How to beat the UAE traffic surge expected as 1.27 million students go back to school

Dubai: A record 1.277 million students head back to classrooms across the UAE from Monday, and the return could not come at a busier time for the country's roads.

Over the past week, families who travelled abroad during the summer break have been streaming back into the country, offices have been filling up again, and commuters are already noticing longer journeys.

With schools reopening and normal work routines resuming at the same time, traffic experts are warning that peak congestion is about to make a forceful comeback even as authorities, schools and transport agencies are gearing up for a demanding first week.

The past six months have been anything but ordinary for UAE traffic. Regional developments, including the conflict involving Iran, saw schools switch between distance learning and on-site classes at different points, while several companies expanded work-from-home arrangements.

That period was followed by the long summer break, when many families left the country and school-related traffic all but disappeared.

Now, all of that is reversing at once. Schools are reopening, businesses are back to normal operations, employees have returned to their desks, and holidaymakers are back home.

The result, according to road safety expert Thomas Edelmann, founder of RoadSafetyUAE, will be familiar chaos.

"We will, of course, see a lot of traffic chaos, as we always do when a new term begins," he told Gulf News.

Edelmann urged parents to treat the school run as a chance to set an example, leaving home earlier so children see them behaving calmly rather than rushing under stress.

He pointed to the simplest statistic: a single school bus can carry up to 50 children, meaning it can take as many as 50 cars off the road.

He suggested relevant entities consider subsidising school transport to make buses more affordable, which could ease congestion considerably around campuses.

Commuters are already feeling the shift. Stalin Meledath Mohanan, who lives in Muweilah, Sharjah, and works in Jumeirah 1, said his journey has changed noticeably since last Monday.

He used to leave home at 5.50am and reach work by 6.30am, but now faces arriving 15 to 20 minutes late.

From next week, he plans to revert to leaving at 5.15am or 5.20am, and expects his evening commute, currently around an hour and five minutes, to stretch to as much as one hour 40 minutes.

"If there are four school buses waiting at one traffic signal, you can imagine how much extra time it takes," he said.