Tag Archives | cars

Beirut is Choking on its Traffic And It Wont Get Better!

By Rami on February 28, 2018 in Government, Social

Traffic around Beirut is seriously unbearable these days. I know the increasing number of cars keep making it worse every year but it is just frustrating now with the road works at major highways.

With the construction of the L bridges in Jal El Dib now, 2 lanes from each side of the highway have been closed and I can imagine how awful it is for people using that route everyday. On the other hand, the southern entrance is also no better, road works are being conducted on the airport highway and 2 lanes have also been closed on its eastern side.

What’s puzzling though is that when such works are performed on vital roads, the government does not bother to oblige the contractor to work day and night shifts to finish whatever they’re doing in the least number of days. I’ve never someone working after 5 or 6 PM on the airport road for example and no one seems to care…

Much needed maintenance is currently also being done for Salim Salam tunnel by the way, but fortunately only during the night. However, I lately heard that at some point it will be totally closed day and night for 7 whole months in order to complete the whole work! I already get stuck for 25 minutes sometimes to cross the distance from Beirut Sports City to Salim Salam, and I imagine it will be hell if the news turned to be true!

And of course it doesn’t just stop at Beirut main entrances, some inside roads are closed in fear of terrorist attacks, but I don’t believe this is justified anymore especially that the authorities claim the situation is very well “controlled” nowadays. The blocks around ESCWA in downtown, General Security in Mathaf, as well as Adlieh all don’t make sense anymore. The one at ESCWA isn’t even logical since it gets lifted by 5 or 6PM everyday because you know, terrorists don’t work overtime.

What’s funny though is that blocks around Nejmeh Square have all been lifted as if the parliament is suddenly no longer a target, so we should probably wait until other places get also suddenly lifted from target lists!

Now some may suggest there must be a solution by at minimum improving the public transport system, but in a country that scores so low on corruption perception index thanks to highly inefficient officials, you better instead look for fun things to do when stuck in you car during the days to come!

Valet Parking Fee Officially Set at 5,000L.L.

By Rami on August 4, 2017 in Law

If there’s one thing that unites the Lebanese people then it must be their hate for the Valet Parking workers. They’re overpriced, always rude, and they have the capability to doom a whole areas just like what they did in Gemmeyze and Mar Mkhayel! I seriously pity the people living in that surrounding as I personally do my best to avoid going there at night…

And unfortunately, just as in the case with illegal internet and cable TV providers, the government couldn’t keep the valet parking thugs from hijacking public spaces so it simply resorted to “regulating” their activities. For years now they have been imposing ridiculous prices up to 10,000L.L and sometimes more at lush venues, but a recent joint memo by the ministry of interior and the ministry of tourism fixed their service fee at 5,000L.L. So let’s hope it gets applied!

I’m not sure though if hotels are also subject to this memo.

City Centre Parking Now Has Car Plate Scanners To Help You Find Your Car

By Rami on July 14, 2017 in Automotive

I was at City Centre Hazmieh the other day when I noticed they now have car plate scanners in their parking to help you find your car if you ever forgot where you parked.

Several machines located at the mall entrances will help you find your car once you provide your car plate number. I tried the system out of curiosity and the machine took around 10 seconds to return images of several cars, I then had to flip through a couple of images before I found my car along with its exact spot.

Needless to say, the machine will of course fail to find anything if people of the Lebanese 7arbou2 kind remove their car plates or erase the numbers to evade speed radars, but these are douchebags anyway and definitely deserve to get lost in a parking lot.

I’m Absolutely Loving Karrenn.com

By Rami on April 29, 2017 in Reviews

Searching for a new car and settling on the right one for you is never an easy task in Lebanon because auto ads always lack transparency. Most of the time, the advertised prices you see on billboards correspond to the base models and are exclusive of VAT and registration fees, moreover the displayed cars turned to be the fully loaded edition which eventually costs more money.

That’s where comes the role of Karrenn.com, a website that promises to cut through the advertising lingo and provide simple facts and figures about the newly released models. It has been around for several months now but I personally didn’t really notice it until I saw the new 0% billboards for the 2017 Nissan X-Trail and wanted to have more information about it, and then saw their recent article about the same ad. Their approach is quite straight forward, they provide a comparison between the advertised price and the final one including VAT and registration, along with complete specs of the car you will be paying for. Moreover, they list any other available editions with their corresponding final prices and provide you with their recommendation to whether buy or not. For example, in the case of the 2017 X-Trail, it would be a good decision to buy one with the offer RYMCO is currently running.

I also went over other articles they posted and noticed you can easily make a preliminary decision about the right car for you with the figures they list. So in case you are searching to buy a new car, I highly recommend check Karrenn.com and spare yourself phone calls and visits to the dealerships in town.

Driving In and Out of Beirut – Near Death Experiences Everyday

By Rami on April 25, 2017 in Cars, Traffic, What the fuck!

This video is ~7 minutes of pure horror to anybody into traffic management. A Lebanese YouTuber (Nash Suleiman) recorded his journey in and out of Beirut (from and to Choueifat as it shows) and documented the violations people and himself do everyday.

Just like everyone, I became accustomed to the chaotic driving in this country. But this video lets you observe things from a different perspective, and at one point as you watch you can’t but wonder how on earth do we reach our destination in one piece every time we get into a car… and this by the way made me think that this is one of the main reasons I am currently looking to move into an apartment within Beirut. I basically go daily through almost the same routes that show in the video and I am hating it by the day due to the recklessness of other drivers and the violations that I sometimes feel forced to make. I am sure those who commute to Beirut from other areas like the mountains or Jounieh and the areas beyond can also relate.

This video also incidentally proves that relying on the new traffic law alone to reduce road accidents is utter bullshit. As Nash mentioned at the end, safer roads is a responsibility that each and everyone of us has to bear.

Beirut Just Got Its First Bike Lane

By Rami on April 23, 2017 in Beirut, Traffic

In a public post on Facebook, Jawad Sbeity the owner of Beirut by Bike shared some photos from Waygand street showing the setup of the first bike lane in Beirut.

It wasn’t clear where exactly does the lane start and where does it end, nor the streets that will cover or when will it be finalized, nevertheless it’s definitely some good to those who take their bikes around the downtown.

However, the only and most important concern remains whether driver will acknowledge this bike lane or not. Waygand street gets quite busy during the day with some shops there have valet parking service and most of the time you find cars parked on the right lane which narrows the road… so whether you like it or not drivers will have no option but to drive over that bike lane especially during rush hour. Still, neither Sbeity nor the municipality can be blamed for that, but rather the lack of urban planning that should have provisioned wider streets around Beirut.

Anyway, let’s see how long will this lane live on!

Cool 350Z Drift Video at Beirut Harbour

By Rami on May 29, 2016 in Automotive, Sports

xavier massaad beirut harbour drift

I just saw this video of Xavier Massaad drifting a Nissan 350Z at Beirut Harbour and thought it’s worth sharing.

I’m not really sure when was it video shot, but Xaview definitely pulled some cool moves and aside from the ones made by Abdo Feghaly we rarely get any good drifting videos here.

That Was a Close Call!

By Rami on December 27, 2014 in Lebanon

This woman from Saida must be very lucky! She almost got killed because of these two crashing cars.

The Internal Security Forces rewarding seat-belt users

By Rami on December 24, 2014 in Lebanon

noel isf

The minute I saw this photos on twitter I knew it was some kind of a media stunt by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces. And the first thing that came to my mind was that they should have been working to ease the traffic congestion over the past few days instead of taking photos with Santa. But now that I saw the video I think it was a nice move.

In a country where people honk at you at a red light, I personally would have loved to get rewarded by the ISF for wearing the seatbelt!

Lebanese drivers logic: What i decided to do about it!

By on December 17, 2014 in What the fuck!

A woman with a child on her bicycle navigates through Beijing traffic.

I’ll start off with a simple logical description of the issue on hand: On a single-lane road, two cars can pass faster when they are moving one after another. But when next to each other, one car has to slow down in order to let the other pass. In other words, lamma ykoun 3adad l siyarat yalle meshyin 7ad ba3d aktar mn 3adad l lanes, hol l siyarat bya3mlo 3aj2a la2an ma bise3o yo2ta3o 7ad ba3d w bisiro majbourin ykhaffefo ta ymar2o ba3d.
This effect, scaled up, creates irrelevant, unneeded, ugly traffic.

Supposing that what I am talking about can be grasped by small minded Lebanese drivers (which I doubt) who think they are always in a state of rush that allows them to just create lanes of their own, driving the wrong way or even where there is no ‘way’, I have come to a decision that I would like to share.

Paint balls!

Since I am daily witnessing the phenomena of “I am in a rush, I drive my car where I please” and “matra7 ma bshouf zefet bemshe. w aslan ma droure ykoun fi zefet” I have decided to purchase a stock of paint balls and a paint ball gun. Why? you may ask. I shall salute each driver driving the wrong way with a colorful paint ball to cheer up his day w ta fesh khel2e as well. So in case you come across some news report in the near future speaking of a trend of colorful cars on the Lebanese roads, you can safely assume that I had some part in setting that trend.

And oh, since its Christmas time, I will start with a stock of green and red paint balls 🙂

image via mumatlarge.blogspot.com

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