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“You’d be home by now.”
People in Lebanon spend more than 16% of [their] individual productive time in traffic.
Traffic congestion in Lebanon is causing economic loss of 8-10% of GDP.
Vehicles [in Beirut] have a very low occupancy rate, estimated at 1.2 people per vehicle.
This entry was posted in Lebanon, Middle East and tagged Beirut, Bicycle, Bike, Bike to work, Burn fat, Cars, Chain effect, Commuting, Congestion, Jolly Waggoner, Lebanon, Murales, Murals, No Oil, Peddling, Pollution, Public transport, Spray art, Street art, Traffic, Tube, World Bank. Bookmark the permalink.
Fabrizio, this post showed up just a few minutes after I emailed the Lebanese embassy here in Jakarta about the requirements I need to complete to get a visa. I may or may not go to Lebanon in the end, we’ll see. Speaking of the traffic, Beirut sounds like Jakarta, in a way. Here typically office hours start around 8:30 or 9am. But many people leave their houses as early as 5 in the morning so they won’t get stuck in the traffic. They also tend to stay at work until late to avoid rush hour traffic. We have a saying here in Jakarta that the traffic makes people “grow old on the streets”.
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Good luck with the visa, and hopefully they’ll reply to your email! I read something on Wikipedia about Jakarta’s traffic, but that saying is indeed sad. And I’ve no doubts believing it…
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As someone also living in Jakarta – the world’s biggest city without a metro – I had the same thought as Bama above. The terrible traffic here is the main reason why I choose to walk home from work every day, even though it isn’t quite walking distance, being 3.5 kilometers or a brisk 45-minute stroll down buckled pavements (where they exist) while breathing in diesel fumes and dodging speeding motorbikes. It isn’t the most pleasant walk in the world, but I’d much rather be going somewhere on my own two feet than being stuck for an hour or more inside a vehicle.
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Well, that’s at least a good workout for the legs! Imagine, though, how much better it’ll be when, finally, electric cars become mainstream and you won’t be bathed in exhausts anymore!
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I won’t whine about Perth traffic again!
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…which I suppose is mostly made of kangaroos riding crocodiles, right?
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Haha!
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Interesting post. We have both always loved Lebanese food. We tend to choose countries by the food we love. We went to Viet Nam for the same reason and ended up living there for five months and we continue to return. Mostly for the food…. haha.
We have the same kind of traffic in the city of Colombo here in Sri Lanka. I would not want to be riding a bike in that traffic or pollution!!
Peta
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Well, food over in Lebanon is great. And not just the high end, I think I ate half my meals at Barbar, a cheap restaurant that just did kebabs… But easily the best kebabs ever!
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Fortunately, Portland is fairly assertive towards providing bike routes. Unfortunately, you need to enjoy riding a bicycle in the rain 6 months out of the year – and watching out for traffic.
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Only 6 months? That’s better than London, great!
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Input the name of any major city for Beirut and that commute sounds exactly correct for many of us. Hearing of your unfortunate bicycle excursions in London reminds me of an episode of “Top Gear” in which a bicyclist had to attempt crossing the city.
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Hi there! for some weird reason, WordPress deemed your comment to be spam. Sorry about that!
I remember that TG episode, wasn’t Hammond the one on the bike?
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Sorry to hear my comment got sent to spam! Yes, I think it was Hammond on the bike!
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You’re a braver man than I am Gunga Din! Nothing would get me to ride in London, and Beirut sounds positively suicidal. Here in (rainy) Vancouver bikes rule! Bike paths and bike lanes everywhere, and drivers are conscious of bikes and know they have to respect them. It’s a green city.
Alison
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Not for nothing Vancouver is a great place to be! I loved it there…
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This brings back memories of living in LA, and Phoenix, and the one hour (at least) commute each way to work. On a drive that should have been 15 minutes. That was so long ago and since then I’ve lived in places with great transport..Prague, Budapest, or sparsely populated areas like where I am now. Traffic is pure hell. And riding a bike can be risky. Everyone I know who commutes by bike has had some kind of accident, some of them serious.
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That’s a shame – I mean biking accidents – because cycling is so damn fun. But, alas, a bump by a car is often game over. I miss the Budapest and Prague transport systems, especially those lovely trams!
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