Emiratis take lead to make Car Free Day a success

The event, organised by Dubai Municipality and now in its seventh year, hopes to take thousands of cars off the emirate’s roads on February 21.

“I’ve always been keen on preserving the environment,” says Abdul Aziz Essa Redha, manager for Europe at Jafza. Satish Kumar / The Nation

DUBAI // Emiratis are planning to lead by example to help make this year’s Car Free Day a success.

The event, organised by Dubai Municipality and now in its seventh year, hopes to take thousands of cars off the emirate’s roads on Sunday.

Emirati employees at the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) said they were looking forward to swapping their cars for public transport.

Abdulghaffar Qaderi, who lives in Al Mizhar 1, has been using the metro to get to work at the free zone since the network’s launch in 2009.

“It takes exactly one hour and eight minutes from Al Rashidiya to Jebel Ali on the metro, while in the car it take 35 minutes. But there are so many advantages to taking the metro,” he said.

“You don’t have to worry about traffic accidents or about fog in the winter. You just sit, relax and get to your destination safely.”

Mr Qaderi said he also used the metro at the weekend instead of driving to avoid having to find a parking space. He and his family use the metro to get to malls and the airport.

“We are proud of the metro, which is probably the most advanced in the world, and Emiratis should be first to encourage its use,” he said.

“You also meet lots of people on the metro, allowing you to familiarise yourself and become part of the community.”

Hamda Al Abbar, a senior marketing and communications executive at Jafza, said people should know about the major issues affecting the environment.

“Even if we feel like it doesn’t directly affect us, it will affect future generations,” she said, adding that campaigns such as Car Free Day promoted a cultural and lifestyle change to be more environmentally friendly.

“As an Emirati, I must support this because sustainability is an important objective for Dubai and the UAE and its people,” Ms Al Abbar said.

Abdul Aziz Essa Redha, manager for the Europe region at Jafza, agreed that Emiratis should be the first to get on board with green initiatives.

“I’ve always been keen on preserving the environment, and it has been something that’s been ingrained in us at school growing up here,” he said, adding that Car Free Day would help to reduce carbon emissions and ease traffic congestion.

Mr Redha said Dubai’s Government had taken great strides in establishing state-of-the-art public transport, which he said would only improve with time.

One hundred organisations based in Jafza will participate in the Car Free Day on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, it would be difficult to cycle to Jafza, but people will be using the metro, buses, and even carpooling,” said Fatma Hussain Nasser, senior manager of corporate social responsibility at Jafza.