The people of Kuwait rejoiced when the government rolled out before Ramadan a new flexible hours scheme to be applied in the public sector during the holy month. But all good hopes of shorter trips and smoother traffic came crashing down when the reality of the merciless traffic jams hit people hard as soon as Ramadan started.

Motorists stuck in stand-still traffic during their daily 15-minute-turned-one-hour commute are left with plenty of time to think about how a once-promising idea of giving state departments the option to choose from three different timeslots for working hours has failed miserably as soon as the experiment was put to test.

Instead of choosing different start and end timings, most state departments have apparently settled with one schedule for all staff, while the short gap between the three options the government had given did not help either - not to mention the fact that the timings when public sector employees leave work still coincide with the time when students leave school. All of the above create the perfect recipe for traffic disaster that everyone living in Kuwait has come to know and hate.

Has the government failed in its first attempt to apply a flexible working hours system? What could be better alternatives? Let us know in the comments and share your thoughts on the best solutions to limit the traffic problem during Ramadan.