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Back to school in UAE: How residents can beat traffic during school hours

Commuters have reported hour-long delays in getting to work

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Yellow buses have taken over Dubai roads after a gap of nearly two months, and residents are now considering alternatives to beat the morning traffic.

Residents travelling from Sharjah to their offices in Dubai were almost an hour late due to the heavy rush as schools reopened. “I will be taking an alternative route to travel to the office in the morning for a few days from tomorrow,” said Neev Thomas, a resident of Sharjah working at ServeHub in Al Safa.

Thomas was nearly an hour late to work, as he did not anticipate the traffic the reopening of schools would cause, before leaving his residence at 7.30 am. “During the summer vacation, I reached the office in just 25 minutes from Bu Tina in Sharjah. But it today, it took me over 1 hour and 30 minutes,” said Thomas.

Pavithra Murali, another commuter from City Centre in Sharjah, said they were used to reaching the office in just half an hour during the summer break, but due to schools reopening, routes were blocked on the first day. “This is the situation worldwide, and It will slowly decrease as commuters will begin using alternate routes, meaning the traffic will be diverted to alternative routes,” said Murali, a coordinator at a private firm.

However, Murali believed there was little stress regarding the quality of roads and infrastructure. “The traffic was diverted in a very planned manner by the authorities, and as the days go by, it will ease more and more” added Murali.

A few residents from Dubai and Sharjah also mentioned using public transport to get to work on time. “I will now commute to the office twice a week using public transport, as it took nearly an hour to reach my office in Business Bay, via Sheikh Zayed road, from my residence in Garhoud", said Saquib Ahmed, "because the locality has many schools.”

Ahead of schools reopening, authorities in the UAE have launched campaigns to ease traffic on roads.

Dubai Police tweeted:

Ministry of Interior tweeted:

Thomas Edelman, founder and managing director of RoadSafetyUAE, said: “One can request his or her employer to allow the to work from home, or to login to the office a bit later due to the heavy rush on roads."

Edelman also shared his tips on managing stresses on the road, which include:

“Having someone to talk to provides a natural distraction from traffic,” noted Edelman.

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