After the recent incidents with causing a death of a cyclist on Bahrain roads and some other accident on last weekend’s black Friday the rules and regulations as well the infrastructure of the roads must change.
Drivers who use mobile phones while driving and are distracted from focusing on driving and the traffic surrounding them, need to be heavily fined and even maybe the driving license withdrawn as those people are not capable to drive carefully as well have not really proper knowledge of how dangerous it is using the mobile phones and making the car a deadly weapon.
Some other drivers think the road belongs to them and endanger cyclists by purpose just to scare them by overtaking very tight to the cyclists or honking without any reasons just to frighten and even distract them. The worst ones cut the way to the right of cyclists and put them by purpose in real danger to get injured, hurt or even killed as it happened. For those people the car is like showing muscles being in a safe steel covered place, whereas cyclist are very vulnerable and easily to get hurt or endangered. Respective space needs to be given to everyone on the roads; the roads are for anyone cars, trucks, motorbikes and cyclists as well.
Roads could be easily enhanced for the safety of cyclists to have a dedicated 1.5 to 2.0m painted lane for them on the most right lane of the general roads, not on the highways without traffic lights of course. The right lanes would be dedicated for cars and trucks driving only at maximum speed of 50 km/h or even less as Bahrain is anyway very tiny so driving fast will not save much time, maybe few minutes, but what are few minutes compared with a life of a human or an injury.
Do we not all need to slow down and be more mindful and conscious during this pandemic?
Every road has got, after certain distance, a traffic light, where cars and trucks are waiting for green, so driving faster will not help at all, except of course on the main highways like Seef Highway to Sakhir or the Highway from the Saudi causeway to Sh. Salman Port.
Any other road could be modified and will dramatically enhance the safety of the cyclists all over Bahrain as well as encourage even more people to switch to cycling to decrease the air pollution and become a healthier human.
Bahrain is small; Bahrain is flat, two of the best reasons to cycle, if there is safety on the road for cyclists.
Cycling suppose to be healthy, NOT DEADLY !!!
