Tripoli is Becoming Lebanon’s Most Bicycle Friendly City

Hurray! ... The Capital of the north now has Lebanon’s first Bicycle Lane.

Five years ago, I wrote a post arguing that the time has come for the Lebanese to start using bicycles as their main mode of transportation:

Tripoli is so small you can easily walk from any point to any other point. And yet, we still have what I can only describe as pointless traffic […] Lebanese cities are ideal for bike rides. They are relatively small, dense and safe. [..] All we need is a small public and private push: Bicycle lanes from the municipality, locker rooms and showers in companies and universities, awareness campaigns — preferably with some celebrity endorsement — to make the practice cool and acceptable.

It took 5 years, and we’re still far from seeing a popular embrace of bicycles, but I’m starting to see signs, especially in Tripoli, that biking is becoming cooler and more socially accepted.

Reputation Boost

Tripoli, often seen by the rest of Lebanon as backward, rife with Islamists and dangerous, could use the kind of publicity boost by becoming a more progressive and eco-friendly city of bicycle users.

Projects like Natheer’s Halawani’s “Eves on Wheels” (check it out, Natheer is one of Tripoli’s most talented photographers), in which he highlighted female bicycle riders, many of whom are in Tripoli, serve to increase awareness and fight backward preconceptions about bicycles being somehow harmful to women.

If you’re interested in the future of biking in Tripoli and the rest of Lebanon, I encourage you to attend the upcoming Bike Tripoli event on Sunday in Tripoli. Details are on their facebook page.

Show your support for the capital of the north and for a more bicycle friendly future for Lebanon by coming on Sunday. You won’t regret it. The food is excellent and there are great things to see.