7-Hour Traffic Gridlock

Traffic congestion in Cairo is normally bad, but does somehow flow. I used to travel to and from Domestic Airport weekly and on several occasions witnessed police posted each 10 meters along major roadways, plus numerous other officers and plain clothes security personnel posted at strategic locations for kilometers towards airport. When senior government personnel, either Egyptian, or from other countries, would move then the roadway would be barricaded stopping all traffic. All times, except one, I was moving on the streets, before 8 am and missed to stoppage. Gridlock is not a fair description of what the experience is like. First waiting for extended length of time(missing plane of course) and then when traffic is allowed to flow again it was super chaos with hundreds of pissed of drivers manuerving and horn honking unbearable. Why they don't use helicopters, I do not know, but assume some paranoid fear of a missile attack.

I have also been delayed departing airport and arriving on at least 1/2 dozen occasions when airport was closed for VIP airport movement. And once in Sharm El Sheik could not get to Golf Hotel for 3 hours, as roadways closed to VIP movement. That occasion was OK though, as was able to turn around and go for lunch and things.

Anyway, here is the article describing such an occurrence as found in Egypt Online Daily Newswhich was re-posted from this link.

" By Riham el-Eraqi 28/ 10/ 2008

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated yesterday two elementary schools at Tir’at as-Sawahil Street, Imbaba [a quarter of Cairo's], as part of a “hundred schools” development project. This came amid heavy security measures in Imbaba and Muhandseen’s Sudan Street. Security forces put iron roadblocks at the entries of side streets to prevent cars from using the street. Microbuses were also unable to stop where passengers could get on, stirring citizens’ resentment. In what locals described as “unprecedented”, Imbaba streets were cleaned and ornamented with flower bowls on sidewalks after governorate cars cleaned and sprinkled streets with water. Some security members occupied rooftops to secure the visit, which started at 12:00 p.m. and ended at one sharp. Resentment moved from the streets to the nearby medical center at Aziz Ezzat area. The center officials told al-Masry al-Youm that they were ordered by their directors to stop working until the visit was over. This brought work in the center at a standstill and patients crowded before ticket offices and the center pharmacy. Ahmed Hussein, a supermarket owner, expressed resentment at the way security forces treated shops owners in the area after they ordered them to close from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., when Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak left. He said they had been fed up with the visit for 4 days. He said the emergency cleanliness ended as soon as the visit was over and the governorate cars came and collected the flowers from the streets once again. Translated from the Arabic by Eltorjoman International