UAE motorists urged to leave vehicles at home for Car Free Day

Dubai Municipality is encouraging residents to use public transport to help reduce carbon emissions and ease congestion

Drivers are being urged to embrace public transport on Car Free Day.   
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Motorists are being urged to leave their cars at home for a day and find a more eco-friendly way of getting to work next Sunday.

February 24 is UAE Car Free Day and Dubai Municipality is encouraging travellers to use public transport, get on their bikes or even walk to the office if possible as part of a drive to cut carbon emissions.

But the government is hoping drivers will decide to help protect the environment for more than just one day.

“Not just a day, every day. Be part of this event. Stay tuned,” the municipality tweeted on Monday.

The Dubai Municipality initiative expanded in 2018 to include more emirates, with residents from Dubai, Al Ain, Ajman and Sharjah leaving their vehicles at home to take public transport.

The campaign was set up to help reduce carbon emissions by encouraging the use of public transport.

Thousands of private cars are taken off the road for the day as a result of the scheme.

As well as helping the environment, participants can also ease traffic congestion.

The National reported on Sunday that Dubai commuters spent an average of nine working days stuck in traffic last year.

Dubai was found to be the 79th most congested city out of 220 surveyed in the Global Traffic Scorecard by international transport consultancy Inrix, with Dubai motorists losing 80 hours to traffic jams.

Drivers in Abu Dhabi fared a little better, spending 50 hours of 2018 in queues, putting the city 180th in the list.