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Traffic Blues
It starts with
the drumming of the fingers on the wheel, then the gnashing of the
teeth and I am sure it is not long until we hear it has ended in
fisticuffs somewhere. This is what the congestion in Lusaka is doing
to its motorists every working day and especially those that have to
traverse the main culprit areas : south-end traffic circle, Cairo
Road, Chachacha Road, areas of Freedom Way and Lumumba Road and
Independence Avenue at times when a public holiday is imminent.
Trying to move anywhere in the CBD by vehicle between the hours of 8
am and 5 pm on a week day is now a very time consuming exercise.
What are the
reasons for this, and what can be done to improve the situation?
Firstly, road
infrastructure. There is not enough. Over the last few years, we
have seen the opening of a few roads across the railway line, but
these all feed into the Great North Road, north of Cairo Road. What
about south of Cairo Road? This is an area which is mushrooming yet
all traffic still has to pass through south-end roundabout or
Lumumba Road. And the congestion at south-end roundabout is made
very much worse when Zacaria Phiri arrives to direct it. At the
junction of Lumumba Road and the road leading to Kafue, impatient
motorists have made their own road through to Kamwala market. Great,
but when motorists should enter from this road into the main traffic
is obviously a matter of great confusion. Almost daily I see someone
trying to enter as the lights turn green for the traffic traveling
in the direction of Kafue to proceed; almost daily I see an accident
about to happen at this spot. Further along in the direction of
Kafue is another road made by frustrated motorists except in this
case, vehicles drive over the center island of the road to access
it.
The issue of
infrastructure needs to be put into context. Effectively, no
significant additional development has been done for forty years or
more. Yes, in the late 60’s, the famous Doxiadis Plan was prepared.
This was an overall plan for the development of Lusaka, and included
traffic issues, but as with most studies, it has been relegated to
the shelves of someone’s office to gather dust. We have seen little,
if any, implementation.
Yet, there are an
average of 50 new vehicles being imported into this country every
day. Assume that each vehicle is 4 metres long and they were placed
end to end, that is 73 kilometres of new traffic every year. Lets
assume that 80% of these vehicles are destined for Lusaka. That is
58 kilometres worth of traffic moving on our streets.
The next issue is the poor skills of many of the drivers. As one
moves through the traffic, one can see that many of the drivers do
not have the confidence in their own ability to proceed safely. Many
times it is almost as though they cannot process the information
fast enough that there is a gap in the traffic through which they
could safely pass and enter the traffic flow. By the time they
realize it, the traffic has moved on and they have to wait for the
next gap. For each chance that the driver at the front misses, the
traffic backs up behind them.
Observing the
driving and drivers on a daily basis, one realizes that many drivers
do not have full knowledge of the rules of driving; they are
ignorant of which lane they should be using when entering, passing
through and leaving a traffic circle; they are ignorant of which
lane they should be using when traveling down Cairo Road (or any
other road) and when they should change lanes in order to turn down
one of the side roads. Much of this sort of knowledge is not taught,
but picked up by observing other drivers. For those who come from
the more affluent sections of society, this is something which they
did not specifically learn, but something which they just picked up,
from a very young age, when they watched their parents driving. But
it is not something that someone sitting in the third row of a
minibus is likely to observe. And certainly not something you are
going to notice if you are walking along the pavement (where
pavements exist). And it is definitely not something that can be
taught at one of the now numerous driving schools. It is indeed
good that many of the peoples aspirations are being fulfilled, and
they can now become proud owners of a vehicle, but road safety is
being compromised.
The next issue is
enforcement of the rules of the road (which should always be coupled
with education). When was the last time you saw Zacaria pull off a
vehicle for using the wrong lane on the traffic circle or for
driving through a red traffic light? Have you ever seen Zacaria
admonish a driver for obstructing the traffic? Does Zacaria even
know there is a rule about obstructing traffic, that it is an
offence in terms of the Road Traffic Act? A little bit of
enforcement would go a long, long way but I guess checking for
certificates of fitness at road blocks is much easier.
Another
bottleneck, which becomes apparent when a public holiday is
imminent, is that of closing off a section of Independence Avenue
for marching practice. Why on earth does the practice have to be
done on the road, and done in prime business hours? Marching is not
an enormously difficult skill and I am sure it could quite easily be
done on any open piece of ground, even the area opposite the Freedom
statue would be adequate. Although I understand that this problem
may soon go away. There is a group discussing the possibility of
moving the Freedom statue to somewhere more suitable. These are only
discussions at this stage and no final decision has yet been made,
although many new locations have been suggested. I understand that
the two most favoured proposed locations are Kabwe or Kafue.
But whatever
happens, it is time that the local authorities take urgent action to
ease the congestion in Lusaka as motorists tempers are wearing thin.
Traffic is like a
toilet, you need to keep it moving. A blockage somewhere on its
path, causes an overflow at the inlet and as we all know, this
creates one hell of a mess.
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April
2007