Construction workers were placing traffic cones on the side of the road as I drove down the ramp of Interchange 6 near Ibn Battuta Mall, the other day.

The next day, the workers had blocked off the sandy road access to Shaikh Zayed Road from the side of the Mall that many frustrated motorists would take to beat the daily traffic jam.

I had done the off-road bit myself earlier, going bumpity-bump over the sands, pretending that I am participating in the annual Gulf News Fun Drive through the desert! The reason why I took this off-road some days was because of the long line of cars jammed at the exit of The Gardens community.

The off-road was not exactly a safe way to get out of the community. You have to rev up the engine to boost you out of the sandy patch and clamber on to Shaikh Zayed Road, where a line of cars come barrelling down the ramp of the interchange, as they find they are now finally free to speed.

The planners have built only two exits out of this community where thousands of people live and work. One exit is near the Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel, while the second is near the entrance to Discovery Gardens — another fast-growing community that stretches way beyond, near the Emirates Road.

Earlier, there used to be an exit to Emirates Road and I went searching for it the other day, only to find that it had been blocked too.

I have become an expert on early-morning traffic over the past weeks and know what’s going in my area as I now get up at an unearthly hour to drop my wife off at her school. One thing I have learned is that no matter how early you get up, there’s just no way to beat the traffic jam in our neighbourhood.

It’s like the movie Groundhog Day and every day it is the same nightmare — you have to manoeuvre around huge SUVs and beg motorists to let you cut in front of them. All this begging and pleading becomes more painful when you haven’t had breakfast or your first cup of coffee.

If you haven’t seen the movie, Groundhog Day was about a weatherman who was covering a story about a ‘weather forecasting’ groundhog. According to American legend, if a groundhog can see its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it cannot see its shadow, spring is on the way.

He files his report and goes to sleep and wakes up and finds it is Groundhog Day again and then again the next day and every day when he wakes up, and he then knows he is doomed to spend the rest of his days repeating what happened the day before.

“We should try and leave earlier, by about 6.45,” said my wife, as we sat and chatted near the traffic light about how life had treated us.

It is usually dark when we get into the car at 7am. The birds are not awake yet and there is no racket from the trees. I see half-asleep children standing, waiting at a school gate, to be let in. Parents whizz past in their cars and stop in the middle of the road with the hazard lights flashing, to drop of their children.

I am thankful I have a nice comfortable car, petrol is cheap and the roads are a delight to drive on. But I will be even happier if there is no traffic jam as soon as I get out of my flat or if can get home a bit faster after work.