UAE: How Residents Can Enjoy Low Summer Traffic All Year Round

With schools closed and many residents travelling abroad for holidays, motorists enjoy the reduced commute time in the summer.

Summer runs undoubtedly contribute to urban traffic congestion. Since schools are closed and many residents are abroad for summer holidays, motorists enjoy reduced commute time. Some lessons can be drawn here to understand the changes in traffic flows on school days and holidays. Dr Monica Menendez, associate dean of Engineering for Graduate Affairs at New York University Abu Dhabi, noted: "Having traffic fluctuations that follow school patterns is typical everywhere across the world. When school is on, traffic tends to be worse than when school is off and kids are on vacation.

This is also true on weekends, when traffic patterns change, as most people do not commute to work.

"In the UAE, the positive effect of the school holidays is even more pronounced during summer since many leave the country. The result is congestion goes down prominently, travel times drop and moving around some typically congested areas of the city becomes a breeze," she added. The NYUAD professor of Civil and Urban Engineering "Maintaining these low traffic levels all year round is very hard once people come back into the country and kids start normal school." "As school opening times in the morning tend to be very similar around the city, most families with kids must commute simultaneously. This is compounded by many people having a similar working schedule, which can lead to a lot of traffic.

 Explore flexible working hours.

Dr Menendez suggested exploring the potential impact of flexible working hours and remote working arrangements. "Encouraging this additional flexibility could alleviate congestion; it would spread the traffic peaks so that the avails;e road capacity is used more efficiently in a day." For instance, Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority is surveying to explore the potential impact of flexible working hours and remote working arrangements."

 Using big data to predict traffic

Another solution suggested by the NYUAD professor, the director of the Research Center for Interacting with Urban Networks, is using big data for traffic management. She said, "With all the data generated across multiple devices, it is now possible to predict traffic much better than before." A study that DR Menendez and her colleagues published has shown that urban mobility patterns at the aggregate level are quite reproducible daily. The patterns could help transportation authorities to be more proactive regarding managing traffic and reducing the likelihood of traffic congestion," she said. Emirati traffic safety researcher Dr Mostafa Al Dah said AI and other predictive solutions can give solutions to mitigate.

 Out-of-the-box solutions

Al Dah said the data could be used to create a trend regarding the number of people who leave or do not use the roads during the summer. "Then we can have better traffic mitigation and come up without-of-the-box solutions." For example, one solution can be to incentivise people who would stay off the road at certain times of the day to minimise the number of cars on the streets, noted Al Dah, also the founder of MA Traffic Consulting. Another solution is enhancing pedestrian friend infrastructure and implementing safety education to encourage commuting options or public transportation. Homeschooling can also be encouraged, added Al Dah, noting, "It is counter-productive for students to spend two hours daily on the road going to and from school." Adjusting daily routines, such as flexible work and school time, is another solution to alleviate traffic congestion.

 More solutions

Urban planner and architect Aileen Liagas said, "It may seem tough to reduce traffic congestion, but there are strategies to control and lessen its severity." She gave some suggestions-

Upgrade and expand road infrastructure to handle increased traffic volumes more efficiently and allocate parking areas strategically.

Improve traffic management using real-time traffic monitoring and intelligent traffic signal systems to optimise traffic flow and reduce wait times at intersections.

Try implementing minimal congestion charges to discourage driving during peak hours. Congestion charges, intended to reduce traffic, refer to money motorists must pay to drive in areas of the city.

Encourage carpooling and the use of school buses. Students and residents would reduce their reliance on individual cars by creating high-occupancy vehicle lanes. Adopt flexible schedules for businesses and schools by applying online classes, remote working, and staggered start times to lessen peak hour traffic and reduce commuters.

Creating high-occupancy vehicle lanes to encourage carpooling and using school buses would reduce students' and residents' reliance on individual cars. Businesses and schools could adopt flexible schedules by offering online classes, remote work, and staggered start times to reduce commuters and peak-hour traffic.

The most famous among sustainability advocates is encouraging the use of alternative modes of transportation, such as public buses, trains, bicycles, and walking.

Be the solution

Llagas reiterated, "Innovations and intelligent technologies are now being used to solve traffic congestion challenges. We need suitable programmes and public awareness campaigns for a more efficient transportation system even during peak hours when classes resume and people return from vacation." She said, "I always check the real-time traffic situation and plan my trip ahead of time by using alternative routes and avoiding highly congested areas. While waiting for all the major changes, let us not be part of the problem but rather the solution."

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