It is unbecoming of any candid observer to say Addis Abeba stands - truly and literally - to represent its name. Although young, it is far from conveying an image that is blossoming as its founder, Empress Taitu Bitul would have loved to see. Addis Abeba's woes are blames exclusive to none of the successive regimes since the late 19th Century; neither were they the creation of any of its 29 mayors.

The troubles start from the beginning of its history; the city that prides itself as a diplomatic capital of Africa, and once was a small village with the name Finfine, has gone through a process that has been rather odd, as Milena Batistoni and Gian Paolo Chiari, two Italian historians have noted. Indeed, it came into being around 1886, with the birth far from being a town but more of a gigantic camp on an escarpment. There were at first huts and tents, including one by Emperor Menelik, "who drove the first pole of his wooden tent into the ground where his imperial palace would be built", witnessed De Castro, an Italian medical doctor  who visited Addis Abeba at its foundation.

Addis Abeba has had a chaotic beginning, in almost every respect. There was no attempt to have a designed beginning for its growth until the occupation of the Italians in 1936. The first master plan for Addis Abeba was developed in late 1930s, by two Italian architects, I. Guidi and G. Valle. They had sought the growth of Addis south bound, hence the birth of neighbourhoods such as Casa Populare, Casa Inches, and Campo Nova.

Subsequent to Ethiopia's liberation from the occupation, a British seasoned urban planner, Partick Abercrombie (sir), had taken the challenge of making sense to Addis Abeba's urban management nightmare. Launched the work of developing a master plan four years after the liberation, in 1945, Sir Abercrombie had tried to come up with a plan to serve a population of 460,000; he believed the city would have required no revision until 1984. To manage the growth in population, he suggested the formation of satellite towns at Qaliti, Kotebe, Gafarsa, Rapi, Yeka and Kolfe, to accommodate yet another 300,000 residents.

This was not to be the last; two firms, the British Bolton Hennessy & Partners, and a French group led by L. de Marien, had tried to review the earlier master plan. Nevertheless, none of the original efforts were able to project the population explosion the city would have seen at the end of the 20th Century. The existing master plan, also known as Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), was finalized in 1994, after a 10-year work; it has been granted a lease of life up until 2020. 

Through out these processes, the city has been expanding physically and accommodates an alarmingly increasing size of its population. However, it has hardly evolved to become the modern metropolitan centre it ought to be.

This is not to say that there is no change for the better. To be fair, Krikor Hovian, the Armenian exile responsible for the construction of the earlier bridges and roads in Addis Abeba, after his arrival in 1904, would have marvelled at how far the city has developed in its road networks, particularly over the past eight years.

Hovian would have seen a road network stretched from central Addis Abeba to Addis Alem; and from Arat Kilo to Entoto, as well as the British Embassy during his years which now has a network length of 2,200Km, including over 200 bridges.

Nevertheless, considering the gravity of the problems, whatever has been achieved so far is a little above inconsequential. And nowhere is this more glaring than the city's public transport infrastructure. It is poor, frustrating and unproductive. Addis Abeba's public transport infrastructure has received literally no meaningful investment.

 In the absence of mass transporting rail transits, and very low ratio of private vehicle ownership, for 90pc of Addis Abebans under absolute poverty, affected by poverty or in the low income bracket, walking is the most preferred means of transport involving 60pc of the trip, sometimes regardless of the distance; an average of 1.5Km. After all, 80pc of Addis Abeba's population is young, under the age of 40. The city's also poses topographic challenges to those who would like to use a bicycle, as is customary in many of the other towns, particularly in the south, east and western parts of the country.

Addis Abeba's transport infrastructure is home to over 500 buses, more than 14,000 privately owned taxis, close to 90,000 private vehicles, and nearly 2,000 trucks as well as an estimated 500 buses and minibuses entering the city from other regions on a daily basis. This is not including the 500 midibuses bought from China a year ago. In addition, there are 300 horse ridden carts mostly visible in Qaliti area and 5,000 heads of donkeys active in carrying merchandises to and from markets.

Combined, these have dismal meaning to a population of over 2.5 million (a very conservative estimate), claiming close to four per cent of the entire population but enormously concentrated.

They claim 60pc of the nation's benzene consumption (growing by an annual 29pc as opposed to the national average of 7.6pc), and 18pc of diesel (growing annually by 16pc as opposed to 2.41pc of the national average).

Ironically, Anbessa City Buses Enterprise, the oldest public transport in the city and the lone intercity operator subsidised by the city administration, covers 40pc of the need for public transport, while the privately operated taxis; heavily dominated by 12-seater minibus' and midibuses try to claim the remaining share; which covers an estimated 1.5 million passengers a day. These passengers are believed to dedicate close to 10pc of their household income on transport cost, according to a study conducted in 2007, by Meron Kassahun, a postgraduate student at the Addis Abeba University (AAU).

With the limited network of roads, Addis Abeba's public transport system is prone to painful congestion and inefficient mobility. It has become a norm among its residents to blame the bungling transport in the city for not being prompt during meetings and reporting late to their duties. A crippling inefficiency at workplaces is helplessly accepted attributed to unavailability of public transport services. Any boss who is exposed to the number of commuters who physically push and shove each other during rush hour could have no courage to demand employees be punctual.

It is clear that the existing public transport infrastructure, whether owned by the state or operated by the private sector, is too feeble to absorb the exploding size of Addis Abeba's population. It was a short lived response of the authorities' to procure 500 buses from China and dispatched them into the system, through the transfer of ownership and their privatization. Long before they become free of their debts, many of them are now out of operation, parked inside the garage of AnbessaCity Buses Enterprise, in need of spare parts. Simply, they were proven to be not long-lasting, and a bad choice of the spending of taxpayers' money.

There is little on the ground to indicate that there are indeed a team of professionals in charge of managing the city's transportation theatre. As it appears, the whole business of the transportation network, vehicle circulation and passengers are left to their own fate. The city's traffic police officers have never blocked and reopened routes judging the flow of traffic; they simply run their business as much by default than anything of a design.

"A city bus carrying well over a 100 passengers can be stuck in a traffic jam on a busy street next to a sedan carrying just one person," Meron superbly observed.

It is indeed depressing to see that the city's transport managers appear to be devoid of the customary knowledge that lanes should be segregated at least during rush hour for shared taxis, buses, and private vehicles.

It is time for the city administration to think of a lasting and meaningful intervention, both in terms of policy and management.

It could start with laying down the foundation for public transport infrastructure serving medium and long term purposes.

In the long term, the federal government should be thinking a spending of substantial amount of pubic fund in building a mass transport system. This public investment ought to parallel its investments in urban housing and roads constructions. A policy of promoting satellite towns in places such as Sendafa, Dukem and Burayu could also help ease the concentration of population in Addis Abeba and thus offset the migration from rural areas to the capital. It is good to see that other towns such as Hawassa, Bahir Dar and Mekelle are on a promising path.  

In the short term, however, city officials should work hard in breaking down the intense concentration of passengers in few specific areas. Arat Kilo, Piazza, Stadium, Megenagna, Mexico Square, Saris and Tor Hailoch are where transport authorities must begin their surgical work. They need to build major terminals in various outposts for public transport; Addis Abeba deserves to have one major and two feeding terminals in each of the 10 districts equipped with all the facilities such as waiting rooms, ticket offices, toilets, shops, and eatery outlets. Each district could let these facilities out to private operators. Not only will the city design an income generating scheme to the districts, it could also create business opportunities to small and medium enterprises that offer jobs for many.

The city council should write a public transport policy that should facilitate loans and provide incentives to private investors; the latter could import buses - never mind the cost so long as they are durable - with carrying capacities of over 100 seats that circulate within designated zones in each district. This could hopefully cut the huge traffic concentration on certain areas, with certain terminals designated as transits.

In the absence of these policy and operation responses, and perhaps more helpful suggestions by experts, we are afraid Addis Abeba is heading into a brink of jam. That will be unproductive and more expensive to fix than the investment put to oil its transport bloodlines.