As I write this i'm sitting in the car, i'm at a traffic light and i've been here, stopped for almost 10 minutes. The causeway behind me is packed, people are blasting their horns, irritated by having to wait this long.

And why? It's because some royal shaikh or something is supposed to pass by on the road infront of us, and so every single other road is blocked until they make a safe, uninterrupted passage.

Having to do this and cause one hell of a mess on the roads for everyone else, during rush hour no less, can only suggest two things. One, whoever is passing is worried about safety, meaning he might not be liked very much,or two, mr royalty is not supposed to experience traffic jams.

Lets assume the second one. Now why the hell not? Maybe if you guys actually felt a little bit of this ridiculous traffic rush we go through every single effin' day, you might go out there and use your 'powers' to actually do something about the roads.

Oh look, here they go, passing by with no jams or traffic, while we sit here. A good 15 mins after I first stopped, the traffic light turns green, finally!

Bahrain Upgrade

For a country the size of Bahrain, you would think that improving the current infrastructure, to meet the rapidly increasing demand, wouldn't be too much of an issue. The country is small, the revenue stream is huge, and with access to cheap labor, advanced machinery and the latest technology, there really should be no excuse for situations like this:

Families are left without water for five days

RESIDENTS of a building in Adliya claim they have been left without water for several days with no explanation or assistance from authorities.

A resident told the GDN that she, with her 12-year-old son and other 12 families, have been left without water for the past five days.

The 33-year-old said she had constantly been trying to contact the Electricity and Water Ministry's emergency helplines 80001008, 17241111, 17727005, 17363636, but without success.

Now, this wouldn't be such an issue if it was an isolated incident, which it unfortunately is not. Water cuts in this country happen all the time, and I myself have had the misfortune of dealing with a 4 day water cut a few months ago. Not only that; the local citizens of Bahrain have gotten used to power cuts to their homes for hours at a time (and on some occasions, days), especially during the hot summer months. This has been going on for years and years, and ridiculous as it may sound, this has become a normal expectation for anyone living in Bahrain; sooner or later, you will get a power cut.

Now sure, we've heard news of plans for a new powerplant to be built in Ad Durr, which is definately long over-due. It's great that they've finally decided to do something about the situation, but did it really have to take this long for it to finally come into place? And by the time it's actually ready, by how much more will our power needs have increased? How about the water cuts; we haven't head anything being done about that?

Now, let's disregard the utilities for a moment, and let's take a look at another area of our infrastructure; the roads. Most of these were adequate to handle the traffic 10 years ago, but as the inflow of people into Bahrain increased, more people bought cars, etc etc, the roads became too tight to handle the congestion. Want proof? Pass by Diplomatic Area on your average working day, Exhibiton Rd on your average weekend night, and so on. A few years after the traffic next to the Seef Area became unbelievably ridiculous, a plan was set to open up the highway a little and build a flyover.

So great; that took a good two years to construct, and after being completed was adequate, but everywhere else in the country seemed to be neglected. Salmaniya Roundabout, Sitra causeway, Regency Intersection and so on. Again, only when these became ridiculously overcrowded to the point where you would want to kill yourself did plans to upgrade these appear. So far from the above list, the first one has been upgraded from a roundabout to traffic lights, which doesn't seem to have done too much for the traffic, the second is under renovation, which in turn has caused unbelievable jams, and the third, well, who knows when they'll consider doing something about it?

Now, all these points are superficial incidents compared to the overall brutal reality; Bahrain is at a scary stage of growth, we have thousands of investors pumping money into the country like there's no tommorow, and an increasing stream of people moving in. If we don't act now, and upgrade our infrastructure to handle not only the demand required for today, but the demand required for the next few years as well, we might be faced with disaster. Imagine the state of traffic just a few years from now? The power cuts?

And forget that; we have bigger and bigger buildings springing up faster than you can say 'Man, those are some big buildings', and that means; more facilities needed, more parking needed, more access roads, and more sewage lines..

Have those been considered? Seems like they haven't been. When you look at land reclamation in Tubli Bay (well, Tubli Swamp now), you realize that the after-effects of the land-filling was definately not taken into account. Don't even get me started on how the area smells, either. Are we going to have a similar dilemma after the construction on Manama's north shore is completed? How about with the other projects all over the Kingdom?

I'm not complaining about my own situation. God knows i've accustomed myself to the ridiculous traffic, gotten myself used to the water/power cuts, and understandingly expect the incompetency that follows any sort of upgrade to our infrastructrue. However, our country is inviting all sorts of investors, companies, projects, and tourists and foreign workers. If we're not careful, we just might turn around one day to witness all of it dissapear.

Finally got it!

Yes! I finally figured out how to get through the Ramadan traffic!

Check this out:
If I take the route in BLUE (mostly main roads and highways), it takes me ONE HOUR AND 20 MINUTES to get from work till home

If I take the route in RED (mostly driving in neighbourhoods and small roads), it takes TWENTY FIVE MINUTES ONLY!


Seems so simple huh? Thing is, Ramadan is almost over! Next week, i'm going to have to figure out a new route to bypass the regular day traffic!

Driving to & from Work

It's ridiculous, don't you think? Considering EVERY SINGLE MINISTRY, SCHOOL AND COMPANY IN BAHRAIN STARTS AROUND THE SAME TIME IN RAMADHAN!

!!

Which idiot planned it this way? I'm supposed to be at work at 8:15 and everybody else starts at 8:00. I actually have to leave my house an hour earlier to get to work on time. Bluh. A full hour wasted.

Anybody have any ideas to occupy the time usefully in the car? I'm downloading audio foreign language guides, at least i'll get to do something while i'm in the car. I'm also considering putting a TV in there, but i'm pretty sure i'll end up in an accident sooner or later if I do.

Anyway, i'm still at the office, it's almost 3:00, even though I finish at 2:15. You know why? You wanna know WHY? Because the traffic is SO RIDICULOUS when every single company and ministry leaves at 2! So I decide to stay an extra 45 minutes; believe it or not, i'll get home around the same time I would have got home if I leave at 2:15



Anyway, time to go home. I'm like, so hungry.

Non-chalant

I noticed something on my way to work today; nothing really out of the ordinary, but it strongly highlights the way our people think and react, and displays their attitude towards life in general.

On my way to work, I pass by a busy intersection. Four main roads crossing, with traffic lights on each one. Naturally during the morning rush, these roads get pretty busy; skipping a red-light is not exactly the safest activity during this time of day.

Well, a few seconds after the traffic light turned red on one side, an ingenious driver decides that his beat up Toyota Echo actually has enough horsepower to make it across to the other side without causing any sort of disruption in the traffic flow. Incorrect. He actually crossed as the opposite light turned green and the cars started moving, came within centimeters of his hitting his car, had to slam their brakes, blow their horns to display their anger, and probably curse the hell out of him. He went on his merry way, however, not thinking much of the situation.

Here's the part that got me thinking, however. As I saw him cross, after causing the huge disruption, he actually had a huge grin on his face; the passenger in the car with him also seemed to find this funny, and they laughed it off as they passed.

Not a big deal right? Got caught in a bit of a silly situation, and wanted to laugh it off?

Well, here's what I figure from all of this; total disregard for the law, no concern for the safety of themselves or anyone around them, and even when they manage to cause a potentially harmful situation, they couldn't care less. In other words, a total lack of any sort of responsibility, or sense of right and wrong. Unfortunately, this isn't a unique situation. This "I own the road" attitude is actually frightening; on your average day, just look around you while driving. If it isn't the speeding, dangerous overtaking, tailgating or so on, it's crossing red lights, U-turning where you're not supposed to, and so on. Even the small things like parking in the wrong spots and so on happens all the time. The problem is, a great number of people, especially those who have recently gotten their driving licenses, seem to think that as long as they don't get caught, there is no problem.

But this attitude isn't restricted to roads; it goes on to cover our general behavior, whether skipping a queue in a supermarket or a bank, trying to get something which we don't deserve, and so on. During my life, i've lived in other countries, i've seen citizens of other nations grow up learning that rules and laws are there for the general welfare of the whole, and are meant to be followed in order to benefit everyone. Why do we grow up and learn the opposite?

How has this attitude been instilled in us? Do we really think we are above the law and the rules that should govern our behavior from day to day? Should that guy really have been smiling as he crossed that light?

Idiots on Bahrain roads

They seem to be getting worse day by day. Just today morning, I was driving a good 100km/hr or so on an 80km road. Naturally, it seems that this speed isn't sufficient for everyone and there has to be some sort of idiot who sticks to your butt and keeps trying to get you to move out of his way. Now, there are cars on the slower lane, so I can't exactly move out of the way, so he stays stuck to my back bumper. The road was semi-busy so I decided to ignore him; I couldn't turn, and I was already driving faster than the speed limit after all.

After a minute or so, I started to approach traffic stopped at a red light. I had about 200 meters or so to stop, so I started slowing down; the guy behind me decides this is the perfect time to overtake and speed up, although the cars were very obviously stopped right in front of us...

And so he turns, speeds up and overtakes me, and drives right into one of the cars stopped at the red light :S It wasn't a very serious accident since he did slam on the brakes at the last minute, but it caused considerable damage nontheless.

I'm sorry to say, but we have a bunch of real idiots on the road. Besides delaying himself from whatever the hell he was late for (or was he just driving like an idiot for no reason?), and putting himself through the trouble of having to sort out the insurance, take the car to get it fixed, etc, he just burdened other people with the same problems through no fault of their own. Thankfully there were no serious injuries caused in this situation, but there could have been.

Can we find a solution for people who are careless and wreckless? With the increasing number of idiots on the road, any suggestions would be well appreciated.

How Safe are our Roads?

It's not exactly news that our roadwork system isn't the most effective in the world. Whenever a budgeted amount goes towards building something, somehow the final spent amount doesn't always equal that. Where does the rest of the money go? Who knows..

Anyway, situations like that result in delays in construction, as well as compromises in the final product; just as an example, let's talk about the Bukuwara Road. This road (in Riffa) is a busy one, full of shops, restaurants among other establishments, and also seems to be the 'hangout' for a lot of teenage drivers who just got their driving licenses (and some people who are a little older, too). Just stand on a spot in the road and watch the same people come and go.. come and go... come and go...

But anyhow, that's not the point. The point is that for years, this road wasn't in the greatest shape, and renovations were finally planned. The road was filled with road-works for around a year or so, and when done, the final product seemed to look good; straight roads, no pot-holes, new pavements, etc.

A few weeks after the road was completed, I passed by there with a local Riffa resident. I spotted this:

What is that? Turns out that there were two thick metal sheets covering something in the road. As cars kept crossing over it, one of the sheets budged to reveal a hole in the road; a good 1.5 or 2 meters wide, and pretty deep:



So my friend went to explain that a substantial amount of the money that went into renovating the roads sort of got lost in someones pocket along the way, and eventually the road was rebuilt using a lot of "shortcuts". A few days ago, part of the road just collapsed, leaving a big hole in its place. The next day, the workers came to fill it in.

A few days later, another hole materialized. Again, they filled it in next day. And then another..

These holes are pretty big; a car can get stuck in one of them. A little child can fall in them and get hurt pretty badly. It's pretty scary that our public infrastructure can be compromised because of someones greed; a lot of harm could come out of this.

So now I look at the collapsed bridge disaster in Minnesota, USA a few days ago and think; this could very easily happen here. How often are our bridges looked at to see how adequate they are? How much has their structural strength been compromised because of similar conduct by our officials?

Just imagine, Seef flyover collapsing? Or one of the Muharraq Bridges? Hamad Town/Riffa flyovers? I'm also pretty sure our rescue services aren't as capable of handling big disasters as the US services are.

It's So Salik

Or so goes the commercial for the new toll booth in Dubai (named 'Salik', meaning open/clear). Now, I don't currently live in Dubai, and neither do I go there very often. However, the implications of this system to all of us in the surrounding region are probably bigger than we expect.

If you aren't aware of it yet, Dubai is a booming city. People are flocking in from all parts of the world, and even though the Government of Dubai had forseen this and built a pretty darn good infrastructure system to handle the incoming crowds, they really didn't count on the influx reaching the level it currently is at. And with that, comes a list of problems, one of the most obvious when you land in Dubai and drive around (try to?) is the unbelievable amount of traffic.

Back during the 5 years I lived in the UAE, I saw traffic problems turn from mere annoyances into outright "bang-your-head-on-the-dashboard-and-hope-to-die" situations. Hell, when I first arrived in 1998, a drive from Sharjah to Dubai in the mornings used to take around half an hour or so. Before I left in 2003, it used to take closer to an hour and twenty minutes. I'm pretty terrified (yes, terrified) to think what it would be like now.

And obviously in the past 4 years since i've left, traffic has blown up even more, and the Dubai government has started to think of alternative ways of battling this.

So here's their quick-fix; introduce toll-booths on the biggest sources of congestion, currently Shaikh Zayed Road and Garhoud Bridge. The tolls started 8 days ago (July 1st) and it seems to have worked actually; a few days after introduction, the unbelievable congestion usually existent on Garhoud Bridge has been considerably reduced, but the benefits on Shk Zayed Road are still to be felt.


You would assume more piling up traffic as people stop to pay the tolls, but the way the booth works is pretty clever too; you sign up for an electronic badge affixed to your car, with a prepaid balance, and the toll is automatically deducted as you drive through the booth - no need to stop and look for change to pay a booth attendant. You top up the badge as the balance gets low (you can check your balance on the website, or recieve SMS alerts when it reaches a certain level).


Negative points? As drivers start to spill into the surrounding roads and areas in order to avoid the tolls, those areas have started to get more and more congested. A problem is of course the residential areas surrounding Shk Zayed Rd, which have started to get pretty jammed. Also, some of the alternative routes to get around have not been completed yet, so people are either forced to pay the toll or take much longer routes.

Another problem is the registration; although a pretty advanced system overall, the registration is not done online, or through a computer. No, its actually done by filling out a paper form at one of the local gas stations near the highway, and submitting it to recieve your badge. This has caused jams as people queue up to recieve their badges, either to find out they have already run out of them, or to find no photocopier to submit their vehicle registration card. Add to that the fact that the authorities now have to manually input all the forms, estimated at a few hundered thousand and growing.

Now, how is this relevant to us in Bahrain, or anyone in the surrounding region? Well, if you haven't noticed, Dubai is the model city that all countries around it try to follow. Dubai jumps, they jump. Dubai ducks, they duck. And now, Dubai, the tax free haven, has finally introduced a pretty direct tax on people using its roads. Sure, its there to reduce congestion on the main roads, and generate more income for new infrastructure projects, but its a tax nonetheless. And you can bet your sweaty GCC passport (or visa) that that the surrounding countries are going to introduce taxes pretty soon. Not necessarily taxes on major roads or highways, but any form of tax is applicable.

Yes, Salik has been criticized by many commuters, claiming that it hasn't fixed the problem, shifted it to somewhere else, or only created more problems. Some claim that it isn't fair, having to pay the same toll if you had 10 people in one vehicle, or one person, whether you were driving a tiny 2-seater or a truck, or if you were a poor labourer trying to make it to work to earn a living or a rich billionaire going to Dubai to spend a few thousand dollars for a good time.

Either way, I think it was a good start, and even though it wasn't launched as well as it should have been, it is still progress. Other measures need to be implemented to bring down congestion, and speaking of Dubai, Bahrain also needs to start moving on some strong traffic-control measures before we start turning into the next Cairo. Aside from the other available solutions for congestion, and I have a LOT in mind, we need to start looking at this whole tax situation, and start to prepare for it.

Toll booths are just the beginning.

It gets very annoying...

... when it takes you almost 2 hours to drive home in an island thats just a little over 10km wide.

The traffic problem has gotten to the extent that, if nobody at the department of planning (oh wait, I forgot, we DON'T have a department of planning) does anything, it will soon start to reach catastrophic levels. And by catastrophic, I mean me having to buy a DVD player and screen for my car, to watch movies and TV shows as I wait to get home, instead of buying them for the normal reason everyone else buys them (ie, to show off).

So it started off yesterday, another beautifully painful day at work (beatiful since my salary had just been credited into my account, painful because I had to watch my account balance get shredded by various deductions for various purposes), and getting into my car at 5pm, my wife called and asked me to pick up something from Al Jazeera Supermarket. So here I am, leaving the Seef Area and driving over to Al Jazeera in Zinj for a particular product we used to enjoy when we used to live in the US. Distance travelled? Approx 3km.

Got to Al Jazeera, and was informed that they only stocked it at their Juffair branch. So I got into my car and drove over to Juffair, which is around 1.5km away.

The stopover in either Al Jazeera branches didn't take more than 5 minutes at the most. So now, i'm driving over the new Hidd Causeway into Muharraq, and decide to stop and fill up on some gas at the Jasmees Station which was around another 3km away. Took about 10 minutes to fill up, and now i'm on my way home, another 1.5km away.

IT WAS 6:55pm when I stepped in the house! That's 1 hour and 55 minutes to get home! Now, deducting the time spent in Al Jazeera (a total of about 10 minutes), and the time spent at the gas station (another 10), that leaves me with a little over 1 and a half hours to drive 9km. Thats an average speed of about SIX BLOODY KILOMETERS AND HOUR. That's the speed of an average walking human. Or maybe a fast ape.

I've obviously left out the details of what happened when I was in the car; but then again, I am trying to keep this blog profanity free, so its all for the better.

So, a solution, anyone?

----------------------

Just a quick rough map to give you an idea of my route:

Above the Law

I read this in today's GDN (probably Bahrain's leading English newspaper). This comes from the reader letters section:

Ugly behaviour!
DEAR Yellow Humvee owner, how come I always see your vehicle, I am sure there is only one, it is so ugly, parked illegally?

I have yet to see it properly parked. It is either parked in a handicap reserved spot (Fuddruckers in Adliya), in a no parking zone (i.e. Al Jazira in Zinj) or like I have just seen it at Bahrain Mall almost trying to go through the doors.

Does it come as a mandatory behaviour when you buy an ugly truck like that?

Normand Lachance

Fair enough; I understand this persons frustration. But there is a bit of a bigger issue here, since a LOT of the people living here seem to have the same attitude as the driver of that Humvee. You see it everyday, people parking illegally and blocking the traffic flow of the people behind them, drivers going down the wrong way in a one-way street and then screaming or honking at anyone who comes out their way, speeding way over the speed limit even in the smallest roads with the risk of hitting someone by accident, overtaking the wrong way etc etc.

Sure, a lot of us have driven that way one time or the other; I personally drove like a total jackass for the first year or two after getting my drivers license. It was my "getting familiar with the roads" stage (well, thats what I like to call it anyway. But since then i've grown up, i've seen the nuisance it causes other people, and i've seen some of the dangers as well. I would like to think a lot of the people who start driving understand this after a while of driving.

But no! Some of the people who do this are either fully grown, fathers, or people who have been obviously behind the drivers seat for years. Why do you have to act like such jackasses? Why do people in this part of the world think they own the road, or that they have a sort of "do whatever the hell you want with no sympathy or consideration for other drivers" pass?

Just today morning on my way to work, I drove down a one way road through a little alley. Now when I almost reached the exit of the alley, someone drove into it and faced me. He was obviously driving the wrong way, and all he had to do was reverse his car the odd 2 meters or so, so that I can leave. But he just waited there for me to reverse all the way back out of the alley so that he can get his way!

After a few seconds, he rolled down his window to which I thought he was going to apologize, but no, he started shouting at me to move because he was late for work.

A few points here;
1- YOU'RE late for work, its your problem, leave earlier next time!
2- YOU'RE going down the wrong way, and I have the right of way, so stop blocking the road!
3- EVEN IF neither of us had the right of way, your backing up 2 meters is a lot easier than me backing up a good 30 meters or so down a tight alley!

And they believe they are god's gift to the roads. Mr White Cressida Plate No 14555, if you're reading this, you aren't!

We are not above the law guys. Unfortunately this behavior doesn't apply just to road laws and manners. You see it all over our community; the woman who walks into the bank to withdraw some cash, and at seeing a queue of 10 or 20 people or so decides to bypass them and go directly to the counter and demand to be served before anyone else? Or how about the customer who walks into a busy restaurant, and at being told there are no tables starts shouting at the waitress demanding to be seated? I've seen it, and I continue to see it.

We need to change this behavior; its hindering a lot of development, and is slowly promoting hate between one another. Now when i'm driving in my car, based on the road environment we have, I consider all other cars enemies that are there to take my spot. All customers in a bank other than me are adversaries and I need to get served before them. And so on and so on...

It would be nice if we try to consider other people before acting on our own selfish needs. The world does not revolve around each and every single one of us!