre, my daily fuel bill would be about Dh21.”
Split among four commuters, that comes to roughly Dh5 per person a day. By comparison, if each person drove separately from the same building at an average of 10km per litre, the Business Bay commuters would each spend about Dh17 a day on fuel, the Al Quoz commuter about Dh22, and the JLT commuter about Dh30.
“That means daily savings of roughly Dh45 for all of us, or around Dh1,000 over a 22-working-day month,” added Anees.
Similarly, Adithya H, who works at a hotel near Financial Centre, said he is also decreasing his drives. Living in Discovery Gardens, he drives three days a week and take the metro on others. Now, he plans to use the metro more regularly and keep the car for when he really needs it.
“On my route from Discovery Gardens to Financial Centre, a round trip by car is about 55km. With my car giving around 8km per litre and the new petrol price, I end up spending roughly Dh26 a day just on fuel. If I take the metro instead, it costs Dh7.50 one way, so Dh15 for a return trip. That means I save about Dh10 a day on fuel,” said Adithya.
“But honestly, the bigger benefit is avoiding traffic, parking stress and unnecessary stops that usually come with driving.”
For Mohammed Abu Nael, who lives in Abu Hail and works near Onpassive metro station in Al Quoz, the answer is not choosing one mode over the other, but mixing both. He plans to continue driving two days a week, mainly for client visits, and use the metro on the other four workdays.
His road commute between Abu Hail and office is a over 20km each way, or about 40km for a daily round trip. At the same mileage and petrol assumptions, that is roughly Dh13 a day in fuel.
“By using the metro four days a week, I may avoid around 162km of driving weekly and cut over Dh60 in weekly fuel use before fares are counted. The metro works well on regular desk days, but a car still makes more sense when I have to move between meetings.”
Residents said that these are not life-changing decisions on their own. But they are practical ones. Some residents said that relying more on public transport and carpooling can help ease the transition, allowing them to adjust their travel routines gradually while building more cost aware commuting habits.
Source: Khaleej Times