This is how short-sighted we are in Lebanon, thinking about least worse solutions rather than better ones.

Renewable energies and public transportation are what we need on the long-term in Lebanon, not 0.1% less polluting gas.

Guess again.

It’s O&C’s valet parking staff on standby for upcoming cars. So much for clearing the rumors about them spying for local parties. [Article] [YouTube]

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter to me as I am doing my best not to give out my car to any valet guy anymore. No harm in a walking a bit.

The Red Bull Car Park Drift Middle East Finals will take place tonight at the Forum de Beyrouth and will feature 14 drivers from 10 countries.

Last year’s event was average and I sense we will still have the same safety concerns this year. The track is unsafe, the barriers can’t hold off a bike and the audience is all over the place and almost blocking the highway.

To learn more about this event, check [Here]

Under the patronage of the minister of public work, and in the presence of Miss Lebanon 2011 Yara El Khoury, Antelias municipality officials launched their first annual outdoor activities for children including:

1- 3k run on a busy highway from Jal el Dib bridge till Antelias bridge. Competitors are allowed to jump between cars to gain positions and can run against the traffic as well.

2- Crossing under the Antelias bridge competition organized for the first time in Lebanon. LBCI will be covering the event to recruit talented competitors for future “Cheyef 7alak” ads.

3- Dirt Biking from Admideast until Saniour Restaurant. Road has been demolished and destroyed for weeks now, preparing for the competition. Restaurants and pubs open there and enduring huge losses were encouraged to serve free food and arguile to the viewers and participants.

The opening event was a 10k bicycle race for children under 12 from Antelias municipality back and forth passing by the Antelias bridge (See Picture of winner above).

This road leads to Starco in Beirut after you go left. It’s a small passage near the Old Catholic Church and Bank Audi Headquarters. Both lights stayed red for around 2 minutes.

Here’s a cool old picture of the church. [Link]

I was reading about LA authorities planning to close Interstate 405 for 53 hours for some maintenance work and the campaign they’ve done to keep LA citizens from using their cars to avoid what they called “Carmageddon”. [Link]

I am sure the Lebanese authorities in charge of our roads are laughing at those Americans. Weeks of campaigns to prevent people from getting stuck in traffic and alarming them to stay home just because of some works on the highway??

Where’s the element of surprise if we tell people about upcoming road works?

Where’s the fun if we don’t let people get stuck in traffic unexpectedly for hours?

PS: Heading towards the weekly Dora-Casino du Liban carmageddon in 2 hours time if anyone likes to join me.

It’s obvious now that the Jounieh/Dora highways traffic problem is not going to be solves specially if they’re building bridge onramps right in the middle of the highway so how about the government builds a train track? Imagine how much traffic that would solve. I hate it how the government spends all their time fighting with each other instead of solving our current day to day problems. I’m pissed. For fucks sake we don’t even have 24 hour electricity yet!

Check out this article on Daily Star which talks about a guy called Elias Maalouf who wants to bring trains back to Lebanon. That’s a guy I respect. It’s probably a hopeless case but at least he’s passionate and doing something. [Link]

Anyone can guess which road this is? The reason I decided to make it as a riddle is that this is one of the most highly frequented shortcut roads in the Keserwan area, yet hasn’t been fixed for over 30 years maybe only until recently. I wish Zouk Mosbeh’s municipality kept records of when this road was last fixed, I can almost bet it was never touched since the day it was inaugurated.

Funnily enough, I spotted few banners from the municipality on that road saying no more pollution in Zouk Mosbeh. I fail to see how spreading new tarmac in a 100% industrial area will stop more pollution.

I saw the flyer for this event few days ago and saw some pictures today on Joe’s blog. [Link]

It looks like a really nice show and it is good to know some people in Lebanon are keeping such classic cars which at some point belonged to great men in Lebanon intact and working.

The event will take place from July 8th until July 31st at the Beirut Souks, from 4 pm till 10 pm. [Event]

[YouTube]

Two more commercials brought to you by Cheyef 7alak.

[YouTube]

[Pic from Exoleb.com]

I saw on TV this morning the launch of a new initiative, The Roads for life initiative funded by the Talal Kassem Fund for Post Accident Care. [Website Not yet launched]

Talal Kassem is the grandson of Adnan Kassar, a prominent Lebanese businessman, who was killed when a raging driver hit him on the corniche road in front of IC. [Gino's]

The initiative aims at raising awareness on driving safely, enhancing our rotten traffic laws and most importantly increasing chances of survival for accident victims in the crucial 60 minutes after trauma. For that purpose, the foundation will provide Advanced Trauma Life Support courses to Red Cross volunteers and ER doctors and caregivers from across Lebanon.

That is indeed a great initiative, and hopefully will lower the risk of fatalities from accidents. However, I wish that those organizations, such as Roads for life and Kunhadi, knowing that they are well funded, take their actions to the streets by forming awareness checkpoints, or collaborating with the ISF in spotting drunk people driving out of Gemmayze for example, fixing the Zekrit blind turn that killed more than 12 people since the beginning of 2011, and other minor actions that are practical and will materialize in a lower accidents rate.

Increasing awareness by spreading billboards all over the country is not what will keep Lebanese drivers from speeding. There are a zillion things that could help lower accidents which I will gladly suggest to those organizations if they are willing to do them.

Nevertheless, one cannot but salute those behind such initiatives for raising awareness and being socially responsible and doing the job our government should be doing.

Step 1: Add bullhorns to the top of the hood. Make sure it has a zebra pattern somewhere, you can never go wrong with zebra patterns

Step 2: Add skulls on the left and ride sides of the hood

Step 3: Don’t wash the car for a year

and voila… you get yourself a kickass ride!

I saw this biker on the Zouk-Dbayeh highway, it just looks weird…

First time I’ve seen it in red. The car’s plate is R8 and if I recall right there was another dude who had a black R8 with the same plate number (don’t know if it’s even legal to put the plate number like that) and used to park it all the time in front of Lina’s. Guess he got bored of the black.

I took this picture from the Casino Du Liban. I wonder what those huge and empty parking lots are for. There’s absolutely nothing there except Manarit el Khaleej restaurant which already has a huge parking and some new restaurant for Ghassan Saliba called “Sayf el Ba7er”.