‘Mayhem’ on the school run

Nerves of steel and the patience of Job are some of the qualities most parents, bus drivers and commuters need if they are travelling along the Janabiya Highway during the week.
In the morning and evening rush hours the pathway from Saar and Budaiya, and all the compounds in between, converge into chaos as they head to the British School of Bahrain, Batelco HQ, or set their sights on travelling either towards Manama, Riffa or the Saudi Causeway.
Reporter Kristian Harrison and photographer Ryan Bayona took a drive for a couple of kilometres on the wild side to experience the journey.

It wasn’t the bumper-to-bumper gridlock that infuriated me. It wasn’t even the ironic ‘Go Slow’ signs staring tauntingly at me along the highway that induced my rage.
It was the Average Joe father taking his two young children to school that finally earned a volley of expletives.
Of course, this sounds harsh to say the least without some context. It is 7.20am and a journey that began on the hour at Alosra Supermarket, Budaiya, has so far only taken me to the junction to turn onto Janabiya Highway.
Stress is high, but to be expected in the mad morning rush. What I didn’t expect (and, having been coming to Bahrain since the late 1990s, I really should by now) was the aforementioned father swerving into my lane at 50km/h and shoehorning his 4x4 behemoth into a space barely fit for a ‘smart car’.
Luckily, some quick reflexes and sharp braking on my part avoided a collision, but having stolen a glance through his window during my outburst, I looked past the smug, unapologetic man to see his kids, a boy and a girl who each could have been no older than five, staring back at me.
One was sat in the passenger seat, and the other on the arm-rest between the two front seats. There was not a seatbelt in sight, and that’s what finally riled me. As if the lack of regard for safety wasn’t bad enough in the first place, risking a high-speed collision and the life of your children for the sake of being a few centimetres ahead on the road appears utterly absurd.
Such is the nightmare that is the morning school run. It was just before 7.50am when I finally rolled up to the British School of Bahrain gates, typically behind the 4x4 that almost became a part of my car’s furniture. Glad to know his dangerous manoeuvre was definitely worth it, then.
Luckily for me, this trip was a one-off, but for hundreds of mothers, fathers and drivers around the kingdom, this traumatic voyage is a daily nightmare.
Ali Alaradi, 40, who brings his six-year-old son Fawaz to school, lives close to Saar Cinema and says some days he can make the trip in 15 minutes, whereas on other days it takes 45 minutes.
He said: “If you leave home before 7.15 then you will usually be OK, but if you leave after it will almost always take over half an hour. However, even if you leave early you can still be late if someone goes off-road and blocks your way.
“It’s ridiculous, today I actually called the traffic police and reported the people who went off the road to cut in. It delays you and your child and it’s a violation of your right and sets a bad example to the kids.”
Urban design as a whole was the target of various parents’ ire. One mother from Saar, who wished to remain anonymous, argued: “The main problem is that one highway services everything; all the traffic to BSB and Batelco, the traffic going across the Causeway to Saudi, and the traffic going towards Manama.
“It just creates gridlock, they need to make more exits from the highway. They should also leave the traffic lights on for longer to increase traffic flow, currently they go back to red almost as soon as they turn green, so you barely move!”
BSB itself has recognised the issues with getting children into school on time and has actively tried to alleviate the problem recently. Parents outside the school gates were unanimous in their praise of the new concrete parking section created on the former wasteland at the rear of the school, which has helped substantially ease the chaos that used to build up outside the front gates.
However, others feel that there are wider issues that need to be tackled. Irshad Mahmood, 43, father to BSB students Ibrahim, nine, and Fatima, seven, believes that the solution is to change the school starting time.
He said: “I think the main problem is that just across the road from BSB, we have the Batelco Head Office, which houses 300-400 employees every day. Their start time is 7.30am, and BSB starts at 7.45am, so they clash, which creates even more congestion.
“In the afternoons, it’s clear to see that it’s much easier and quicker to collect your child than dropping them off in the morning. This is because Batelco employees finish later so there’s no conflict there. Starting school slightly later, even by half an hour, would be the best idea.”
Inevitably, there will be no solution that perfectly satisfies everybody, but it’s abundantly clear that further compromises would be beneficial to all parties. Of course, I wouldn’t expect the journey to take me the measly eight minutes that I managed (while abiding by all speed limits) at 8pm that evening, but 50 minutes borders on the ridiculous.
Plus, the sooner anything that might ease the pressure on drivers with the ‘must get there as quickly as possible and at all costs’ mentality, the better. When someone can so brazenly gamble on the safety of young children to gain a car’s length in a traffic jam, you know there’s a serious issue of concern.