Back to school in UAE: How late start times, flexible work hours could ease traffic

Khaleej Times

7 hours ago

As schools reopen on August 25, traffic congestion has yet again become a major concern for commuters across the UAE. While authorities roll out traffic management plans to cope with the back-to-school rush, experts and professionals say a longer-term fix could lie in adjusting school start times or offering more workplace flexibility.
Traffic experts believe staggered school start times and flexible working hours could ease morning bottlenecks, though the impact would depend on the sector.
'In some jobs it's easier to apply flexibility, but in shift work and essential services, there isn't an option,' Dr Eng Mustafa Aldah, founder of MA Traffic Consulting, said.
'But if we as a collective use more public transport, school buses, or even carpooling, that could significantly reduce the number of cars around schools.'
He noted that traffic pressure often comes from the way schools are zoned. 'When you put two or three schools on the same street, you're looking at thousands of students and potentially thousands of cars arriving at the same time.' He stressed that no road can be designed just for that 'kind of peak'.
Besides timings, Mustafa suggested that governments and even schools should come together and 'question' how traffic impact studies are applied before new schools are approved.
Within schools, staggering start and finish times by grade could also ease the morning crunch, he added. 'Children generally welcome later starts, but if parents have fixed work schedules, that creates challenges. More structured carpooling schemes could help, especially in communities where families live near each other but don't know each other well.'
For some employees, flexible start times already make a noticeable difference. Ahmed Mubarak, who works at a Dubai-based private company, said his mornings became less stressful after his employer introduced a later start option.
'At my current workplace, I can leave home at 9.30am or even 10am, once the morning rush has cleared,' he said. 'In my previous job, I had to be in the office by 8.30am sharp, and during school term, that was a nightmare.'
For Ahmed, now, he can have a proper routine before work instead of rushing out just to beat traffic.'
Last year, in May, the Dubai Executive Council approved a traffic improvement plan that emphasized flexible working hours and the expansion of school bus fleets. The initiative includes priority bus routes, expected to reduce trip times by up to 59 per cent, and efforts to increase school bus usage by approximately 13 per cent around school zones.
Then, in November, Khaleej Times reported that further studies found combining flexible hours (allowing a two-hour start window) with remote work (up to 4–5 days per month) could reduce morning peak traffic across Dubai by approximately 30 per cent.
'Productivity has gone up'
Business leaders said flexibility is not only good for staff but also improves productivity. Karim Hussain, who runs a marketing agency, allowed his team to set their own start times and never looked back.
'Why would I let employees lose most of their energy before the day even begins, worrying about traffic and arriving on time?' he said. 'If something urgent comes up, we adjust, but otherwise I trust my team to manage their own schedules. Productivity has gone up, not down.'
Dr Aldah believed the UAE is well-placed to experiment with flexible approaches. 'We've already seen schools testing later start times, and I think more thought needs to go into how timings, zoning, and transport planning can work together,' he said. 'Ultimately, it's about improving daily life for children, parents, and workers.'