Every person who drives at least once a week from North of Lebanon passing through Jounieh and to the Capital Beirut is tired from traffic. The above picture is an example of how messy things could get.
The traffic problem is getting worse and worse every year due to the increase of population and the Lebanese habit of one person per car. It is also getting worse due to the lack of quality in public transportation; Lack of bus stops and lack of proper bus lanes.
This article is a short simple suggestion for a bus lane that could reduce the traffic considerably. The solution is to make the right side of the highway a bus lane at least from Jounieh to Dbayeh and then continuing this bus lane from Dbayeh to Bourj Hamoud on the Searoad. People would park in Jounieh next to Fouad Chehab Stadium and take a bus to Bourj Hamoud.
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| Source: http://nationwideradiojm.com |
The line would be at least 15.5 km as shown in the picture below and the cost would be simply coloring the road to notify drivers. On the Searoad the same can be done but also separators can be added to force drivers to commit to the car lane and avoid the bus lane.
The buses can transport people to Bourj Hamoud and stop at the Bourj Hamoud Dump BJD (used to be) which can be turned into a huge parking space for commuters and taxis. From BJD people would take taxi cars from a newly established BJD taxi station.
The cost of this idea would simply be a logistic cost to reorganize the road and inform the drivers. Additional cost would be adding check points for the police to ensure that drivers are committing to the system and avoiding the bus lane. A car on the bus lane would be fined.
Additional cost could be turning BJD into a large parking spot for busses , taxis and commuters. The BJD location is simply a suggestion, other large spaces are available near Bourj Hammoud and can be turned into parking areas. It is even possible to build a parking of several levels to accommodate thousands of cars. These cars are you usually on the road and contribute to the traffic.
So, if we have buses on a non stop lane, the buses would travel fast , transport more people . The buses would make more profit and more people would use the buses. So for buses it is a win !
There will be less cars on the road so less traffic. For cars it is a win !!
Taxis would transport more people inside Beirut from BJD taxi station. So for taxis it is a win !!
The government will have reduced traffic , thus more productivity and less wasted time . Citizens will make more profit from their jobs , because they will have more time to do their jobs. With more profits government will gain more money from taxes. For government it is a win !!