Woohoo! Lebanon is getting into the traffic lights era!!
You’re probably aware (or not) of the new traffic lights at some areas in Beirut, they’ve been installed even at places where you least expect traffic congestions to occur, that’s what I have noticed at some intersection in Sad El Bouchrieh.
But you can still observe policemen at a lot of intersections giving their instructions to car drivers, that’s a bit weird given that those traffic lights are functioning well. However, the policemen presence is kind of justified (to me at least) since people here are NOT used to stop for a red light and maybe it’s the policemen job right now to force people to obey the traffic lights!
So far I can tell they’re not doing a good job…
I was in a Taxi today going from Jdeideh to Sodeco, passing through Sad El Bouchrieh. The driver arrived to an intersection and the light was red, but he surprisingly crossed it and started cursing at people coming from other directions! Ok, I’m not writing about this to tell that I was shocked, because I actually wasn’t, since that’s quite a normal behavior from a typical lebanese driver. But come on, with a large campaign on TV telling people to STOP on RED, such behavior becomes quite disturbing.
To me, traffic lights are a waste of money. Policemen and their yelling in the streets are way more effective and efficient.
Beirut had traffic lights before the war, and people generally used to obey them because often, there was a policeman standing to enforce the law.