The daily commute in Beirut massively imbalanced against the use of any public transport methods (or may be the lack of them!). Traffic jam is a real problem over there where the bulk of commuters use their cars for their daily movements. Lebanon is so desperate for alternative and new public transport systems. Without looking at traffic figures, I see the proposal as a combination of many solutions, which are existent somewhere else, tested and proven. Executing one of them rather all of them could render the implemented solution redundant:
1. Park and Ride: building parking outside the city of Beirut, where cars park for the day or longer, and passengers from outside the city take the bus to centre. This ‘Park and Ride’ system exists in tight cities like Oxford in UK. Parking and ride fees are subsidised to reduce the problems of the congestion and parking spaces in the city. Potential locations will be near the main access points to Beirut: Khaldeh, Choueifat, Kfarchima, Hadath, Furn Al Shebak, Sin El Fil, Jdaideh, Hazmiyeh, Dowra and others.
2. Congestion charge: impose an entrance fee on the highly congested areas, similar to the London congestion charge. This ensures only business vehicles (or others) ‘in need’ to access the city will do that during the peak hours, which will encourage the bulk of motorists to use alternative transport method. Obviously, we don’t to do it before other reliable public transport methods are available to the public; else we are just levying a poll tax. Potential areas include the very central parts like Ras Beirut, Hamra, and Downtown forming the ‘strip area’.
3. Light rail transit: this system is present all over the Europeans cities. It’s very reliable for movements of short distances within the city. But it has to be developed in combination with the other alternatives, as it does book valuable space in the city (and more likely to be main traffic arteries). Never mind European systems, bring the Ottoman transit system back! at least the state can claim some of its stolen properties back, if not, we have to look west – the sea.
4. Ferry system: as strange as it may sound, what stops someone in Tyre going to Jbeil by boat? At least, the person can enjoy a lovely ride in the Mediterranean observing the lovely opposite coast. In two days time, I am crossing in my car – by ferry – the English Channel (or La Manche depending on which side of the channel you are!). It will take me less time than to drive from Achrafieh to Hamra (4km) on a solid day. By the way, I will land on the French coast but ultimately I will end up in Belgium…
4. Metro: depending on how much we want to spend money on this – which I think, is worth it in the long term – Beirut is desperate for a metro system. It’s a pity that it wasn’t done when the city was dug up in the 1990s (although preliminary design has been produced). I would think this should have been a priority for the incumbent governments then. Having an underground rich in archaeology is not a good excuse to stop the project. This matter can be actively managed during the works, with proper allowances in the programme. It’s a redevelopment opportunity too, with the space above the new stations can be used for commercial developments or green space which Beirut is desperate for. It’s a shame that Solidere thought of having a granite pavement in Downtown (that I don’t see in Downing street), but forgot to allow for public transport in their area.
5. Regional train network: regional train system is an option, which could be embedded in the extended metro network mentioned above. Lines connecting Jounieh, Hazmiyeh and Dammour to Beirut’s centre are not hard to imagine (depending on demand forecast – without forgetting the airport). These locations will act as hubs for commuting for nearby residents, or travellers coming from the south and north. The network can be extended to be a national one, similar to the one that existed before the war (and before the ‘cause fighters’ stole its assets during the civil war).
6. New roads: yes roads, don’t be surprised. We need to have properly designed safe roads before scrapping the idea of packed roads! Our roads are unequipped, unmarked, and substandard in every element constituting it. Building more roads are required, but NOT only roads because they will attract more traffic and end up being big car parking. The theory is similar to the ‘supply and demand’ of the free market. When the roads are congested, the overspill will try other ‘reliable’ transport method, and vice versa. All things equal, traffic will be evenly distributed on different methods.
7. Improved bus network: a new efficient bus network is needed. This relates to the option of better roads mentioned above, as more space on the roads will be required. We will have to build dedicated bus lanes (when possible). With the existing GPS and real-time technologies, the means are there to make the network run smoothly, efficiently, and informative to users.
8. Drainage: you might be laughing with this, but yes a proper drainage system is required in Beirut to reduce tsunamis, floods, accidents and congestion during wet weather. Didn’t we already spend our money in rebuilding the city?
9. Electricity: yes, we need ELECTRICITY. We are not going to power all this on coal, are we?
Ok, if you still reading by now, then you are probably frustrated that the solution is not a quick fix, and you realised at the same time that we have NONE of the above, and that our governments haven’t done anything for the past 21 years after the war. Good feeling, this is good progress.
The Lebanese government should be doing something about this problem, it’s really unbearable. I don’t see any action or interest in solving it. May be financing and implementing the above ideas are something the government could spend their time fighting over, after the ‘electricity plan’.
Acknowledging that all this might be too much for the state bureaucracy to achieve, the private sector will be there to innovate, design, plan and implement in return of a concession to operate this projects (on condition all happens via a transparent fair competitive process away from politics i.e. not like Solidere!). Reducing delays, pollution, and bringing towns closer to each other cause increases in public and business mobility, and prosperity making it easier for the main city to expands outwards, when the centre becomes expensive and dense.
Bringing tourists to ski, swim and club in one day doesn’t make us a modern country. I really can’t imagine in the third millennium a city of 2 million population with no [efficient] public transport systems. Giving the commuter the choice is a must. We should be shouting louder about this.
PS: I am such a sad person, that I didn’t only live near the below spaghetti road junction, but I worked on it as well.
U’re really good
…hala, thanks for the inspiration! That’s my stab at it
Here’s my solution. Make car companies refuse to sell cars to households that already have 2 cars. There should be a limit on that. Why is it that, only in Lebanon, there is a ridiculous mentality of “for every person, one car”, instead of for “every household, one car”. I live in a building of 6 floors, and yet there are 17 cars for the building. Do you realize? 17!!!! We’ve got to fix that mentality first, and since it’s an almost impossible task with Lebanese being that LOVE having the latest cars and showing them off, then it’s up to car sellers to put a limit on that per household.
I 100% agree with you, but the problem is that people depend on the car with no other alternatives available. We should provide the people with other methods of transport, and a descent network before asking them to scrap their cars. I know it’s not easy, but let’s…hope!
I agree about shouting louder for this. but this seems very far fetched, how can you group people together to collaborate and actually get their voices heard about such a subject?
Hi Liliane, yes we should, and as I said in my post and below reply to Fadi, it’s not a quick fix! This a long term vision which will take decades to achieve!! But we should start planning now. Our Beirut is simply not designed to take this number of cars. Plus we should have other decent alternatives to move around, other than the car.
I admire your effort, but I think some of the stuff you mentioned in this post would be rather unproductive.
The problem with drawing inspiration from how other countries have gone about to solve their problems is that we often overlook the differences. The most common model of a city consists of the hub (the center and its surroundings if you will), the suburbs, and then the surrounding countryside. In this model, it makes sense for instance to impose a toll for entry into the city.
In Beirut’s case for instance, this isn’t likely to work, since Beirut’s suburb and the suburb of smaller neighboring towns somehow melt together. You have to go a long way from Beirut to actually get to the countryside. The result ? Traffic jams on the highway to enter Beirut often reach Byblos (and farther on holidays). The fact that our cities and towns are so close together has somehow prevented the creation of suburbs in the classical sense.
Tripoli on the other hand follows the traditional city model more than Beirut. You can clearly see the separation of hub, suburb, and countryside in Tripoli. This is where a “park and ride” and “congestion charge” solution could actually be effective.
The rest of the post is basically a list of commonly available public transport methods. What this post lacks to provide (forgive me for being misled by the term “plan”) is a serious attempt at understanding the Beirut traffic problem and tackling its different facets. A metro network for example takes about 10 years of planning and building. In a country where planning is certainly not our strong suit, I’m not sure I’d want to wait that long before the traffic problem gets resolved. “New Roads” with bus lanes etc sound great. Now tell me: Where ? Beirut doesn’t just have traffic congestion, it has construction congestion, and unless the plan includes tearing down a few buildings here and there to make room, we’re going to have a problem.
The problem in Beirut is a lot more intricate than a lot of people seem to understand, and it goes into details that are not always related to the roads or the transport methods themselves. I might have been a bit harsh in this comment, and I apologize in advance if I upset anyone, I mean no disrespect. All I want to say is, let’s get real, and get real creative. Real problem solving doesn’t look like it came out of a Wikipedia page.
Cheers !
Thanks Fadi for your effort in commenting as well. No, you don’t upset me at all. The point of this ‘plan’ to trigger a debate of what Beirut needs. I listed different ‘commonly available’ methods, to show that it has been done before, doesn’t matter whether is this is creative or not. Always news ideas come out from brainstorming in the the due process.
As I said in my post, it’s not quick fix. This a very high level ‘plan’ or ideas. It’s no way near design or even feasibility study. How can you do that without looking at traffic numbers. These could be done over the next 20-25 years, with costs of tens of $ billions, but we need to start planning now. I will try to respond to the points you raised. But I can’t speed up the process for you, sorry. This will cost time & money.
I think Beirut is inherently not designed to take the number of cars that drive there on a daily basis. I believe a complete revamp is required. How do you find space? These projects have to acquire private land or buildings and demolish them, to free space for new developments or bus lanes or otherwise. There is no doubt about that. I don’t want to build a new railway station in Verdun up in the air! That’s how they do it in packed cities which are thousands years old. And it’s not a shame to look at others and learn from them.
The items listed are not enough or ‘productive’ on their own, rather they complement each other depending on the location. Many cities of the world have their suburbs almost ‘melted’ with the centre, but you have to choose to a boundary for a congestion charge. I proposed in my post for this area to be Ras Beirut & Downtown, whether this is right or not, but I didn’t say to cover all Beirut. And it’s not a solution on its own.
Why they complement each other? Because when you divert some of the demand to other methods, let’s say metro & better bus network, you can close some roads to allow trams in them. Obviously subject to capacity demand, and not for the sake of it. All these things can be detailed in the feasibility studies or the master plan, and detailed design at a later stage.
You are thinking of ‘roads’ only as a solution when you think of traffic. Why ALL people have to drive from Byblos to Beirut? I don’t see how ‘Park & Ride’ or others don’t work for Beirut when many ppl from ‘Greater Beirut’ commute to the city on a daily basis to work or study…they come down from the mountains.
We stop assuming that we have to get in the car to get were we need to be. This is the point of my post, or futuristic vision if you don’t like it as ‘plan’. These solutions have been tried and tested, we can adopt them as they are or in a revised version, but what the detail design/study would do. And we always think we are different as in…we need an alien solution for us.
I welcome your comments again, but you called for being innovative, but you have not listed what the solution (or a solution) could be, or any new idea? And really I have no idea what do you mean by ‘Wikipedia’ solutions.
Let’s start off with trying to agree that the problem is not within Beirut itself, but a problem with Lebanon as a whole. When we talk about regional trains, that is no longer within the Beirut area, and so the solution has to tackle two issues: The inner-city traffic in Beirut, and the traffic in the major arteries of the country, some of which lead to Beirut.
The major challenge in reducing traffic is to provide people with a viable alternative, and by that I don’t mean big headlines like “buses” and “metro lines”. In order for people to actually adopt these means of transportation, you need to have a transition plan, where you start with the current situation, and you end up with a high adoption rate for public transportation. Providing bus lines doesn’t mean people will automatically use them, case in point, look at the current buses we have. You’ll tell me “people don’t use them because they’re dirty”, and while that might be a factor, it’s not even close to the big picture. These buses used to be clean when they were new, not many more people used them then either.
Public transportation needs to be convenient:
They need to be clean, but they also need to be reliable: In order for me to take the bus, I need a guarantee that it will reach my destination on time, because otherwise I might be late for work.
They also need to be practical: The bus lines need to be designed in such a way as to minimize the number of bus changes most people need to do to get to their final destination, and the amount of walking they need to do to get to the nearest station from their home (not all stations have their own parking lots, in fact only a few should). To design these bus lines, you need to know where people want to go, and which routes the buses should take. Might be easy when you think about the major hubs the first couple bus lines need to go through, but figuring out the details of the entire route, along with adding a few more lines is a lot more challenging, and for this we need some serious data which is mostly still unavailable.
Public transport needs to be safe: If I’m going out and planning to come home late, I need to feel safe about the idea of taking the bus at night. Otherwise, I just might take the car during the day to make sure I get home safely later on.
Public transport needs to be hip: It’s sad I know, but the Lebanese have a huge infatuation with their social status (look at our choice of cars). Taking the bus is a major downgrade from that cool 80′s BMW with the ‘jagal’ bumper sticker.
If we want a new plan for public transportation in Lebanon, how about we start with the prerequisites ?
Off the top of my head, we need:
-Data: Number of people going from point A to point B, as a function of time of day, day of week, time of year. Having this data will help shape a starting timetable, routes, and stops for public transportation when it is ready. The timetable can be refined by iterations, the routes and stops however are not so easy to change (physical cost of changing the road to include a bus stop, tram stop, metro entry.. in addition to the confusion caused by changing a line’s route to the users).
- Road planning: A study of which roads can be made larger to accommodate for public transport, which lands can be purchased by the government to widen these roads, and at what cost. Such a study should go hand in hand with the traffic data.
- Zoning and city planning: nothing messes up a well made traffic plan like a mall getting built in the middle of a residential area where traffic used to be minimal. That’s happened quite a few times, and it will keep happening unless something is done about it. Why is this important ? Well unless there is a practical and reliable way to go to and from this new mall, people are simply going to take their cars, which will cause a big traffic headache.
Then you need to think about both the short-term and the long term: What can be implemented now, and what needs further planning ? At ever step along the way, adoption has to be measured, and steps have to be taken to improve it. There’s no use upgrading a public transport (and spending billions on it) if nobody is convinced they should use it.
You also have to worry about people’s attitude: Why should they use public transportation, but more importantly, how should they behave while using it ? Women shouldn’t feel uncomfortable because the men are behaving like horny bastards while on the bus (they do that enough as it is on the street), ad campaigns should be designed specifically for that, to put people at ease about their own safety and privacy.
You need to identify your stakeholders and your allies, while soothing your opposition’s concerns: There’s a lot of money to be made selling cars and fuel. There are 5 gas stations within a 5-minute ride from my apartment in Beirut. That should tell you how much money can be made at a gas station. Promoting public transportation is obviously going to upset some people. On the other hand, the public transport issue has natural allies, which should be rallied for support: All NGOs working for road safety should be on board. “Don’t drink and drive, take the bus”. Eco-NGOs and organizations working with the pollution issue should also be rallied. There should be a massive effort to not only build a high-quality public transportation network, but also to convince people they are better off using it (not only financially).
This is just off the top of my head. It’s great that you want to start the debate about public transport, but unfortunately all you’ve done is echo what people have been saying for a long while now and haven’t brought anything new to the table. I’m not claiming I have the solution, that would be wildly arrogant, not to mention ignorant. What I’m saying is: If you want to kick start the debate, try to be inspiring instead. Sit down, and think about what really needs to be done, every step of the way.
I don’t think many will have read so far down this comment (it’s a long one, I admit), but for those of you who stuck around.. Cheers !
I am afraid you lost me now, and not sure what your issue is! Lol no offence, but as said my post is high-level proposing ‘efficient’ bus network (for example), and you are trying to explain how we can make it really efficient, which is good, but that wasn’t the original issue. The way I see it, is you agree with me that we need what I stated!
When you have nice, extensive and punctual system, people WILL use it including me. I will dump my car for daily use. I am not sure when was the last time you used a bus, they are packed. All of them including vans and the big ones!
Accusing me of not having traffic data or prerequisites probably shows that you are not familiar with the process. I am NOT going to have this data here, and I am NOT going to design new transport for Lebanon on this political blog in couple of hours.
this is done by consultants and engineers who will do the feasibility studies and detailed design afterwards. It needs a lot of recourses to have traffic data including surveys, or camera etc.
Hopefully we will get to a point where there a political decision to revamp our transport systems, and see consultants hired for this project. We will take it from there.
Thanks.
Here’s my issue: I don’t get the point of this post. It’s a summary of ideas that have been echoed over and over through blogs and other media. If you want to kick start the conversation, bring something new to the table. Is that too much to ask ?
No, not too much to ask, but too much to write. You could have said from the start in 1 sentence, without the need for 5 non-relevant pages (like the post). I was expressing my opinion on each of the methods and why we need, that’s it. Initially, you didn’t agree with the ideas, and now you negate your objection by implying that they are already there, on the table. At least, I knew now there is an unknown ‘table’ somewhere
. Thank for the feedback.
Hello Fadi, I mostly agree with your way of seeing things. What we need are concrete plans.
I’m afraid that building a metro would take more than 10 years, and considering the instability and lack of budget, it would risk never to be ended.
A group of AUB students (me comprised) has launched a carpooling website, that will open for every university separately. It is : http://www.autopooling.com/
It was first available to AUB students, and more than 150 trips have been registered in one month.
You can read more about it here: http://bluemeetsgreen.wordpress.com/
Unfortunately the concept of sustainable transport does not exist in Lebanon and the irony is that the decision makers talk about sustainability just to tick the box but they are not interested in implementing it, or more accurately enforcing it!
You will be surprised to know that in Beirut, the Order of Engineers facilitates planning permits if the owner of any proposed development provides more underground car parks! They encourage this instead of sustainable transport.
The problem in Lebanon is that planning is done on a plot by plot basis rather than on an overall masterplan. Examine Beirut Central District for example with all the current congestion during peak hours. If you have a closer look you will notice that barely one-third of this area is built up and you notice that there are loads of ongoing construction projects taking place right now from luxurious hotels to super-deluxe residential buildings. I wonder if anyone addressed the issue of how will you get from and to such multi-millions developments if congestion levels will worsen and your peak hour will spread even more! The irony is do they think that they will attract foreign investments and international wealth to an area of severe congestion lacking sustainable transport?! Well only time can tell!
Building roads and underground car parks do not provide solution and will move the problem from one hot spot to another down the road. Although a Metro or Light rRail Transit (LRT) sound visually attractive options, they will not be feasible in Lebanon for various reasons. A private Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with enforced dedicated bus lanes may be a more feasible option to pursue.
All of these related to transport strategy and we have not touched on how we can change the mentality of the Lebanese drivers when it comes to lane discipline for example.
I like your comment on drainage and I think that you should dedicate another article for this. Putting design quality, maintenance, and capacity of the drainage systems aside, one wonders if the decision makers in Lebanon ever heard of the concept of attenuation or sustainable urban drainage system!
Thanks for your contribution. You have a valid point in calling it ‘sustainable’ transport, which is more the European thinking. We only think of how you can get your Mercedes on the tarmac…you put it greatly when you said about the multi-million development, with no proper access to them! I just wonder though why you think a bus system is preferable on transit? You still take the same space on the surface, but cheaper to built?
This post is nice, it’s raising the voice on an huge problem but the proposed solutions are very well known and maybe many of them will not suit Lebanon. The problem is not in the lack of solutions, we have in Lebanon experts and specialists in urban planning and no one hires them or listens to them because urban planning is a science that is not applied or known in practice inside Lebanon.
Those specialist are capable of adapting known solutions to our geographical, urban and social situation, and they are capable too of creating new solutions tailored and made specifically to answer our problems, we can have an abundance of old and new ideas to solve the situation, this isn’t the problem. The problem and the main reason behind the traffic problem is not the lack of technical solutions, it’s a managerial and organizational problem on the decision making level, it’s the lack of the good governance that takes decisions and works to tackle the problems that we are facing, all those who are in power today in Lebanon are working to tackle each other instead of managing this country, that’s where we need the change, in the political club of warlords and thugs ruling Lebanon according to their personal interests.
Another part of the problem is the chaos culture and the nonchalant attitude that the Lebanese have towards everything, zabbeta btezbat, and corruption is a pathogenic aspect of the public administration, the regulations for roads, buildings and infrastructure in general were more advanced during the ottoman days (You can verify this with Lebanese architects and civil engineers) than the ones we have now and what we have isn’t applied, pay half a million L.L and u’ll get a permit to build in the middle of the road.
That’s what has transformed Beirut into a giant slum, and the traffic problem has shifted too to the post war built suburbs surrounding Beirut, the same reasons, the same chaos and the same lack of responsibility, vision, organization and planning. And the same lack for a political authority capable of managing all the vital aspects in this country not only infrastructure and urban planning, change that and solutions for traffic and all urban planning problems will flow automatically.
You are right Rany, the solution exists out there, but I am just writing a ‘political’ post to demand the implementation of a solution. Obviously, I am not inventing new things or being Edison!
You described it well. The problem is the political will & management, corruption & funding. Don’t forget the money, we need serious funding to be able to do a revamp of Lebanon’s transport system. The issue was that in the past that a lot focus went to…roads only.
This might kick start the conversation in a new way ….what can we gain from http://spatiallyjustenvironmentsbeirut.blogspot.com/2011/10/get-me-out-of-this-traffic-jam.html
Thanks for your comment, and I like your post. Actually, nice blog overall. You seem to focus on an improved bus service which makes sense interms of time & cost to achieve them. I do have some questions, but I am going to ask there
Hello ! The article is interesting, even though I don’t agree with everything. But we definately need some changes !
Here follows a small initiative that could lead to something bigger:
A group of AUB students (me comprised) has launched a carpooling website, that will open for every university separately. It is : http://www.autopooling.com/
It was first available to AUB students, and more than 150 trips have been registered in one month.
You can read more about it here: http://bluemeetsgreen.wordpress.com/
What do you think of it ?
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