Sri Lanka’s highway nightmare
The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) with the help of the UDA (Urban Development Authority) should undertake Local Area Traffic Management Schemes (LATMS) to improve traffic conditions and road safety in local streets. These schemes consider what traffic treatments should be introduced to help improve local traffic conditions. They can look at issues such as traffic speed and volume, pedestrian safety and comfort, and how to calm traffic so that neighbourhoods are more live-able.
As part of the schemes, residents and businesses should be surveyed about the traffic issues in the area and proposed treatments. The Council must focus on continued consultation with local residents to determine the best method to reduce through-trafficon local streets. My opinion is that the engineers built these structures and left. But the local residents are the people who have to live with these changes. It is a good public relations exercise to consult and involve the locals.
Chaos at Dehiwela junction.Pic by Amila Gamage
The city of Colombo is a big city. You may need a number of LATMS areas to ease traffic, and this could take a number of years to implement.
The following treatments could be implemented to improve traffic conditions in the area:
- speed humps and kerb extensions on selected streets
- Installation of ‘keep clear’ line markings on certain streets
- kerb extensions on certain streets to moderate the speed of entering traffic
- Installation of “No Left turn” and “No Right turn” bans during peak hours on weekdays to continue on certain streets
- Installation of flat top speed humps
- Implementation of 30km/h signage within school zones
- Installation of standard signage and line marking to reinforce existing one way restrictions on a majority of roads within City of Colombo.
- Installation of kerb bulges on certain streets.
An introduction of the above traffic treatments, including the left-turn and right-turn bans will significantly reduce in traffic during peak times. Additionally, non-local through-traffic in the streets will be effectively reduced.
School zones
During my visit to Sri Lanka, I noticed that student Traffic Wardens were being trained by Traffic Police and manning the traffic outside their schools. I would not ask my child to be a school Traffic Warden on Sri Lankan roads. This exercise is dangerous. The Education Department is putting children’s lives at risk without providing any protection for them. The Education Department could be sued if children are injured or killed while performing these duties.
I propose to classify all road sections outside as “school zones” between 6.30 am and 8.00 am in the morning and between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm afternoon during school terms. The speed limits of the vehicles between these times must be a maximum of 30 kmh. The Education Ministry and Traffic Police should start a public awareness programme to educate the public on these school zones and speed limits. The TV campaign could be based on slogans such as “Go 30 for me” (Ma Wenuwen 30 ta Yanna).
Traffic calming devices such as raised threshold pedestrian crossings could be installed to slow down approaching vehicles. Two kerbside lanes outside schools should be marked as “school bus lanes”. These school bus lanes outside school are there to pick and drop children during school hours. “No standing” signs would also be installed to warn drivers that the lane is there to drop children and not for parking.
Footpaths
The road assets in developed countries can be divided into three sub-assets. They are: road pavement, footpaths and drainage. The kerb and gutter is part of the drainage asset. The road pavement consists of travel lanes and the shoulder or a footpath. The common name for footpaths in Sri Lanka is “pavement”. But whatever you call them, most of the footpaths in Sri Lanka are not wide enough for pedestrians to walk.
In Sri Lanka the vehicle ownership may be less than 10 per cent of the total population. Most of the people use bicycles or walk to the nearest bus stand or the railway station to catch the bus or train. So the priority must be in favour of the pedestrian than the vehicles. However,in Sri Lanka, the vehicles have the priority over pedestrians. This is not right and not acceptable. That’s why so many pedestrians and cyclists are getting killed on Sri Lankan roads. The question is “how do we minimise the numbers to acceptable levels?”
The width of the travel lanes in the majority of two lane single carriageway roads in Colombo and other town centres in Sri Lanka should be reduced to a maximum of six metres. This would make room for a footpath to accommodate pedestrians. The 1.2 metre footpath should be built either in plain or coloured concrete. There should be no parking allowed outside shops at all times within the length of the shopping street. The local Council should build and maintain car parks within town limits. The shoppers must be encouraged to park their cars and walk to the shops. To achieve this transition, the authorities have to educate the public. The communication will help both parties and reduce the confusion. The introduction of issuing traffic infringements for illegal parking would stop vehicles parking within restricted areas.
The other issue is that the Sri Lankan public is used to walking on the road, especially on roads outside town centres where drivers drive fast. The fatalities are higher in these zones due to non- existence of protection against fast-moving traffic. I suggest constructing footpaths either in concrete or low cost gravel to the same level of the edge of the bitumen. It is very important to have edge line marked in white and 0.5m bitumen shoulder next to the travel lanes.
Bus stops and bus shelters
Duringmy stay in Colombo, I noticed that the bus stops were installed immediately before or after a junction. This is not a good practice and slows the smooth flow of traffic. This was alright in the good all days where our roads were not congested. But now, the authorities should make arrangements to move bus stop zones away from the junctions. The road pavement width within bus zones must be extended to accommodate to park at least two busses. This will ease the traffic congestion at bus stops and maintain a smooth flow of traffic.
The current bus shelters are old fashioned, ugly and outdated. It is the right time to move away from old design of bus shelters. They have served their purpose, and now we have to move forward. The authorities could start a competition for a new design. It would help the authorities to build different types of bus stands within Colombo with a unique stop sign. This will beautify the City of Colombo to be on par with other cities in the world.
Buses and bus lanes
The government should stop importing Ashok Leyland and Tata buses from India. They are ugly and the body shape is outdated. It is right time to buy buses from other markets where buses are designed for tomorrow’s customers. This would encourage commuters to abandon their vehicles and hop into the buses. This will reduce the number of cars entering the city roads.
Most of the cities in the world have introduced bus lanes into their network. The Sri Lankan government should grasp this idea and install bus lanes in one-way streets within the limits of Colombo city. This approach will reduce the travel time to some destinations with the result that some commuters may prefer buses and ditch the car to go to work.
Role of the Traffic Police
The Traffic Police specialises in traffic enforcement, which takes care of safety work provided by the police. Traffic control and traffic direction are the main tasks of the Traffic Police. Traffic control is one attempt to solve the problem of human suvival on busy and crowded roads. The basic purpose of the Police Traffic Control Unit is to protect road users. Such control includes the protection of all road users against each other and even the individual road user against him/herself.
The Police and the Ministry of Defence should urgently clarify the role of Traffic Police officers as it relates to ensuring the smooth flow of traffic and the prevention of chaos on our roads.
Traffic policemen are usually out in their numbers during rush-hour periods at mornings and evenings but instead of catching the law breakers, I believe most of them are just standing and watching the flow of traffic. The only time they intervene is when you drive through a red light. Most of the drivers in Sri Lanka break basic road rules, such as not stopping at a pedestrian crossing, not staying in lane, queue-jumping during traffic jams, driving on the wrong side of the road, overtaking vehicles by crossing the double (BB) lines, driving on footpath to overtake and making ‘U’ turns where its prohibited.
I propose that the recruitment process to the Traffic Police should be changed. A written test must be introduced to test the knowledge of the officers who want to become a Traffic Policeman. This will eliminate the rotten eggs joining the unit.
Recently, I saw a news item on television regarding the introduction of newly designed pedestrian crossings by the Traffic Police in Kandy. The DIG Traffic for Central Range was explaining to media about the new crossing and the advantages to the pedestrians. I have to say that the Police officers are not traffic engineers and they are not competent enough to make a judgement on traffic issues on their own. Are any studies done to assess the impact and implications of these decisions or are they just ad hoc?
Part of the problem is that the relevant authorities with responsibility for traffic in Sri Lanka work independently. This is what I stated in my previous article. It was the reason that I suggested setting up Traffic Committees. I hope that the new crossing has the approval of the public and they are not confused. At the end, the general public has to use the crossing, not the DIG Traffic for Central Range.
I recommend the authorities should concentrate on following issues immediately and implement them within next two years.
They are:
= Issuing of Driving Licences
There is something wrong with our driver licencing system. We are issuing driver licences to drivers who do not have basic skills. This has to be tackled by bringing drastic changes to the current system.
= Line Marking and Signs
The authorities should implement a 5-year programme to line mark and installation of signs on all highways and arterial roads.
= Traffic Calming Devices
The authorities should concentrate on the installation of raised pedestrian crossings in town centres and outside schools zones.
I have been writing about road safety on Sri Lankan roads for the last three years since I attended the Expat Forum in October 2009. I think I have written a lot about this issue and it is time to concentrate on other topics, such as flash flooding and road maintenance within the City of Colombo. Finally, I thank all my readers and appreciate your feedback.
| Good responseI would like to thank all the readers who sent me emails regarding my article “Stopping the carnage on Lankan highways” which appeared in the Business Times on April 21. It was encouraging to find out that the majority of commuters want to see safer roads for all road users. There were a few emails criticising me for giving prominent coverage to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Please understand that I am not a political supporter of any party. What I wrote was what I saw in Sri Lanka. I have been visiting Sri Lanka every year since 2003 and this was my honest opinion after seeing the dramatic changes to our road infrastructure within the last few years. Some critics wanted to know about my opinion on environmental issues, such as the emission of carbon in the atmosphere due to the increase in registration of vehicles within the recent years. Please note that I am not an expert in that field and I will therefore leave that subject to the experts. However, I am very happy to confine my opinion to issues that I know best, which are road safety, road maintenance/construction and urban drainage issues. I wrote about setting up traffic committees, changes to obtaining driving licences, black spots on highways and installation of traffic calming devices. Today I would like to concentrate on LATMS (Local Area Traffic Management Schemes), school zones, footpaths, bus stops,the role of the Traffic Police and a few other relevant issues that will help to make Lankan roads safer for all road users.(The writer is a Sri Lankan engineer residing overseas. He could be reached at jajayaweera@hotmail.com). |
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