While the atmosphere at camping sites in Bahrain during winter is quite festive and informal, that does not mean that motorcyclists and car owners in the area can also take it easy and ignore the basic rules of the road.
The reason why they should not is because children tend to play on the road around the tents during the camping season. People who are out and about are not generally careful about the flow of traffic. In this scenario, the responsibility that no untoward incident happens on the road largely devolves on the men with the moving machines.
The first thing to control for every vehicle owner in or near a camping site is speed. He must bear in mind that the arterial roads in any camp are not highways but mostly single lanes, and therefore the speed should not be more than, say, 40kmph at best so that if there is any danger of an accident ahead, things can be easily controlled by the driver.
Inside the camp, the driver should also look for children and people suddenly emerging from their tents onto the road.
If the camping site has one-way lanes, there is no reason to ignore the system because it is a camp. Traffic rules apply there as much as they do in the city and the countryside. Ignoring traffic rules may only result in road rage or accidents.
Motorcyclists should also take care of their speed and in addition, not show off by way of driving tricks nor make noise deliberately to draw attention or applause. This advice against noise pollution is even more important to observe at night.
At night, one should also ensure – whether driving a two-wheeler or a four-wheeler – that the headlights are used discreetly and the high beam is not used unless one passes through a poorly lit area.
Finally, one must ensure to park one’s vehicle only in the designated area and not on the road right in front of one’s tent or at the mouth of an arterial road, thus putting other drivers and pedestrians at inconvenience. One must never park close to the oil or gas pipelines that sometimes run not far from the camping sites, which, on the surface, offer inviting parking spaces.