Bahrain's 'unsolvable' traffic chaos worsening day by day

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Commuters continue to struggle with traffic chaos across the country despite the authorities devising many strategies in search of a solution.

School day timings and bus departures were rescheduled last month by the authorities as part of easing the traffic that erupted after the reopening of schools across the Kingdom.

The move aimed at ensuring the interests of students, parents and commuters by implementing mechanisms to facilitate an easy flow of traffic across the Kingdom's road network.

As per the Education Ministry’s decision, the school day now starts at 7:05 am at all public educational institutions and ends at 12:35pm at primary schools, 1:30 pm at intermediate schools, 1:45 and 2:15 pm at secondary schools and religious institutes.

Regarding technical schools, the school day timings remain unchanged from 7:05 am to 1:45 for morning period students, and from 2:00 pm to 7:30 pm for evening-period students.

"The traffic here is extremely bad, especially at Budaiya Road, which is the link to Janabiya Highway.

It is a big obstacle in reaching the office on time.

I can’t afford to get late to work every day,” a regular commuter, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Daily Tribune.

"The majority of commuters now take inner routes in order to travel on time.

But those routes are also filled with vehicles, which offer no respite.  

"Previously, it only took 20 minutes to get anywhere from the Janabiya Flyover, but now it takes more than 45 minutes.

I used to leave around 6:50 am to drop my son off at school, but now I leave by 6:15 am.

"Construction to widen the road and turn it into a threelane highway is underway, but the work only began after the schools resumed, and the traffic police are not present where there is considerable traffic,” he added.

Another commuter said the authorities have to effectively implement a mechanism including the boosting of the public transport network.

“Every household has two to three cars and the roads remain the same.

The roads can’t be widened every year with ever-increasing cars and private vehicles.

I believe one of the effective solutions remains in investing in the public transport network. 

“I live in Galali and every day I have to go to Isa Town for work. If I depend on Red Buses it will take atleast two hours.

Meanwhile, I can reach there in 20 minutes in my car. This difference has to be bridged by devising new strategies.” 

Polluted air from road transport vehicles contributes significantly to air quality problems through vehicle emissions, which have various harmful impacts on public health.

 According to studies done by many researchers, “Bahrain is choking on traffic fumes and traffic congestion is a bigger threat than heavy industry.

“The studies carried out in Bahrain revealed that most pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide, were found to be heavily concentrated in areas with high traffic congestion, rather than industrial areas.

This shows the extent of the contribution of vehicles to increasing the pollution percentage in developed areas.”

Earlier, the Ministry of Interior confirmed that efforts are being intensified to ensure the smooth flow of traffic across the Kingdom.