Schools and Authorities in Dubai and Sharjah are working towards solving the traffic problems after several parents complained of severe blockage on roads during rush hours, converting a 15-minute drive into an hour-long trip.
Parents said that this problem is becoming severe in densely crowded school areas. All students leave from school simultaneously during Ramadan, which adds more to the crowd.
Most parents said that they themselves go to pick up their child as buses are costly and the charges are the same even if it is just a ten-minute ride.
Congested traffic was reported in Sharjah in areas like Muwaileh, where there are around 23 private schools with approximately 49000 students.
Most of the students’ school day finishes between 1 pm and 1:30 pm, and long queues are witnessed a the time of drop-off and pick-up times.
Emirate’s authorities, including Sharjah Polices, Sharjah Private Education Authority and Roads and Transport Authority, organised a meeting to discuss measures to control the traffic around the schools.
Dubai is also witnessing a similar situation in those areas where there are several schools.
Principal of The Millennium School Dubai, Ambika Gulai, said her school is part of the Al Qusais School Zone, where seven institutions are in the area.
Ms Gulati said more than 9,000 cars and 200 buses came in and left the school zone during drop-off and pick-up times.
She further said that the streets in the zone did not have assigned parking before the pandemic. Furthermore, to the present exits from the school zone, there was an exit through which buses and cars used to travel between a nearby mosque and another school. This permitted for double-lane traffic as well as easy exit from many schools.
But during the 2019-2020 educational year, the emirate’s Roads and Transport Authority began work to make the roads better, adding assigned parking spaces and shutting the lane next to the mosque. Now, there is only one lane exit instead of two.