|
|
|
THE LEAD
|
|
Lorries come off Sheikh Zayed Road from Thursday
|
| From Thursday, the truck mix on your Sheikh Zayed Road commute will get thinner. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Dubai Police will pull lorries off Sheikh Zayed Road through the day and off several other key routes around the clock, aiming at the congestion that built back up as the city returned after summer. What makes it worth a second look is who it helps: for once, the change sits on the side of the person in the 7am school-and-office run, not against them. |
| The detail matters, because this is not one blanket rule. Lorries will be barred round the clock from Al Meydan Street, Al Qudra Street, the Airport Tunnel and all crossings, and from 6am to 10pm daily on Sheikh Zayed Road, Beirut Street and the residential pockets of Oud Al Muteena, Muhaisnah and Al Mizhar. Emirates Road is exempt, and that's the point. The RTA already counts 150,000 heavy goods vehicles a month across its 16 truck rest stops, which hold more than 1,000 parking spaces between them, and those numbers tell you where the traffic goes next. The pressure moves; it doesn't disappear. |
| This is the third road move in under two weeks, and the run is the actual story. Sheikh Hamdan approved the 80km Fourth Corridor on September 16, the Oud Metha to Al Asayel corridor opened on September 20 and cut that stretch from 20 minutes to five, and the lorries are the next to be rerouted. Dubai is visibly reallocating its road space as the traffic returns, road by road, and each move lands on the same driver: you. The sensible read is to expect the network to keep shifting through autumn, and to check the exempt corridor before you assume a road is open to everything. |
|
WHAT TO DO
Check the RTA's published route list against your commute before Thursday, and remember Emirates Road is the one corridor that stays open to trucks.
|
|