Commuting Dubai to AD - any experience?

[Hitch78]

We're increasing our corporate presence in the AD market so the chances of my needing to start doing the Dub-AD commute in 2010 are pretty high. I've driven to AD at the weekends and for the odd evening event and apart from the boring hypnotic drudgery of passing the world's longest white wall I've not found it to be too bad. Obviously doing it every day is a bit different so does anyone have any experience of:

How long it takes in the morning (to arrive downtown around 07:30) and evening on the return leg (leaving say 16:00) in traffic?

How often to expect delays due to the inevitable bumps and rubber-necking on the SZR?

(ETA having read Chilli's boat thread) - If it is plausible to use a speed boat for the journey and rock up on the Corniche fully suited and booted in a James Bond style?

Thanks.

Edited by Hitch78 on Monday 25th January 06:54

[Mattt]

My Boss has just moved to the Marina, and works in Musaffah - which takes an hour pretty much each way - which doesn't seem too bad.

I guess it will be similar into town now they've opened up the Saadiyat road - you should miss the worst bits of AUH traffic.

I asked for a company jet ski before as it would be much quicker for me - but was a no go

[Chilli]

Funny, but a mate and I discussed commuting by boat. Live in the Marins, work in festival city....can't be that bad!

As for the commute, I can only say that you'd be going against the traffic, so it shouldn't be that bad. 45 mins depending on how fast you're prepared to go!

[James72911]

I do the trip twice a week, Arabian Ranches to Airport road, and it takes about 1 hour 20 minutes whichever way I go - Yas Island road, Masafa or Maqta bridges. I go on the bypass road and Emirates road to Ghantoot - misses out most of the Dubai traffic.

Accidents have been relatively rare, and since the new road opened there has been less queues.

[DubaiJohn]

I go down about 2/3 times a week usually setting off from the Meadows at around 8am. At that time the traffic can be quite heavy, always moving at about 120km/h but pretty heavy, you need your wits about you.

If you are heading into the centre of AD it is miles quicker to take Saadiyat Island Rd no more than 75 minutes I would say door to door.

On the way back taking the Saadiyat Island Rd mean a commute of about the same, maybe a little longer at the times you are travelling.

Taking Airport Rd adds about 20-30 minutes to the journey.

In that last 6 years of doing this I have not had too many bad experiences with accidents, apart from that monster crash a couple of years ago when the road was closed for hours.

Be really caustious in fog and rain, that's when they release the special needs drivers.

[Riley15/6]

Have done this daily for the past 9 months. Leaving JLT at 6.15 gets to Muroor pretty consistently at 7.30 via Maqtar Bridge, not more than 130 in Dubai and 160 in AD. Have seen bumps most days, but only a few times have the delays been serious. Mind you the hail last year was quite scary on the road.

[yorky500]

Have been doing this trip for the past 3.5 years (sad I know).

Originally from Deira to Al Raha Beach Area, and most recently (6 months) from AR/DA to Mussafah Industrial Area. Leave home at 06:00, get to work at 07:10. Leave orifice at 18:00 ish, can take 1:10 - 1:40 depending on traffic.

The road to AUH and back over the years has got progressively worse in terms of the number of drivers and driving standards. It now resembles what used to happen on SZR 3-4 years ago: overtaking on hard shoulders/undertaking on hard shoulders; swerving in and out of traffic; blah blah blah and all this whilst doing +160km/h. 3-4 years ago, once you got past JA, the road was clean and clear, now it is quieter on SZR up to JA than after it e.g: just the other morning I saw a blue R32 and red Mazda 6 going at it as one must have obviously cut the other up. They were trying to "brake" eachother up - not this is Ok when there are no other cars around, but when you have cars all around you, it is not funny. These tts were messing with other peoples lives. All it would take is a car behind to not react in time and heu ho, accident and possible fatalities!

Its a real cluster-fook every night around JA area (DXB bound), esp so on Thursday nights. Same for Emirates road coming back to Dubai (DIP r/a onwards). If you can finish work early, then you should be OK, but from 18:00 onwards, crawling speed is what you will be doing, and that area is real prone to accidents too as you have two onramps coming from JA Industrial areas.

Get yourself a comfy large car to do it in

[Hitch78]

Sounds about what I expected - not too bad unless you hit the wrong time or the wrong people. I'm thinking of a big old lexus or volvo barge as the miles must really rack up over the course of a couple of months.

[yorky500]

approx 5,000km per month. If you haver a Jap car, that means your car is in for a service every month.

Best bet - rent a dent (car). Camry will set you back around AED2500 per month on a long term hire.

[Hitch78]

yorky500 said:

approx 5,000km per month. If you haver a Jap car, that means your car is in for a service every month.

Best bet - rent a dent (car). Camry will set you back around AED2500 per month on a long term hire.

And I might get to pick up some fares on the way!

[yorky500]

Would also suggest an Altima, but then again ................ hahaha

[Hitch78]

What's the deal with Jap cars requiring service every 5k? That is ridiculous given the length of service intervals for some manufacturers. I've had cars that haven't even been washed that often!

Also how long would one of these services take - is it a drive in/drive out thing or do you need to leave the car with them?

[DubaiJohn]

I'm not sure why that is really. But at the minute I've got a 350Z which is every 5k and a Pathfinder which is every 12k so not sure if it applies to all Jap cars.

When the 350 goes in it is usually just an oil change, I have them all done at Nissan so it stays in ie drop it in, in the morning and it's ready by tea time.

[oilydan]

I have done it for just about 2 years now in a long-term lease car.

The service interval is every 5K but the rental company come a drop off a loaner and I use that for the day that the car is in for service. Previous to this I used a company owend car and the service would mean taking 2 day out of the office to drop off and collect the car, plus taxi fares!

You can rent something cr@ppy for cheap money but you will be stuck with it for a number of years! I had a Camry for the first 2 months after I blew up the Pajero (don't use a 4x4 for a 300km per day motorway commute!!) The Camry had no power, no road presence (essential on this road) and no cruise control! They should recall all of them worldwide....permanently.

Then my ordered lease car arrived. And I now cruise in relative comfort but really must get around to hunting down the beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....beep....repeat ad nausium....

[Hitch78]

[quote=oilydan] The Camry had no power, no road presence (essential on this road) and no cruise control! They should recall all of them worldwide....permanently.
quote]


They have done haven't they? Well apart from the permanent bit.

So what car are you in now? I was looking at IS300 level with Hertz as we have a deal with them but I'd have to sign up for three years to get the best deal and that makes me mighty nervous as I tend to get bored of cars after about, oh, two weeks.

Good look finding the beep, at least it's clear it's not getting to you yet......

[yorky500]

I went from a 3.0l V6 to a 6.0l V8 to do the AUH to DXB daily drive and I have to admit, its far, far better.

[Mattt]

Yorky - is your profile pic taken outside of Jebel Ali kart track? (Is it bad I now recognise bits of sand)

[oilydan]

Hitch78 said:

oilydan said:

The Camry had no power, no road presence (essential on this road) and no cruise control! They should recall all of them worldwide....permanently.

They have done haven't they? Well apart from the permanent bit.

So what car are you in now? I was looking at IS300 level with Hertz as we have a deal with them but I'd have to sign up for three years to get the best deal and that makes me mighty nervous as I tend to get bored of cars after about, oh, two weeks.

Good look finding the beep, at least it's clear it's not getting to you yet......

I do it in a 3.8L Mazda 6 Ultra. Quicker than the IS300, 330i et al; a bit of a sleeper (even gives Yorky's manhood compensator a run for its money )

All-in cost is about 4.3K on a 3 year deal with a 2 month charge to break contract in 1st year, 1 month charge thereafter. After doing 1 year it means that it would now cost 4.3K to switch to a different car.

The deal means that you essentially have a 3 year warranty with unlimited mileage, tyres, brakes etc thrown in. You only need to pay for gas and Salik. Although they do make you pay for mechanical repairs outwith a normal warranty :- I recently had to fork out for a rear control arm that was bent by spirited entry to a roundabout....

[Hitch78]

oilydan said:

Hitch78 said:

oilydan said:

The Camry had no power, no road presence (essential on this road) and no cruise control! They should recall all of them worldwide....permanently.

They have done haven't they? Well apart from the permanent bit.

So what car are you in now? I was looking at IS300 level with Hertz as we have a deal with them but I'd have to sign up for three years to get the best deal and that makes me mighty nervous as I tend to get bored of cars after about, oh, two weeks.

Good look finding the beep, at least it's clear it's not getting to you yet......

I do it in a 3.8L Mazda 6 Ultra. Quicker than the IS300, 330i et al; a bit of a sleeper (even gives Yorky's manhood compensator a run for its money )

All-in cost is about 4.3K on a 3 year deal with a 2 month charge to break contract in 1st year, 1 month charge thereafter. After doing 1 year it means that it would now cost 4.3K to switch to a different car.

The deal means that you essentially have a 3 year warranty with unlimited mileage, tyres, brakes etc thrown in. You only need to pay for gas and Salik. Although they do make you pay for mechanical repairs outwith a normal warranty :- I recently had to fork out for a rear control arm that was bent by spirited entry to a roundabout....

Sounds pretty reasonable - I'd been scoping out the 6 as more palatable alternative to the Accords and Camrys of this world.

Do you have a contact at Mazda who's worth talking to?

[yorky500]

Mattt said:

Yorky - is your profile pic taken outside of Jebel Ali kart track? (Is it bad I now recognise bits of sand)

Yes it is, and yes it is sad that you are able to recognise places by bits of sand hahahaha