Best practices in a Media Campaign
Authors: Bouhajji Abdulaziz 
Published: November 2015

• It should be noted that traffic awareness started in Bahrain almost fifty years ago. In
1967, the General Directorate of Traffic launched an awareness campaign to inform
drivers that on Friday 27 November 1967 the traffic system would change from left
to right. Accordingly, some awareness support programs were launched to activate
the traffic change from left to right. Many entities directly or indirectly involved in
the traffic field participated, and the objective to change the traffic direction was
successfully achieved. It should be pointed out that in the two weeks following the
implementation of the change no serious road accident was recorded in Bahrain.
• Traffic awareness started as early as 1914 with the introduction of the car in Bahrain.
Traffic awareness as such was initiated particularly by mothers who used to instruct
their children to cross in the opposite direction of the traffic close to the buildings’ walls.
They were instructed not to cross in case a car was on the road close by until it stopped
for them to cross. As a result, the concept of traffic awareness was developed along with
the adage “haste makes waste.”
• One of the effective programs which had an impact on traffic safety was the setting up
of an awareness committee for students whose members were all education directors
and public relations officers at the General Directorate of Traffic. They met whenever the
Directorate thought there was a traffic issue related to students’ safety awareness. The
students proposed traffic projects for their own safety.
• Some of the indicators of the presence of awareness-raising programs include the
successful Traffic Weeks with the participation of all students in the celebrations of the
Road Safety Week since 1973 and the Gulf Traffic Week from 1983 onwards. In addition,
students participated in all the traffic awareness activities of the General Directorate of
Traffic concerned with the traffic direction change from left to right, the establishment
of the traffic kindergarten in 1980 and the safe use of bicycles in 1984, among other
successful projects in collaboration with the General Directorate of Traffic and the
Ministry of Education.
• One of the traffic projects adopted by the Schools Traffic Awareness Committee and
which had a direct impact on the safety of students was the safe transportation project.
Before it was launched, students suffered from several bus incidents. The campaign was
founded on essential principles and students were, accordingly, instructed to wait on
the pavement, board the bus using the rear seats first and leave the bus after it came to
a full stop, get off the bus onto the pavement at the bus stop, observe order in getting off
the bus, and if crossing the road, do so from the backside of the bus, not from the front,
and only after ensuring there were no speeding vehicles on the road.
• Among the short and long-term programs was the project on the transportation and
traffic experience, which was put forward in 2006 to deal with the safety of kindergartenage
children (6-3 years) and serve as a system to educate children about traffic.
• One of the targeted strategies of the General Directorate of Traffic is to initiate children
into the traffic system from kindergarten onwards, and each stage should have a book
taught in the schools from one stage to another up to high school.
References
1. Radio program “The Road to Safety” (Ministry of Information, Kingdom of Bahrain).
2. “The Safety Path” (Kingdom of Bahrain TV, Ministry of Information).
3. Glimpses of the History of Traffic in Bahrain from 1914 to 1996 (Arab Printing and
Publishing Press, Kingdom of Bahrain, 1998).
4. Traffic Projects – The Traffic Kindergarten (1980).
5. Safe Crossing (1990).
6. The Safe Use of Bicycles (Awareness Schools Committee, Ministry of Education, 1984).
7. Safe Transportation – General Directorate of Traffic (1995).
8. Continuous Schools Awareness (General Directorate of Traffic).
9. The Seatbelt Safe Use Project (1990).
10 Transportation and Traffic Experience (Kindergarten Curriculum, Ministry of Interior/
Ministry of Education, 2006).