We still can’t figure out if this is good news for rush hour traffic, or bad…

You know how if you drive straight down Sheikh Zayed Road, through both the Barsha and Safa Park Salik gates within 40 minutes of each other, you only get charged once?

That changes today. You’ll now get charged twice.

We called the RTA this morning and they confirmed that yes, as of today, you will be charged Dhs4 for both the Safa Park and Barsha gate – no matter how quickly you pass through them.

So if you drove down SZR this morning and passed under both tolls you will have been charged Dhs8.

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That means an extra Dhs8 a day, Ds40 a week or Dhs160 a month for commuters who go through both gates to and from work every weekday.

The Khaleej Times reports that the RTA have made the change after many studies, and are doing so to try and make Sheikh Zayed Road an express traffic corridor (rather than the bumper-to-bumper highway it can be from 5pm to 8pm most nights).

Because, remember, there are multiple other roads that run parallel to SZR, including E311, Al Khail, Jumeirah Beach Road and Al Wasl Road. We’re interested to see if this causes even more congestion at some of the key SZR exits (we’re looking at you Umm Suqeim Road). 

Remember, you can always catch the Dubai Metro too, which is a very affordable Dhs5 for a trip all the way down the length of SZR (the red line has 28 stations).

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Photo: Getty