What it’s really like to explore Beirut (and especially the new Waterfront District) by bike.
Lebanon – and Beirut in particular – have been making efforts recently to improve the availability of eco-friendly forms of transportation. A campaign this past summer gathered 150 cyclists in Beirut to demonstrate how easy it could be to bike through the city. And, in order to provide tourists with alternatives to bus tours or trekking around in personal rented vehicles, a new tour company – BeBeirut – has started offering walking and running tours. It appears as though Beirut is becoming a friendlier place for those who like to travel using their own two legs.
We recently took a virtual bike tour of the city, thanks to the blogger over at This is Beirut, and got an insider’s scoop on what it’s really like to traverse the new bike path along the developing Waterfront District.
It is apparently very easy to find a bike rental along the new path, and there are a few “Beirut by Bike” stalls along the way where kids’ and adult bikes can be rented by the hour.
But while the This is Beirut blogger was impressed by how easy it was to rent a bike, she was slightly disappointed by the concrete austerity of the new Waterfront District and called it “surprisingly underwhelming.” “By the way my friend had described it,” she said, “I thought it was going to be something truly magnificent, and instead, it looked like a construction site. I was hoping to see some greenery… some trees… SOMETHING to look at… but instead you see rubble, rubble, and more rubble.”
The silver lining, though, was the fact that the municipality chose to include biking and jogging lanes in the new area in the first place. Hopefully the existence of the biking and jogging lanes will encourage people to go down to the Waterfront District by foot instead of by car.
As the This is Beirut blogger says, “That’s a great step in the right direction, don’t you think? The lanes are clearly demarcated with different icons, and there are even guards in place to make sure that no one is using the lanes for any purpose other than what they are meant for.”
Images via: This is Beirut
Read more about eco-friendly transportation in Beirut and Lebanon::
Darreja Campaign Encourages Sustainable Transportation in Lebanon
Fast Forward Asks, “What is the Best Mode for Public Transportation in Lebanon?”
BeBeirut Offers Eco-Friendly Tours in Lebanon’s Capital
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
I am English but I was raised in Beirut and Aitat. When I was a small child I learned to ride a bicycle in Sanayeh Park. When I was a young man in the early 1970s I used to ride regularly in Lebanon (I bought my French bike, an orange Gitane in Rue Patriarchat) on the roads around villages in the Chouf. Although the mountains were hard work I enjoyed it. I did try riding in Beirut in Zarif and found it very difficult. Now I ride in London every day on my way to and from work. I would love to try and ride again in Beirut one day and buy a ka’ak or man’ousheh to eat in the street before I die.
Let them fix the rules on driving to make it more civilized and then do bike routes. At the moment at person crazy enough to ride a bike on Beirut roads as a death wish