Fuel shortage drives change in Lebanon car-owning culture
Tuk-tuks, carpooling, bicycles and buses make a comeback as economic crisis bites
By challenging Lebanon’s national passion for automobile ownership, and driving growing numbers towards greener or more collective transport, the economic crisis is succeeding where everything else failed.
Tuk-tuks, bicycles, carpooling and affordable buses — once out of the question for many — have become popular amid changing public attitudes and skyrocketing transport costs, including higher taxi fares.
“Before the crisis, I relied on my family’s car or a taxi, but this has all become unaffordable,” said Grace Eisa, a 23-year-old customer service professional whose workplace is around 20km from home. Her only option to get to the office now is a private coach operated by Hadeer, a start-up.
There are more than two million cars for six million people in Lebanon. Car imports have fallen by 70 per cent over the past two years and many Lebanese can no longer afford new vehicles with the local currency losing about 90 per cent of its value against the dollar on the black market.
Twenty litres of petrol are now worth around a third of
the minimum wage, while nearly 80 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. In response to the crisis, Boutros Karam, 26, and three friends launched Hadeer, which provides affordable bus transport along the country’s northern coastal highway.
Professional system
Unlike the dilapidated public transport system, buses operate along a fixed schedule, are equipped with WiFi and tracking services and are relatively safer for women
who often report harassment on public coaches and vans.
Sixty per cent of Hadeer’s customers are women.
Lebanon has had a railway network since the end of the 19th century, but it has been out of service since the start of the 1975-1990 civil war. In 2018, the World Bank approved a $295 million package to jumpstart the country’s first modern public transport system, but the Greater Beirut Public Transport Project, however, never took off.
In the coastal city of Batroun, the tuk-tuk has gained traction, according to Toni Jerjes, who manages a service offering the auto rickshaws.
In the city of Tripoli, Natheer Halawani has relied on a bicycle for nearly two decades. For the 35-year-old, the crisis provides “a suitable opportunity to rethink” such old transportation models.