FEATURE: Sri Lankan roads must not remain death traps

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Above: Buses in Sri Lanka

By Jayantha Jayaweera

My wife and I have just returned from Sri Lanka after spending Christmas and New Year in my birth country. We spent 14 memorable days in Colombo and Hambanthota. We also attended a high-end New Year’s Eve gala dinner dance at Hilton Colombo.

I am a civil engineer and am always interested in the state of Sri Lanka’s roads. During our visit, I noticed a substantial improvement to road infrastructure largely thanks to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s vision for better roads for the future, introduced during his tenure between 2004 and 2015. Before the construction of motorways in Sri Lanka, a return trip to Kataragama cost you three days. Now, it is a day trip, thanks to his vision. It was the JVP who were opposed to these mega projects and the development of the country, labelling him corrupt and that he swindled massive amount of money out of these projects. I am not a fan of Mahinda. Maybe he or his henchmen did take kickbacks but the work he has done in Ambalanthota is unbelievable and commendable. During our visit, we stayed at the Shanrgi La Resort in Hambanthota and I spoke to a few of the staff who was attached to the hotel. They said they are grateful to “Mahinda Maththaya” for giving them opportunities to work within their neighborhood.

The “Clean Sri Lanka” vision was launched on the New Year’s Day by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. I admire the President’s vision to minimise the corruption and change the attitudes of the nation to build a better country. I got the impression the vision had not been clearly communicated to the members of parliament and law enforcement authorities. For a fortnight, the police stopped buses and ‘Tuk Tuks’ and removed the additional accessories on their vehicles. It seemed they thought was the major contribution for the road fatalities and accidents.

Now, Colombo is much cleaner and has a number of beautiful open spaces thanks to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This was initially introduced by Gotabaya under “Mahinda Chinthanaya”. I am glad that the present government decided to clean the whole country with a new vision. However, commuters within the island roads are not safe. Driver skills are still unbelievably below international standards. Government statistics reveal that the number of people getting killed and injured on roads due to the motor vehicle accidents has alarmingly increased to unacceptable levels (nine deaths per day). The accidents cannot be eliminated; however, they can be minimised. The government must do something to minimise numbers to acceptable levels.

The government has been spending billions of rupees to reconstruct the road network in Sri Lanka since the end of the war. No doubt the road pavements are in much better shape than 20 years ago. However, the roads are a death trap for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and motor cars. The question is, how do we improve road safety for all road users?

The real reason for accidents is the roads in Sri Lanka; in particular highways are awful. Take the Galle Road, for instance, a major ‘A’ road which goes from Colombo to Galle. Just south of Colombo it is a wide highway with multiple lanes. Then the lane width begins to fluctuate unpredictably. In some places the combination of

(a) narrow lanes

(b) everyone driving at high speed

(d) pedestrians on the road pavement

(e) double parking

(f) tailgating and always beeping their horns

(g) queue jumpers; driving on the wrong side of the road to get around traffic jams

combine to make driving in Sri Lanka a dangerous and hair-raising experience. A narrow lane that is quite easy driving at 40kmh is a death trap at 80kmh, and many roads in Sri Lanka are death traps.

Based on my experience as a civil engineer working in the UK and Australia, there are some easy and straightforward solutions that could be implemented by the relevant parties to make Sri Lankan roads safer for all.

Traffic Committees

During my short stay, I was driving in and around Colombo and went to Hambanthota on the new expressway. My thoughts were that poor driver skills, lack of clear road signs and traffic calming devices at crucial places on the highways are the main contributors for the continuation of this carnage. Drivers in Sri Lanka do not have much understanding of road rules and do not have any respect for other road users, and drive aggressively. This is very dangerous when driving at high speeds on the new expressways.

One of the factors contributing to driver behaviour is the lack of useful signs on roadsides. Part of the problem is that the relevant authorities with responsibility for traffic in Sri Lanka work independently. A better approach would be to install road signs along all major highways and introduce driver safety awareness schemes in an alliance with the Traffic Police and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Traffic committees should be formed at district levels consisting representatives from the Traffic Police, Traffic Engineers from local councils and the Road Development Authority (RDA) and local politicians. A unified front will help to solve differences among authorities and confusion among drivers.

Driver skills

In Sri Lanka, we cannot divide drivers into categories like in other developed countries. The majority of the drivers’ driving skills are average. This is a good start and will help the authorities to develop and implement a tier system for driver licensing. The existing system for driver training and procedure for driver licence issuing within the DMV is corrupt and must be examined and reviewed. It is a crime to obtain a driver licence and be at the wheel without having appropriate driver skills. The bus drivers whether they work for private transport companies or for the Sri Lanka Transport Board, are particularly unsafe. These unskilled drivers are a risk to others and licencing them is equivalent to giving them a licence to kill innocent road users

The urgency has increased with recent changes to the road network, especially the introduction of expressways into the network in 2011. The new roads are designed and constructed to go faster. Modern-day drivers love to speed, especially the youngsters. Therefore it is the right time to make changes to existing driver testing procedures.

In recognition of this changing landscape, I suggest that a new Highway Code be developed and published. Drivers should be tested to ensure understanding and compliance with the Code in a two-part test of knowledge and practical skills. The knowledge test could be administered as computerised examinations. These questions would be stored in a computer system and chosen at random when candidates sit for the examination. Such a system would minimise cheating and will ensure drivers will have read and understood the Highway Code before setting out on the road.

To minimise corruption, the names of driver examiners attached to the Motor Registry could be stored in the computer. The examiner’s name will be picked randomly by the computer when the candidate presents for the practical test. This procedure will also minimise fraud.

The issuing of driver licences to newcomers should be in the provisional category and that should be further divided into two subcategories similar to New South Wales, Australia:

* Provisional Red Plate for one year
* Provisional Green plate for two years.

The provisional red plate drivers are allowed to drive to 80 per cent of the legal speed limit and the green plate drivers 90 per cent of the legal speed. A curfew for red plate drivers could be imposed between 10 pm and 5 am on major highways and other necessary restrictions should be introduced. This would prevent youngsters driving at night under the influence of alcohol.
Validation of a driver’s licence should be for a maximum of five years, and all drivers would have to sit for the knowledge test when their licences require renewing.

Black-spots on highways

While I was driving in Sri Lanka I noticed that small-scale signs were installed at certain locations warning drivers about the accident-prone areas. The signs are too small to read and not designed to any standard. The tragedy is that drivers will not read the signs and overtake vehicles at blind spots. This practice puts incoming vehicles in a very dangerous situation. I had a narrow escape somewhere between Koggala and Galle. I was proceeding to Galle for lunch from the Fortress Hotel in Koggala. Galle Road is narrow and lacks road shoulders on either side of the road, which makes the situation worse. There were a number of pedestrians and cyclists on the road as well. I was vigilant and driving at 35km/h-40km/h. An incoming passenger bus belonging to the SLTB overtook another bus on a very narrow bend where a high number of accidents had occurred previously. There were even warning signs on both sides of the road. However, the bus driver did not pay attention to the signs and was on the wrong side of the road doing 60 km/h. I had to use the verge to avoid a head on collision. He did not even bother to stop or slow down, endangering not only my life but the lives of the 50 to 60 passengers on his bus.

The positive side is that the RDA has identified that location as a black spot. However, the signs are clearly not providing any benefit. My advice is to transform the existing single carriageway into a dual carriageway by placing Jersey kerbs, wire rope safety barriers or a median island in the middle of the road to a certain distance. This will prevent overtaking and avoid head-on collisions, and save lives.

Traffic calming devices

There are many pedestrian crossings on all major highways in Sri Lanka. Despite this, pedestrians have to cross the road by negotiating painfully with moving traffic. Moving traffic does not stop for pedestrians, either because drivers do not care about pedestrians or they do not understand basic road rules. The road is for all road users and does not belong only to vehicles. This attitude towards other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists must be stopped at any cost. It is too dangerous to cross the road using a pedestrian crossing. For me they are death traps. The majority of the pedestrian crossings cannot even be seen after 6 pm because there is not enough lighting provided at them. The rule is to stop your vehicle when you see a pedestrian step on to the road pavement from the kerb at a pedestrian crossing. The majority of drivers ignore this rule because of their attitude towards the other road users.

To overcome this, the authority could introduce raised colured concrete (black coloured and white stripes) threshold pedestrian crossings wherever practicable. The raised 7m wide (including the ramps) threshold pedestrian crossings slow down the vehicles approaching the crossing due to the height of the crossing. The height of the ramps of the threshold would need to be not more than 150mm above the road pavement to a distance of 1.5m on either side of the crossing. Pedestrian crossing in town centres and outside schools are ideal locations for raised threshold pedestrian crossings. Another dangerous issue is the lack of lighting in the night at the pedestrian crossings. It is very difficult to see the pedestrians who are crossing the road at these locations after dark. This would save lives, especially of school children.

Footpaths for Pedestrians

Road assets in developed countries can be divided into two sub-assets. They are: road pavement and road corridor. The kerb and gutter are part of the drainage asset. 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 or are fully occupied by pavement hawkers.

In Sri Lanka vehicle ownership may be less than 20 per cent of the total population. Most people use motorcycles 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 pedestrian than vehicles. However, in Sri Lanka, the vehicles have priority over pedestrians. This is not right and not acceptable. That’s why so many pedestrians and motorcyclists 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 kerb and gutter and sufficient 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. Restriction parking should be allowed for shop owners to carry out loading and unloading. This arrangement should be permitted before 6am and after 8pm.The local council should build and maintain car parks within town limits. This is a money spinning business for Local Government Authorities. 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 in rural areas where drivers drive fast. The fatalities are higher in these zones due to the non-existence of protection against fast-moving traffic. I suggest constructing footpaths either in concrete or to have edge lines marked in white and a 1.4m bitumen shoulder next to the travel lanes.

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 1.00 pm and 2.30 pm afternoon during school terms. The speed limits of the vehicles between these times must be a maximum of 25 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 “Ma Wenuwen 25 ta Yanna”. Most developed countries have successfully introduced this arrangements and managed to reduce accidents drastically within school zones. London has 20mph speed limit on all roads 24hrs per day.

Traffic calming devices such as raised threshold pedestrian crossings could be installed to slow down approaching vehicles. The 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 motorists that the lane is there to drop children and not for parking.

Buses

The government should stop importing Ashok Leyland and Tata truck chassis from India. It is the right time to import 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 road. The current route permit system is corrupt and should be abolished. The Government should set up a Public Transport Authority with the role to deliver improved transport outcomes for the people of Sri Lanka. The Authority should be responsible for the movement of people and goods on 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. The Government should introduce a “congestion levy” for the vehicles entering Colombo City limits. This will create jobs and revenue for the Government.

Better bus service, bus lanes and road levies may encourage some commuters to ditch the car and catch the bus to go to work.

Bus Shelters

During my stay in Colombo, I noticed that the bus stops were installed immediately before or after a junction. This is not good practice and slows the smooth flow of traffic. This was all right in the good old 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 parking for at least two buses. 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 the old design of bus shelters. They have served their purpose, and now we have to move forward. The authorities should outsource the design, installation and maintenance of bus shelters. The advertising should be included in the scope of the contract. In return they should pay a levy to the council. Most of the councils in Sri Lanka are starving for revenue. This will beautify the City of Colombo to be on par with other cities in the world.

Summary