Of course, much has changed for the better in this historic market. But while it is easy to put down cobblestones and say that the suq should become an automobile-free space, in Bahrain’s extreme weather, how many of us will brave the elements and park on the other side of the Bab and walk down to the spice or textile market past Adhari Hotel?
By the time we reach the shop after the sweaty walk in the sun, we have lost interest in buying anything. Little wonder that the shops in the suq are losing profitability.
It was when I was walking across the Little India area and down the temple lane that I saw a man chug past on a scooter fitted with a broad pillion seat on which his teenage daughter was sitting. Sure their pace was just a tad over cycling speed but it made me think – what if we could run a buggy service for the suq streets like they do in airports? Park the buggies at strategic and well-marked points across the suq and shoppers will certainly hop on for the ride.
Micromobility is truly the cutting edge of public transport and we cannot afford to ignore it. In London’s West End, people whiz by on motorised e-scooters which they pay for by tapping their credit card at the parking bay. Your account keeps ticking till you tap out of the system. It’s the same with countries like the Netherlands which have traditionally encouraged cycling across city spaces and now the French effort to create multiple 15-minute cities – residential urban complexes where most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes.
In the Bahrain model, we simply have to re-think the micromobility model to pitch it on a more intense level to factor in our weather. We can walk a block or so only for the two or three months of pleasant autumnal weather. For the rest of the year, this is pretty uncomfortable and municipal officials should work with transportation authorities to re-model transportation and make it less car-centric. Come the weekends, we gather like lemmings in the choked streets of Juffair, Block 338, Seef, Riffa ... and pretty much everywhere else. The resulting traffic jams mean that while the world spends its weekends in leisure activities and retail therapy, most of Bahrain spends it sitting out traffic jams and not spending their money in our malls and restaurants.
Take Seef – now, that’s a great 15-minute city waiting to develop. But we need to link the different malls and most popular cafes with micro transport options. If I want to take an e-scooter from City Centre to any destination near the Ritz, and there were docked e-scooters in both ends of my journey, think of the subsequent ease of travel without cars choking the roads.
All this needs a futuristic plan.
Flyovers, underpasses and metros are big schemes and much-needed, I agree. We have already achieved considerable acceptance of public transportation options, thanks to the efficient, clean and WiFi-enabled red buses. Micro-transportation buggies, e-bikes, e-scooters – are sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives which are essential, especially given Bahrain’s ambitious plans to reduce its carbon emissions.
I hope future-friendly road transport planners in Bahrain will draw micro-transport lanes into their blueprints and save us all the traffic jams of the future!
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