Dubai: The coronavirus has turned most of our lives upside down. However, for a large section of UAE residents, a part of their lives at least has turned for the better — the daily commute between Dubai and Sharjah. With schools out for the summer and many offices still closed or only partly open, the daily drive between the two emirates has been halved in some cases, down to 30 or 40 minutes. Offices and schools had closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, switching to Work From Home (WFH) and distance learning, respectively.
After a staggered start, Dubai government departments reopened with full staff capacity by mid-June, including some private companies. As a result, the morning rush hour from Sharjah to Dubai and the evening rush hour in the reverse direction has significantly shrunk from its earlier hour to two-hour spell. Before the lockdown, it used to take Yunus Shamsher around two hours from his Sharjah home in Al Khan to his Dubai office in Al Quoz, and vice versa. Now, it only takes about an hour. “I’ve definitely experienced less traffic. I think it’s because many offices are still doing WFH. Schools are also off for the summer. A lot of the traffic in the mornings was because of school buses and family cars on the school run,” said Shamsher, 64, a manager in a Dubai company.