On improving the traffic flow and safety

Traffic accidents and the toll on life and property has been the topic of discussion worldwide this last few days. 90% of traffic fatalities take place in the developing world and Ethiopia is no exception.

Ato Zemedkun Girma, General Manager of the City of Addis Ababa Transport Authority agreed to discuss some of the steps the City is taking to improve the traffic situation in Addis Ababa.

Capital: Addis Ababa is ranked among the worst place on earth to be driving, is that true?

Ato Zemedkun: It is actually the fact of the traffic scenario that you see in the city. Relative to the number of vehicles that you find in the country, the number of accidents that occur in Addis Ababa per 10,000 vehicles is in the range of 120 to 180, which is pretty high by world standards. The high number of accidents with the relatively small number of vehicles is worrisome to all of us.

Capital: How do we compare to Nairobi when it comes to congestion on the road?

Ato Zemedkun: There are some who think that there is a problem of congestion because of a shortage of roads. On the other hand, there are those of us who believe that we are not using the available road properly or efficiently; as a result it feels like there is a shortfall of roads. Nairobi has almost equal stock of roads as Addis and almost 4 times the number of vehicles but the feel of road congestion is about the same.

Capital: What are the major factors for traffic congestion?

Ato Zemedkun: To me the major reason is inefficient use of road space. All users including pedestrians and vehicle compete for the use of the road. Whenever they come on to the roads they have to be streamlined, which means that if the traffic is to flow properly a very good traffic management system has to be in place.

For instance, if you are using part of the road space for parking purpose, it will reduce the capacity of the road to handle the traffic. You need to have a parking policy or parking measure that will cope with that problem. Secondly, if you allow all vehicles, large and small, pedestrians, commuters, trucks and buses to the same intersection at the same time you create an artificial congestion.

That artificial congestion could be corrected by allocating certain hours of the day for different types of vehicles. This is one way of managing traffic flow.

Capital: Are heavy commercial trucks still allowed in the city in rush hour traffic?

Ato Zemedkun: No. We have corrected that. They are not driving in rush hour traffic anymore, and we have been able to improve the situation with the cooperation of the traffic police. That is one of our success stories. 

After October 2003 we decided that heavy trucks could not be permitted to drive in major arteries during pick traffic hours.  And this has relieved the major arteries from congestion and traffic is flowing much better.

Initially truck operators expressed fears of delay and some disruption in their business, understandably. So we had to determine what would be the best time for truck drivers to deliver their goods so that their business will not be impacted.

As for the fuel tankers, we have asked the fuel distributors to come up with their own plan to make efficient use of the roads. We delegated the task of scheduling tanker movement to them and they have adopted a system of permits. You no longer see any tanker trucks in rush hour traffic when you are driving to and from work. 

Capital: We notice that you have introduced a lot of no parking signs on Africa Ave. Will you be doing the same to other parts of the city? 

Ato Zemedkun: In parking there are different approaches. Basically it is a sort of demand management in transport. One of the approaches is a total ban on street parking, on Bole road and Meskel Square, for instance. We do not even allow parking on a charge basis, to make it very clear that we give priority to moving traffic. Because we did that we have seen a journey time reduction by half according to the driving public.

We are strictly enforcing this law with the cooperation of traffic police who now have a patrol division working on the road. We want to educate the public as to the advantages of having such no-parking measures.

We have also introduced a number of other activities including marking areas for taxi stops.

Capital: Are these the blue and white stripes painted on the curb of the road?

Ato Zemedkun: Yes, in fact they are not fully utilized yet. The intention is to first remove the parking off the streets. That would allow the taxis to have the third lane available to pick up and drop passengers.

We have to gradually educate the public and the taxi drivers to make use of the taxi stops. This is still experimental, and we will see how it works and we will introduce it to other part of the city after monitoring the degree of success. 

Of course like any other improvement that we have tried to introduce there is some resistance on the part of the taxi drivers and others. Some sector of the society will always object to change and this is understandable. Initially some will not see the improvement that change might bring to their business.

So the question we ask ourselves is, whether we are bringing to the general public efficient use of the roads. Does the change bring more or less efficiency? We have to analyze that.

In general from what I have seen, any improvement we make to the flow of traffic is the right measure and we don’t need a detailed feasibility study. We can learn it from the pilot projects that we introduced.

Capital: What are you going to do about drivers who do not seem to have the necessary driving skills, like the ones who cannot keep off the fenced dividers on Bole road?

Ato Zemedkun: That’s a national problem as well as a citywide problem, and if we can improve the city driving, I believe we can have an impact nationwide.

I fully agree that there are many drivers in Addis Ababa who are not skilled drivers or knowledgeable about the traffic rules or obeying the traffic rules. There are also many that are reckless and we need to come up with some kind of educational program and our enforcement has to be tightened.

As the licensing authority we (the Transport Authority) have to take responsibility because we are producing so many bad drivers.

“There is little public awareness of the traffic rules, not only among the public but also with the traffic enforcement itself, because people consider it a petty offense and don’t take it seriously.”

 The other problem is that public’s concept of traffic safety is so minimal that too many drivers think that they should obey the rules only when a policeman is around. 

Capital: What about enforcement outside of the city?

Ato Zemedkun: As far as enforcement outside of Addis Ababa is concerned, there is a new federal initiative, prepared in cooperative with transport agencies in the different regions to improve the general standard of licensing. We have produced a special manual for training.

The issue also is how many drivers actually go to the proper process of licensing. There has always been the problem of drivers obtaining licenses without going through proper licensing procedures. 

Driving itself is a personal responsibility and an individual decision, but there is a social responsibility that goes with it.   We have to begin to think in those terms and not just passing the test and getting the license.

What we would like to do now is focus on training. In the past it was only our office that was responsible for the examination.  But now we have decided to empower the driver learning schools, so that they share in the responsibility of the examiner and to certify student drivers for the driver’s license.

Once they certify their students, after the minimum 12 hours of training at Kaliti, the driving teacher who certifies the driver will be held responsible for the certification. And once the driver has attained the minimum driving skill, it will not be difficult to upgrade him to the next level. The focus will be not on passing the test but on obtaining the necessary driving skills.

Capital: What do you plan on doing to curb drunk drivers?

What we have to do is to approach it from a very strong enforcement approach. In this regard, we are planning to involve the public to help us in identifying drunk drivers.

We now have a new road rule and regulation enacted by the city. And any citizen who observes drunk driving can report it to the concerned authorities that will then take the necessary action. And the overwhelming number of accident is due to drunk driving. 

The penalty for drunk driving will be 1000 birr. A portion of that 1000 birr will be given to the person who reports the drunk driver. It is hoped that this will motivate the public to get involved.

The existing regulation provides for the revocation of driver’s licenses for repeat offenders. Not only is there a regulation-penalizing drunk driving offenders but driving under the influence of other drugs as well.

The problem has been that of enforcement by the police and us.

In any case, this is not an excuse. We have plans to introduce an integrated road safety program, which will be implemented through the Road Safety Council. We have drafted a transport regulation in that regard and the cabinet has already approved it.

There is little public awareness of the traffic rules not only among the public but also with the traffic enforcement itself, because people consider it a petty offense and don’t take it seriously. They are more focused on post-accident activities and not on pre-accident issues.