[Madman2012]

Hi All

I will be living in the greens area of Jebel Ali just near the emirates hills golf course and having to commute to Mussafah Ind area in Abu Dhabi

Just woundered on the rough time it will take with traffic and length of journey?

Ive heard 45mins - 1:30 but prob depends on traffic accidents etc etc

Does anyone do such a drive each day?

Is it worth staying one or two night in AD to stop me being tired each week?

any advice would be great

aso roughly what sort of cost for fuel will this be each month?

cheers all

John

 

[Jynxgirl]

I do the same drive to the mussafah area.

One hour and ten minutes from discovery gardens, but just being honest, I do speed and have racked up more fines then I would pay for taxes in the usa. Some guy said he could do it in 45 to 50 min.... I can only imagine how fast he is going. Thursdays are horrible. I have seen more dead bodies just laid on the ground then ever in my life. Well, honestly never seen a dead body before coming here just pulled from a car and laid there, but have now more then can count on both hands. Wed are not great coming back as is the start of the saudi's weekend so they are in full force driving nuts to come to dubai. Sometimes will get accidents then too. If you have to start later then 6:30 am, is frustrating. If you come back after 5pm, very frustrating.

I have a hybrid escape and it takes a little more then half a tank for one back and forth trip. I dont pay for gas but have had to put gas in the vehicle and guesstimate at about 110 dirhams to fill up. So would be looking at 300ish dirhams a week in gas if actually had to put gas in a similar mpg vehicle I would guess. I think gets 30mpg. Have a rav4 right now and it takes nearly 3/4 of the tank to make it back and forth so would be more like 400 dirhams a week. Choose a gas efficient vehicle.

If you are doing 12 hour shifts, the 2 and a half hours makes for a long drive. If you have any choice in where you live, my advice would be to just avoid the drive completely and live in abu dhabi.

 

[Kawasutra]

I do the same drive to the mussafah area.

One hour and ten minutes from discovery gardens, but just being honest, I do speed and have racked up more fines then I would pay for taxes in the usa. Some guy said he could do it in 45 to 50 min.... I can only imagine how fast he is going. Thursdays are horrible. I have seen more dead bodies just laid on the ground then ever in my life. Well, honestly never seen a dead body before coming here just pulled from a car and laid there, but have now more then can count on both hands. Wed are not great coming back as is the start of the saudi's weekend so they are in full force driving nuts to come to dubai. Sometimes will get accidents then too. If you have to start later then 6:30 am, is frustrating. If you come back after 5pm, very frustrating.

I have a hybrid escape and it takes a little more then half a tank for one back and forth trip. I dont pay for gas but have had to put gas in the vehicle and guesstimate at about 110 dirhams to fill up. So would be looking at 300ish dirhams a week in gas if actually had to put gas in a similar mpg vehicle I would guess. I think gets 30mpg. Have a rav4 right now and it takes nearly 3/4 of the tank to make it back and forth so would be more like 400 dirhams a week. Choose a gas efficient vehicle.

If you are doing 12 hour shifts, the 2 and a half hours makes for a long drive. If you have any choice in where you live, my advice would be to just avoid the drive completely and live in abu dhabi.

Amen...!

 

[Jumeirah Jim]

Amen...!

Exacly! As someone who did the commute for 6 months and now lives in AD I still remember how miserable those evening drives were. It's not so bad when you are alert in the mornings. Evenings after a long day at work and especially in winter when it's dark are utterly miserable.

By commuting everyday you are taking a serious risk with your life. That sounds very melodramatic I know but its a serious number of miles on what must be one of the most dangerous roads around. No matter how carefully you drive there is nothing you can do to avoid the nutters driving into you.

Suggest you look at leasing a car given the number of miles you will rack up as the car will depreciate hugely. A big car is safer than a 4x4 in my view as cars have better stopping distances. Usually use less fuel too.

 

[Tropicana]

I do the same drive to the mussafah area.

One hour and ten minutes from discovery gardens, but just being honest, I do speed and have racked up more fines then I would pay for taxes in the usa. Some guy said he could do it in 45 to 50 min.... I can only imagine how fast he is going. Thursdays are horrible. I have seen more dead bodies just laid on the ground then ever in my life. .

Jynx, thats a bit weird.
I have been doing the DXB-AUH commute during the worst times for more than a year, and while i see plenty of tailgating crashes, I have seen a grand total of 1 flipped over car and not a single dead body so far.

Where do you see these fatal accidents mostly ?

Speaking of which, am i the only who gets royally p***** off when 2 cars hit each other slightly, move to the hard shoulder, but there is a 10 km long tailback simply because every 2nd car slows down completely to have a look at the cars ?

 

[Tropicana]

To the OP, if your work time is anything over 9 hours, dont do the commute, just stay in Abu Dhabi/Musaffah

Even if its under 9 hrs, i suggest you stay for a month in Dubai and sign a year long lease only if you feel you can take it.
I have been driving in the UAE for a long time, and even i find the drive dangerous and mentally tiring.
Btw, Musaffah is a place where IMO driving standards are the worst in the UAE (along with some poarts of Sharjah maybe). So every evening the most dangerous part will be getting out of Musaffah. The large no. of commercial vehicles doesnt help either.

 

[Jynxgirl]

Where do you see these fatal accidents mostly ?

Speaking of which, am i the only who gets royally p***** off when 2 cars hit each other slightly, move to the hard shoulder, but there is a 10 km long tailback simply because every 2nd car slows down completely to have a look at the cars ?

Thursday nights usually... Every six to eight weeks, usually there is a horrific accident. Once was quite horrible that I witnessed not so many cars up from me that one idiot clipped another, and the car literally rolled like a log.............. I would say there was about eight vehicles in that accident. Was right behind and was stuck there for 45 minutes. One time saw a guy in a suv with a cattle guard, get pissed off because the guy wasnt moving out of his way (on a thursday night when there is no where to go....) and rammed the car, then got beside it and pushed it into the car next to it, causing a number of cars to crash. Scary. My tires had a bald spot so bad from that one. I thought I was a goner. Came across an accident right before they started the construction zone, where there was vehicles that were rammed into the curve right as you enter, was in the line for 2 and a half hours and probly the worst one ever seen since been here involving I believe only two suvs that were SMASHED. Could of been more vehicles but some removed by the time I got there.... There was two grown men with white sheets over and then a number of little sheets It probly has been the one that had the most effect on me I dont know about you, but every time I come across one of these, it has me shaken and upset for days

What pisses me off more is the moron in the lane right next to the fast lane, doing 100, and still hits the brakes as goes by a camera.