Disaster scenario in the making!

AT last, a voice of reason. Hats off to the Manama Municipal Council for objecting to the go ahead for the North Shore development until a workable traffic plan is in place. It is a pity that the Roads Directorate had not done the same, sooner. It is not possible to continue the breakneck pace of urban development without the necessary infrastructure being available to support it, in particular roads. Infrastructure development should precede these projects, not trail them and forever be trying to catch up.
Over the last few weeks there have been several letters to the GDN regarding the ever-growing congestion on Bahrain's roads, in particular on the King Faisal Highway, but little response has been forthcoming from the planning authorities.
Any commuter can confirm the obvious - Manama desperately needs a proper ring road; that is a road free from traffic lights and roundabouts that enables traffic to keep moving freely. Historically, no sooner does a half-decent road appear than it starts to sprout traffic lights. The King Faisal Highway is a case in point. The Seef and Pearl flyovers are marvellous but all they have achieved is passing the inevitable traffic queues further into town. Between the Pearl flyover and the new Muharraq Bridge there are four sets of traffic lights. This is too many, particularly for a road where more than 70 per cent of the traffic is 'through' traffic.
The Regency lights are a real bottleneck during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The other day, during my daily grind to work, it took the usual 12 minutes plus to cross the Pearl flyover only to be stopped at the Regency lights to allow three cars out. When traffic is backed up, the two km length of the three-lane flyover can hold approximately 750 cars. Add to this another 100 or so cars trying to fight their way in from the Pearl roundabout slip road and around another 150 plus cars heading west and we have over 1000 vehicles being held up by just three, a ratio of around 350:1! In the afternoon the tailback reaches the Seef flyover more than doubling this number. Whilst this may be exceptional it does highlight the severe imbalance of the traffic, which even at the best of times only approaches a ratio of around 50:1.
Traffic exiting the Suq at Regency already has a slip road to the east. Westbound traffic could easily exit via the Pearl roundabout; a not very efficient but now underused resource. With re-timing the lights on this route and clamping down on the all pervasive double parkers (a mobile crusher unit would work wonders) this could be a perfectly viable route allowing the regency lights to be closed completely. Although this would push the queue onto the Sheraton lights it would at least allow the Pearl roundabout slip road to work more efficiently instead of the present free-for-all and reduce the time wasted waiting at traffic lights, thus improving journey times.
The Crown Plaza lights present a similar imbalance and are also too close to the Al Fateh Highway lights. At peak periods they are a potential source of gridlock. Within two km there are four major junctions, frequently with standing traffic and not a yellow box in sight (not that that would work since most drivers have 'photo-copier' eyesight - they cannot see yellow)!
As if this was not bad enough we are told that the Financial Harbour is on target for opening in April. The BFH traffic study has predicted a peak morning traffic flow of 5,900 vehicles per hour. Whilst these will not necessarily be 'new' vehicles (some commuters will just be changing office location) it will act to focus this traffic at one or two junctions on the King Faisal Highway. Not a pretty sight. And this does not take into account the potential extra traffic generated by the World Trade Centre when that opens.
The scene appears to be set for total disaster and although the city planners are talking of new flyovers and underpasses, this is just talk. Such projects take years to plan and implement. The crisis is IMMINENT. Doing nothing is not an option and it may already be too late! R D Hogg