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The Bahrain Cycling Festival also marked the launch of Cycle Safe Bahrain, an initiative to promote safe road sharing practices amongst motorists and cyclists.
Bahrain’s roads have become increasingly unsafe for bicycle riders, including the Bahrain National Cycling team, who suffered serious injuries in a horrific car accident last April. Five professional cyclists, Sayed Ahmed Khalil, Abdulla Ali Abdulla, Ahmed Nasser Ahmed, Mansoor Mohammed and Yahya Deyab, were hit by a driver texting while driving near Awali.
Bahrain Cycling Association President, Shaikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Khalifa commented: “Don’t Text and Drive, Keep Me Alive is the first awareness campaign of Cycle Safe Bahrain. I think this will have a major impact in keeping people aware of focusing on the road and looking for cyclists who are riding and staying away at a safe distance of 1.5 meters from the cyclists.
“We are looking forward that this campaign really impacts our riders and reaches as many people as possible. We invite everyone to utilise their social media and spread the word to keep our roads. This year we have many events coming up, not only targeting cyclists but the community as well and making people really aware of the importance of having people ride safely in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
“The events will be also be bringing kids and women into cycling and teaching them how to cycle safely on the roads. There are many accidents involving cyclists and motorists and we would not want to see more of this happening in the roads of Bahrain.”
As part of the initiative, there will be major safety awareness campaigns all throughout the year together with the General Directorate of Traffic. An English and Arabic website will soon be launched consisting of cycling routes, safety instructions, cycling events and cycling rides happening every day all over Bahrain.
A representative from Bahrain Bay at the event noted that the development company has opened a path around the new development where cyclists can ride safely.
No information regarding new bicycle lanes was provided with the organisers emphasising the need for effective campaigning and education to attract government funding for infrastructure.
Abdulmohsen Algosaibi, founder of TriLife and one of the founding partners of Cycle Safe Bahrain, said: “Road safety has to be taught from an early age at grass roots level. We will have school campaigns to educate children how to cycle safely. Teaching them at an early age will create responsible adult drivers in future and form a culture of respect for other users of the roads. We aim to have the children also be aware of how their parents drive (around cyclists).”
Several attendees at the launch of the initiative, including renowned cyclist Mark Cavendish noted that bicycle lanes are commonplace now in most developed countries and that the best way for cyclists to be safe is by separating them from the motorists.
According to Kolja Koracak, manager of Bahrain Cycling Academy, Cycle Safe Bahrain has a calendar of events planned over the next year with a theme for every quarter and public educational sessions focusing on the dangers of mobile use on the road, the appropriate distance to maintain between users of the road and the need for separate bicycle lanes.
