Dubai: How schools manage traffic with special parkings, crossing zones

Schools resumed on Monday after a two-month long summer break, leading to a temporary anticipated traffic congestion in school districts and surrounding roads.

Experts and educators explained sometimes the bottle necks around school areas happen due to some parents stopping longer in front of schools to drop off or pick up their children.

However, to alleviate traffic issues in these areas, schools across all emirates designated parking and crossing zones, along with a skilled security team to manage and direct traffic, ensuring a smooth flow for both parents and students.

Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.

RTA’s six-lane highway eases traffic

Matthew Burfield, Senior Vice President – Education, GEMS Education and Executive Principal/CEO, GEMS Founders School – Dubai said, “There’s been a huge investment from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). When we opened this school nine years ago, there was a single-lane road at the front. There was no road at the back. We've now got a six-lane highway at the front, and we've got RTA car park all the way along the back of the school zone.”

He explained that despite this, there are still some challenges during peak windows. “We encourage parents to come in early when the gates open at 7am and drop their children off and then head off to work. It's when everybody decides to come at that 7.20am window that it gets a bit difficult. So, we do our best to manage it. It will be a bit tricky this first week, and then we'll find the natural balance, and things will work out perfectly.”

School leaders also highlighted that instead of just managing the situation, they believe in taking a proactive approach to manage traffic.

This entails regularly meeting with all the schools and their representatives along the road and coordinating schedules.

Notably, the road near GEMS Founders features several other schools along the same route, including GEMS Al Barsha National School and Dubai Heights Academy, among others.

“It was a busy school site from the day of opening, and since then more schools have been added on this road. We meet all the schools along this road, from the bottom with GWA to Barsha Heights, all the way along to Kings Al Barsha on the other side of Umm Sequim, and we all adjust our timings," said Burfield.

"Our managers of school operations meet, talk, adjust the timings, and change them slightly. We can't obviously have hours between, but we try to make sure all those 10-15, minute windows are built within. Therefore, we start very early. We open our gates at 7am and children start coming in at that time. But Brighton College, for instance, will open about 30-45 minutes later, so we've got that balance, and they'll finish later, and we'll finish slightly earlier,” he added.

School buses reduce traffic congestion

School leaders also emphasised that when children use the school bus, it not only ensures their safe and timely arrival but also significantly reduces traffic congestion in the areas surrounding the school. This helps to ease flow of vehicles during peak hours, making the roads safer and more accessible for everyone in the community.

“There are never enough roads and there is never enough parking space, so I'm not going to pretend it's all taken care of, but what we've done systematically through the years is really improve the STS service in terms of the amount of routes going through," said Burfield.

"We've got bus routes across all of Dubai with over two thirds of the kids coming to school on buses. That by itself manages the traffic really well in our school, because they are given priority into entering and exiting the site. We make sure we stop traffic and bring the buses in first and that then they leave first,” he added.

• 'Nervous, excited': Some UAE students are new to both school and country