A plight of our times

Recently the RMV declared that they were registering a massive 500 new vehicles per working day and the rate was growing. However this status-quo which prevailed about a year ago has not changed, but the general scenario in the country has drastically changed and getting worse by the hour.

Two years ago this very same column cried out when parking in the city became a problem for the plain and simple reason of there being too many vehicles entering the city of Colombo. Today, the situation is quite different, the city roads have become only a mode of conveyance to move from point A to B, but what happens in between is out of their control.

Many important roads in the city now have been turned into uniflow systems and suddenly we drivers have the freedom of indulging ourselves all over the road. At the same time ironically did we stop and gave ear to the plight of the pedestrian?

An irate expert in Colombo Traffic system was a disappointed man. He said "Uniflow system is good, but at the same time the authorities also should have studied the system and installed a system where every one was safe. Now what we see is the removal of the refuge isles for the pedestrians in the middle. Now this poses huge threat to every pedestrian. For instance if a child from Royal College wants to cross Thurstan Road or Ried Avenue just see his plight. Imagine the risk that he takes. When cars are moving at the same direction in tandem isn't it difficult for the child to cross that road? However I feel that the whole thing should have been done in a more systematic way".

The other problem is the parking issue. Just last week-end I was attending a funeral and when I drove up to the General Cemetery Kanatta, and tried to park the car somewhere close to the A.F. Raymond's Funeral Parlour, then one of the Municipality employees attached to the Cemetery walked up to my car and advised me not to stop there and requested me to take the car inside the cemetery. As time went by the car population inside the cemetery increased and by the time the funeral service was over and we wanted to part our ways it was just a huge traffic jam inside the General cemetery, in Kanatta.

This has become a common phenomenon in the island today. Like I said before you can move from Point A to B but, if you have to break your journey for any reason at all you can not do so. Parking within the city of Colombo has fast become only a fantasy.

Then with the security situation becoming more complex with the blasting of the two bus bombs in Nittambuwa and Hikkaduwa even the bus travel has become a very complex issue with a lot of taboos tagged on to bus travelling.

The Colombo city attracts over one million people a day with over 150,000 vehicles and buses make up only 5% of this large figure. At the same time 3 million vehicles have been registered from day one. From this total some where between 1.5 to 1.75 million vehicles are still plying the roads. At the same time the majority of these vehicles are stationed in the Western Province and most of them enter the main city quite often.

The situation is becoming more complex by the hour, but, there is hardly anyone who could talk on behalf of the general public or the inconveniences and the travails that have to encounter every day.

Finally, whatever the end result may be in any situation or outcome, there is hardly anyone who will take a second look of the inconvenienced general public and solve their problems. This is the plight of the times that we live.