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Cars and Kandy - A recipe for constant congestion
By Thiruni Kelegama
You're a petrol head. Doesn't matter whether you're a beret-wearing, Renault-driving cafe-leftie, or a beer-swilling, 4WD-equipped urban terrorist. The fact that you're driving - as opposed to bussing or training - means you're contributing to the problem. That being? The C-word: Congestion. And thereby contributing to the ever-present problem we have always had in Sri Lanka.

We generally assume that all traffic blocks are present only in Colombo, the city of endless traffic blocks. That shows how little we know and how ignorant we are. Recent studies and on hand experience on these roads have proved that Kandy is no better.

So what does this prove? Yes, Sri Lankans seem to loathe public transport as much as they adore their cars. This must be the case when even the most conservative research indicates the car is our preferred option for more than 90% of daily trips. It explains why road funding and fuel prices are such powerful political tools.

The preferred option
On the face of it, this isn't so difficult to understand. In a car, you can choose your company, your climate and your CDs. On public transport, you get delays, body odour and bad language. City slickers would rather sit, queued, engine idling and going nowhere, than deal with strangers on a train. Which explains the congestion. Or does it?

Try to get a handle on the Kandy's clogged transport arteries - then try to formulate the magic, carlesterol-lowering pill - and you'll come away confused. So much research, so many conflicting opinions.

On one side, we have the Provincial Director of the Road Development Authority Mr. A. M. Jawzi, along with Mayor and the Deputy Mayor of Kandy and on the other side we have the people who are on the road, namely Mr. U. Ranasinghe and a number of his followers. They seem to agree about as often as George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.

When Mr. Jawzi says: "Our cities will suffer seriously if we don't have most of the growth occurring in our public transport system, in reducing the need to travel [by car] and actually reversing the dependence on cars," you just know Mr. Ranasinghe will have a counterpoint. He does. "If we are to meet the transport task of the future, cars must be part of the solution. We cannot do it any other way. If we accept [that], we also have to accept that the necessary road infrastructure must be provided and maintained."

Preventing our cities from suffering a traffic heart attack is a volatile issue. More roads are needed, says one segment of the dwellers in the town! But Kandy is a heritage city, we cannot allow people to do whatever they want they have to preserve the beauty of the town and leave it the same way as it was long years ago, says the other half.

No parking?
Mr. Jawzi admits the biggest problem they have in Kandy is the parking issue. "All the vehicles try their best for a twenty four hour parking slot, and if all goes well, they end up getting their way. The shop owners come early in the morning, and they park their cars, and do not leave until the late hours of the evening. We cannot force them to move the cars out, as we do not know where to ask them to park the vehicles."

However, we are trying to change this situation, he explains. "A huge parking ground is being built in Kandy, near the D. S. Senanayake library, which is the heart of town. He hopes to build it in such a way, that it would have about three stories and would be able to accommodate about a thousand vehicles." This would mean that the parking problem would disappear, he assures. People would have to park the car there, and walk to town and get their work done. This would ease the traffic problem, and would reduce the pollution within the city limits.

The RDA is in charge of only the following streets in Kandy: Yatinuwara Veediya, D. S. Senanayake Veediya, and Raja Veediya. "These roads are the most heavily congested during the rush hours of the day," admits Mr. Jawzi, "of course this is not even considering the Peradeniya Road." We have a lifestyle that is totally dependant on petrol. Go to Los Angeles and have a peek into the future. These cities that are more and more car-dependent become like walled cities. They have areas of wealth separated by vast areas of poverty where you don't have anything like the opportunities available that we presently do. If you just let them go, cities will always head down that track.

What about walking?
And that is precisely what is happening here. "How come people do not walk anymore?" questions Mr. Jawzi. "If people walked when they have to go close distances, this would not be the problem and we would actually be able to move on the road."

Mr. Ranasinghe says our government must plan infrastructure investment on the basis of the car's ongoing dominance, and that alternative engine and fuel technologies, development of intelligent transport systems and better integration of public and private transport are high priorities. "This is what has happened here - our public transport is certainly not the best, and we need a more intelligent transport system in Kandy, especially when talking about the roads."

The roads in Kandy are small. Accepted fact. Come the rush hour, with a single file of vehicles going both ways, the roads are simply packed to say the least. And with it being a small town, you cannot take any other road to avoid it.

"Peradeniya Road is the worst," says a hassled car owner in Kandy. "I hate to drive on this road any day at 8 in the morning, or at 2 in the afternoon," he explains. "And of course, Saturday morning too."

"This is because of the simple fact that there are more than 12 schools on that road, at a stretch. And with the buses traveling at these hours as there are the students who use public transport and the school vans and the vehicles, there obviously is not going to be much space left on this not so very wide roads," explains Mr. Aluwihare, the Deputy Mayor of Kandy. "And on Saturday morning, this road still has not improved.

This is because of the tuition classes, which have popped up like mushrooms along the road, and as so many of students go these classes," he adds.

Not quite scenic
This had been exactly why the Provincial Director of the RDA, had wanted to put up this alternate road, which leads from the clock tower to Girls' High School Kandy. "This would have been an ideal solution," he explains. "It would have helped ease the traffic on this road at least." But. there had been the usual called for difficulties. The Heritage Committee in Kandy had not approved. This Committee headed by the Mayor of Kandy, had not approved of this decision saying that they want to preserve the original beauty of the city. "But we are doing something about this," is what the Deputy Mayor promises. "Especially, with the new parking building which is to come up." This might ease the problem, but still Kandy would have a long way to go. especially since you've got trucks, public transport and cars, and you've got bicycles and pedestrians.

Now how do you allocate road space to each of those particular users?
Answer that question - and figure out how you create then fund a public transport system people want to use, or come up with some brilliant method to cleanse Kandy of traffic and you'll cut out all the arguments. Or some of them, at least.

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