Roads-the Veins of city life

By Tafessework Wondimu

The road expansion projects of Addis Ababa are simply breath-taking. There had never been such road-network development in the past and in the recent history of the city. It is, after all, befitting for a city of the stature of Addis Ababa, designated “the hub of continental and international diplomacy.
Most of all, it is befitting for a city that is fast expanding unhindered by existing economic and social ills. Yet, cars of all makes and kinds are moving along and criss-crossing among bulldozers and other heavy earth-moving machineries even if the feeling causes one’s heart to bit irregularly for fear of being crushed by an iota of bump of the fast rotating machines.
What is most fascinating is the unhampered, yet difficult movement of the public and private transport systems, albeit, a few of them. In the temporary hardship of road widening and leveling, the mini-buses and the sedan taxis that operate zigzagging across small community roads behind the main roads under expansion, have much to tell to the City Administration about the system of alternative roads that should be seriously considered along with the current big expansion projects.
Although, the current ongoing expansion and widening projects of the road systems will ease the traffic flow of the city to a good extent, the unfortunate situation under which the city is to be found, pauses more difficulties than it would solve. It is in the light of this situation that the need arises still for considering seriously alternative roads that connect with every main avenue or road of the city.
The point that I want to make is not without solutions, though. The solutions are, already, in our own hands. There are many developed and underdeveloped detours that run inside metropolitan Addis, including the centers, the suburbs and the surrounding areas. These roads are generally addressed as community roads. They could be properly assessed and identified by the engineering unit of the Addis Ababa Road Authority over-time and their development could neatly be coordinated with the residents on cost-sharing basis.
It is true that so far such roads were only meant for community purposes as they were designed and built by the residents for their own use. In that case, there are some such roads that happen to terminate abruptly without continuation designated as cul-de-sac, while others push on in their gravel conditions. Yet, these roads can be improved without difficulty.
No matter how much each road could be narrow or wide, it can be used as an alternative road to reduce the existing traffic jam at peak hours and at times of emergency. One may think of the Italian or the English narrow roads as they are traced in such cities as Rome or London, yet they help in reducing the traffic congestion.
The best alternative, however, for the city residents is if they are introduced to a more dependable network of public transportation system that flow regularly and with some comfort like the envisaged electric bus, by which, even the affluent people can travel with extra fare. For that, however, the city car owners should be ready to make a decisive change of attitude to put their cars aside and use during peak hours, what I call the future improved public transportation system.
Most definitely, one important variable that increases the city traffic congestion is the usage of such vehicles indiscriminately all times by the car owning middle and upper class sections of the society for the purpose of social status and with the specter of ashamedness if seen using public transportation system with the common people. One would agree with this feeling as things stand now. The present basically low standards and conditions of the public and private transportation systems are not at all congenial and as such they create such a phobia of fear of many things even for the common people let alone the well to do. They require total change by way of beautification, sitting arrangement and internal administration, if the middle and upper class of society are expected to make use of such a system.
Once this is done, the day will not be very far when we come to declare a day for everybody to put aside one’s private car at peak hours and come out to use public transportation system so that one’s laden and wrongly conceived social attitude would change for the better. After all, the pattern of development should be unique to us. We should solve our own problems by ourselves by doing away with conceitedness and adapting to the feeling of commonness on our common purposes.