Gridlock in Colombo
View(s):Very soon, city motorists would have to have their meals and refreshments in their vehicles on-the-go as the city reaches gridlock status.
A panel discussion on Tuesday heard how poor city planning of roads and the misconception that more roads would ease traffic, was leading to serious issues in traffic management in the city.
“More roads mean more vehicles. It would take longer to reach point A to point B,” noted one expert at a panel discussion this week on traffic issues organised by the Sunday Times Business Club.
It was pointed out that there was hardly any study after traffic flow changes like the Duplication road one way and the Galle road (Bambalapitiya) one way flows. “There is no study before or after to analyse the weaknesses and rectify any faults,” said Senior Prof. Amal Kumarage, the country’s foremost expert in transport logistics and road management.
The loss to the economy is Rs 40 billion a year, wasted on fuel and other issues owing to poor road and traffic management in the country.
The mega military administrative complex coming up at Akuregoda, Battaramulla which has been widely reported in the newspapers including the Sunday Times, is set to cause more road and traffic management issues in the city. In the first place, the Government has failed to divulge details to the public – which it’s duly obliged to do in spending an estimated Rs 20 billion – about this 58-acre project, the biggest administrative complex in the country. The headquarters of the three armed forces – army, navy and airforce – will be located here.
The question asked at the panel discussion is whether the Government has done a study on the congestion and lack of public transport when the complex is up and running? “There are few bus routes to Battaramulla. There is no train service. When development at this magnitude happens, creating a transport network is the first priority before the development,” said Prof. Kumarage.
Ironically even the former United National Party administration failed in this duty when a new parliament was built and several government ministries housing education, housing and construction, etc moved to Battaramulla. There are no direct bus routes for workers coming from the south, central (Kandy), western (northern Colombo and Negombo) to Battaramulla.
Contrary to popular belief, one-way roads have not eased traffic congestion.An efficient network is measured by the time taken by a motorist to travel from one point to another and in this case, while the route is longer, more time is taken and more fuel consumed. The country is losing in terms of productive man-hours lost and increasing foreign exchange needs for additional fuel use.
More roads wouldn’t ease traffic congestion either. Rather it increases the number of vehicles on the roads as there is no proper planning vis-à-vis vehicle imports and road management.
The system of taxing motor vehicle imports is based on revenue needs for the Government though a bigger priority should have been to assess whether the roads are geared to handle an increasing number of vehicles.
The stop-start mechanism of taxing imports by the Treasury is based on a balance of payments requirement. Whenever the import bill goes up (in terms of foreign exchange value terms) and motor vehicles’ is the biggest culprit (or user), the authorities quickly increase taxes to reduce imports and the burden on foreign exchange reserves. When the situation returns to ‘manageable’ levels, taxes are reduced again. Sometimes motor vehicle taxes are either reduced or increased to service certain ‘political’ or development needs.
Rarely are issues like ‘will increasing the motor vehicle population lead to gridlock’ taken into consideration or whether tax policy should be guided by the vehicle population on the roads and the road capacity.
At least two to three months of a year of an individual’s productive life is wasted on the roads, research shows.
Traffic management in the city, as we all know, is geared towards giving preference to VIP movements at any time of the day. VIPs moving in siren-blaring convoys with their armed guards ordering other motorists off the roads is a hated sight for other road users. Anger is mounting on the roads against VIPs and their blatant disregard for road rules.
Similar to the contempt shown by politicians and VIPs to the laws of the land, road and traffic laws are also violated with contempt. The Police and other motorists watch helplessly while these VIP goon squads weave in and out of traffic waving others off their oncoming path. Many accidents have been committed by the VIPs convoys and how many are actually taken to court is not known.
Speakers at this week’s panel discussion on traffic issues also lamented the ineffectiveness of the business community to push the authorities for a better road management system in the city, saying business is worst affected by the chaos.
For city dwellers and others entering the capital, the time spent on city roads is growing rapidly making it necessary for a systematic study of city roads and traffic management.
With the Battaramulla military administrative complex also nearing completion, it is imperative that an economic cost analysis of the transport system with recommendations for a smoother flow of traffic is undertaken by an expert panel that should include representatives of the government and private sector, and crucially, transportation experts.
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