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The minister of Transport and Communications was
telling us last week about the accomplishments of
the sector in recent years and the country's vision
for the not-too-distant future. The subject is one
of my favorites because transport and
communications, particularly the exponential growth
of the cell phone and the Internet, has become part
of my life whether I like it or not. As a dweller of
Addis, the situation of transport services concern
me as much as it concerns any one of you.
Take a ride through the hectic streets of Addis and
be a part of the mess, you will be fascinated by
what you discover in the city transport system at
the heart of it all. At dawn the Isuzu speedy trucks
loaded with fresh chat or perishable vegetables and
fruits rush at high speed and crowd Atkilt terra, in
the center of the city where wholesales of fruits
and vegetables are carried out. The trucks literally
shove each other in an effort to get into the
compound even it means for a short while. Dozens of
them park outside and seem to wait until doomsday.
Come 9 o'clock and the whistles are blown to mark
the end of the game. Only Heavens know where the
unloaded trucks dump their freight.
The drivers of the chat trucks are daredevils
driving like Formula One racers to make it to the
doors of the trader, who tips drivers on the basis
of first come, first served. Of course in the
process, they may lose not only the tips but also
their dear lives. The recipients of the "green leaf"
are located at odd corners all over the city
particularly in the Tekle Haimanot area. They want
to deliver the goods as fast as possible. Fast food
would you say?
Trucks carrying fresh meat or dairy products
traverse the streets to offload their contents in
the early hours of the day. Private cars and
minibuses hurry to the Cross Country Bus Terminal on
the western part of Addis past Mercato proper.
Private car owners are included here as they rush to
give a ride to friends and families and see them off
at the terminal.
As the morning goes by, the city wakes up from its
slumber fully fledged. Most pedestrians, with traces
of unfinished sleepiness showing under their swollen
eyes and unkempt hair, hit the road walking to their
respective destinations. Pedestrians coming from the
suburbs jog all the way to the nearest bus stop,
sometimes carrying their lunch boxes. At dawn while
it is still dark, you find passengers queuing at the
bus stops to make sure that they do not miss the
first bus that comes to the stop. Unless the
passenger waits for the bus at its terminal, the bus
comes overloaded and more often than not skips the
stop, leaving the poor passenger in agony and anger.
We are in the bracket of rush hours, or peak hours
as they are sometimes known. Traffic congestion
occurs affecting the flow of traffic adversely. This
is the main challenge faced by experts engaged in
the business.
Incidentally, the Anbessa City Bus Company has, to
the delight and relief of thousands of urbanites
attending night schools, recently extended its
service time until 10 o'clock in the evening. By
extension of the figment of my imagination, I could
see that this bonus time is a welcome windfall for
those engaged in the business of learning, but also
for those in the business of retailing shots of
strong spirits. This extension of service hours
would have been more beneficial for both employers
and employee if part of the extension were to begin
at dawn to accommodate passengers coming from afar.
The settlement areas have extended along the
circumference of the capital forming self-contained,
satellite neighborhoods. (Actually they are not yet
self-contained but many of them aspire to be so I
guess.) At the heart of the city, the density of
settlement has increased rapidly. Urban transport
service has become a challenge to city management.
The main routes dissecting the city are a given, but
routing bus services on the basis of established
demands along routes in a given time is nearly
impossible. The routing is planned to match the
existing lines. Hence passengers are bound to travel
unnecessary distance to main squares and junctions
only to transfer and have access to other buses or
minibuses that take them to their destinations. This
requires time and money.
Taxis in this country are not serving what they are
meant to serve on the whole. Unless you take small
cabbies on a contractual basis, which is damn
expensive these days, you are bound to take a shared
taxi ride that takes a given route and drops you any
place you think is convenient to catch another
cabbie or a bus that goes your way.
Taxis are operating like public transport or mass
transport providers. Passengers find it difficult to
compromise with the minibus drivers or their
assistants to travel within a fixed period of time
however hard they try to negotiate. The cabbies do
not move an inch until and unless all the shared
seats are fully occupied. The moment a passenger
steps down en route; the driver and his assistant
stop the vehicle and start yelling for a refill of
passengers despite the appeal and complaint by
customers. The charge per ride is arbitrary although
it was set by the transport officials in place
according to distances with a minimum of 65
Ethiopian cents for a distance of about 3
kilometers.
The taxi drivers, however, avoid this guideline in
their own skillful and witty ways like calling
distant places only so that the passenger would be
forced to pay double fare. We have been told that
some 1,000 27-seater microbuses are to be imported,
out of which 500 are already on board and scheduled
to arrive soon. Whether these new microbuses are
going to be assigned on specific routes to serve
commuters to and fro the city centre under the
auspices of private companies is not known yet. At
any rate, the commuters will hopefully to alleviate
the transport problem in Addis Abeba.
Experts in the field, however, do not subscribe to
this school of thought. They say it is high time
that City Hall officials consider multiple
modalities of mass transport that can carry many
passengers at one go and traverse the city in a
spiral direction so that it picks passengers up from
all directions constantly. Tunnels can be dug to
accommodate underground metro services. We have also
been told that cable cars on rails or trams are also
going to be introduced within the coming 5 years.
This is a beautiful vision.
Private automobiles used to be the symbole of high
class and prestige in former times. Cars, however,
are proving very expensive to operate. Scientists
confirm public transport systems are more
environmentally friendly than private vehicles since
the carbon emission of several automobiles put
together surpasses the emission by public buses or
trains. Developing countries like Ethiopia cannot
withstand the price of oil, which is now in the
range of 100 USD per barrel.
It must be said that cycles or tricycles should also
be encouraged as options to be used, especially in
cities and towns where the terrain is convenient.
And for us, the walking folks, more sidewalks
wouldn't be too shabby an idea either.
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