1,757 Officers Dealing with Nightmarish Traffic in Beirut
Lebanon”s new cabinet ministers may lock horns on many political issues but they seem to agree on one thing: the need to resolve an increasingly nightmarish traffic situation.
Starting Saturday morning, the number of officers tasked with regulating traffic in Greater Beirut rose from 400 to 1,757 on the occasion of the upcoming holidays.
Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told As Safir that the issue of traffic is affecting all life aspects of the Lebanese. He put the blame on week road networks and chaotic driving.
"The first step in getting ready for the end of year holiday season is dealing with our traffic," Brigadier General Joseph Doueihy, who is in charge of traffic regulations in Beirut, said on Friday.
The issue is at the top of Prime Minister Saad Hariri”s agenda, whose first stint as a statesman is bogged down by citizens” complaints of impossible traffic across the capital and its environs.
Frustrated drivers are late to work, run out of gas in hours-long traffic, or have to be towed out of flooded roads with the early winter rains.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic is expected to only worsen as the New Year nears, with a record number of visitors hitting the streets in the country which expects to host a record two million tourists by the end of 2010, according to tourism ministry figures.
While Lebanon has introduced road safety measures in recent years, such as traffic lights, electricity is rationed and often leaves the streets, and drivers, in the dark.