Many residents ended up being caught in traffic during the first days of the new academic year in the UAE, as the traffic congestion increased by almost 45 minutes.
Traffic increased with the reopening of schools for thousands of students, particularly during the early hours of the morning.
To ensure that they got to their destinations on schedule some drivers started their trips at least half an hour earlier than they normally would. However these measures proved to be partially effective since the increased frequency of automobiles on the road created congestion, with people such as those who drop their kids in school being severely affected.
Those who obeyed school instructions, which instructed parents to transport their kids to school in person on the first day of opening suffered the most. Some chose to take Salik toll routes so as to arrive early, even though that meant having to pay more.
Another affected canvass is Karen Lobo, a long-time resident of the UAE, who said that it took her an extra 45 minutes to get to work. ‘There are too many vehicles on the road, especially in Oud Maitha, where many parents drive their cars along the roadsides to drop their kids at school, I saw parents returning to their cars after they dropped their children,’ she said. Lobo said that several of her co-workers were also late because they encountered heavy traffic on the way to work.
Still, two years ago, Sharrah Khilawala, a mother of two and an employee at a firm in Dubai, left 40 minutes earlier to drop her daughter at school in Dubai, wearing Sharjah.
She said, “I knew that there was going to be traffic because it was the first day back from holidays” Khilawala like most other working parents used the Salik facility to avoid time consumption; while other parents who were not working used other non-Salik ways.
A Sharjah resident, who dropped his son at a school in Ajman, informed of experiencing heavy traffic congestion around specific junctions.
