Parliament Approves Proposal to Ban Delivery Bikes from Main Roads, Sent for Government Review

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In a move aimed at curbing traffic violations and improving road safety, Bahrain’s Parliament voted on Tuesday to support a proposal that would ban delivery motorcycles from the kingdom’s main roads.

The proposal now moves to the government for formal review, despite pushback from a key parliamentary committee and the Ministry of Interior.

The initiative, spearheaded by MP Bader Al Tameemi and supported by four other lawmakers, calls for the state to restrict delivery riders to secondary routes. Al Tameemi argued the ban is a necessary response to "repeated breaches" by riders working for restaurants and logistics firms.

“The proposal centres on banning delivery motorbikes from riding on main roads,” Al Tameemi told the chamber, citing Kuwait’s similar regulations as a precedent. He specifically highlighted the dangerous trend of riders using the far-left lanes of highways, traditionally the fastest lanes, placing themselves and other motorists at risk of fatal collisions.

The Ministry of Interior stated through the General Directorate of Traffic that Bahrain’s road network is an interconnected system. Officials warned that a ban would be "hard to apply" and could counterintuitively worsen traffic flow.

While the government reviews the proposal, the General Directorate of Traffic confirmed it is already cracking down on reckless delivery driving. According to official data, 1,005 delivery motorbikes were impounded between 2022 and February 2025. Furthermore, the ministry is nearing completion of a project to install 500 smart cameras designed to detect traffic offences and track unsafe driving patterns in real-time. The executive branch will now prepare a comprehensive memorandum to provide a final stance on the proposed ban.