DAMASCUS, Syria — Defying the war around it, locals in Damascus took part in a city bicycle convoy Nov. 21 to promote the use of bikes to bypass traffic woes exacerbated by dozens of military and security checkpoints. The “Yalla Let’s Bike” initiative organized the ride under the slogan “A bicycle on the road keeps the traffic away,” with 900 Syrians of different ages and social classes taking part.

The convoy's route — which was coordinated by the event’s organizers, the Damascus governorate and traffic police — took off from the Dar al-Baath garden on the Mezzeh highway in central Damascus. It was an ambitious place to start, given that earlier this month a suicide bomber had hit a tunnel on the highway, killing two and wounding eight.

At 10 a.m., the bikers moved toward Umayyad Square to reach Marjeh Square, which has also had its share of suicide bombings and mortar attacks during the more than three-year war. Then, they returned to their starting point. Engineers, professors, youths and children took part in the convoy in an attempt to promote the concept that bicycles are better than cars amid the suffocating traffic in Damascus resulting from so many checkpoints.

One of the organizers, Sara al-Zein, told Al-Monitor, “We are in need, now more than ever, for the culture of bicycles to spread. The selfish desire of people to take public transportation despite the crisis of transportation and traffic makes bicycles a comfortable choice.”