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Abreham Abebe, mainly stationed at Bole
International Airport, often observes the impatience
of motorists over the increasing traffic congestion
of the city, and especially among those foreign
residents who are unfamiliar with the metropolis.
He vividly recalls one occasion a month ago when he
was transporting one of his foreign clients from the
Hilton Hotel to the Airport. The man, a Nigerian
captain in town for a one-day advanced pilot
training course, was expecting to return home on a
morning flight.
Everything seemed fine until Abreham's yellow cab
carrying his highly-scheduled customer stoped at
Meskel square at the peak of the morning traffic.
The taxi turned onto Africa Avenue, along with
hundreds of other vehicles, all inching along as the
minutes passed. The Captain's patience finally ran
out when he saw the criss-crossing streams of cars,
stuck and honking, in front of the Dembel City
Centre.
"How much farther to the airport," the Captain
reportedly asked, clearly concerned. In an attempt
to calm him, Abreham said it was only a brisk
15-minute walk away. Before Abreham could stop him,
the Captain flung open the door and began his march
on foot toward the airport, leaving his briefcase
behind in the cab in haste.
"Having said that it would only take 15 minutes
walking to the Airport, I was trying to calm him
down," said Abraham. "However, he opened the door of
the taxi in the middle of the traffic jam and ran
off."
By the time Abreham pulled in at the Airport's
parking lot well after 20 minutes, he heard from his
fellow cabbies that the pilot jumped into another
cab somewhere along Bole Olympia, and when that taxi
became stuck in a thick jam around Wolo Sefer, the
poor pilot continued his desperate journey on foot.
Such incidents are commonplace for Abreham, who
blames the ongoing road constructions as one of the
major factors contributing to the traffic mess.
"I think the problem will continue until the
construction of new roads is finalized," he
said.
Currently, road construction projects are being
carried out in 46 different locations throughout the
city, of which 34 began some two years ago. The
Addis Ababa City Road Authority (AACRA) allocated
five billion dollars for these projects, which are
scheduled to be finalized in February 2008. This
year alone, the Authority is managing 12 projects at
an estimated cost of 1.5 bln Br.
Addis Abeba currently has 2,443km of roads, of which
990km have been carpeted with asphalt, while another
307km of pavement has been laid for pedestrians.
With the completion of the road projects currently
under the watch of AACRA, the road network would be
stretched to 2,769km, increasing the road coverage
to 9.4p, up from 8.3pc.
"When these projects finally meet their full
implementation as scheduled, they will have
tremendous impact in terms of relieving the existing
traffic congestion in the metropolis," Fekade Haile,
general manager of AACRA, told Fortune. "The
continued construction of new roads will help divert
the course of traffic. By the same token, the old
roads will get some needed relief too, and enjoy
constant upgrading," Fedade said.
Until such time, Fekade admits that the city will
likely continue to suffer from traffic congestion.
He said, however, that one cannot place the entire
blame for the traffic problems on the on-going
construction.
"After all, no road is completely closed due to
construction except the road that goes from Ere
Bekentu to Piassa," Fekade said.
AACRA is still building the Ere Bekentu Bridge with
its own workforce and has fallen behind schedule,
leaving the route blocked off.
In spite of AACRA's effort to minimize the
repercussions of its work on traffic, motorists and
commuters remain unconvinced of the agency's
innocence. They criticized the authority's ambitious
engagement in road construction as a hindrance to
alternative and shortcut roads.
Samuel Keneni, an accountant working in Lideta
District Office, described how a traffic jam a week
ago along the main streets in the city between his
home in Haya Hulet and Addis Ababa University Sidist
Killo campus, almost made him miss an exam. A lot
was at stake for Samuel.
He is a student pursuing distance education with a
Glasgow, Scotland-based international accountancy
firm, the Association of Chartered Certified
Accountants (ACCA), and was rushing to attend an
exam on the second day. He grabbed a minibus taxi 20
minutes ahead of time for the exam. When he checked
his wristwatch around the Total station in Kazanchis,
he was already 12 minutes late. With only 20 Birr on
him, Samuel decided to grab a contract taxi to drive
him to campus.
Even then, the minibus was so wedged in the crush of
cars, that it took several more minutes to pull
over. He was not hesitating to drop off from a
minibus and get a contract taxi; however, the
traffic jam trapped the cab too. He finally arrived
25 minutes late for exam time, and had to plead with
the instructor to get an exam.
"I spend 45 minutes on the road in a traffic jam,"
Samuel said. "If there is a free road that is
accessible with some payment, I will use it."
Fekade has a different opinion, though. He believes
that instead of building a free highway, the
construction of an underpass and an overpass on the
existing roads will ease the traffic jam along some
of the roads and streets in the city. He explained
how the strategy could solve congestion on the cross
roads located near to the Black Lion school, on
Churchill Road.
"If we can build an overpass for those cars that
flow from General Post Office area and go to Black
Lion Hospital, those vehicles run from the direction
of Piassa can pass in uninterrupted flow," he said.
His office has planned to invite consulting firms to
conduct an assessment of the prevailing situation in
relation to the growing rush hours in the city, and
he believes that the approval for the plan could be
obtained before the end of the current Ethiopian
fiscal year. Once the exact location is selected,
AACRA will call bidding companies to design and
build the underpass and overpass.
Lack of Urban Traffic Management
A
transport expert, formerly a senior official with
the city's Transport Authority, told Fortune that
what the city lacks is an urban traffic management
system. According to him, the city also needs a
proper institution and professionals that can
supervise the tasks of withdrawing old cars from the
road, adjusting the existing traffic lights
according to the car flow on the road, building the
capacity of urban planners and training traffic
engineers.
The expert believes it was a mistake to place the
City Transport Authority under the auspices of the
Federal Transport Authority in 2005. The decision,
he says, weakened the City Transport Authority and
undermined its ability to plan and execute traffic
management policies.
Driving Culture
The behavior of the Ethiopian drivers is another
major factor believed by many city residents to
contribute to the frustrating situation of the
traffic congestion in Addis Abeba.
"The drivers do not stick to the correct lanes. They
often overtake the roads from the wrong direction or
in the wrong lane and speed without much care," the
expert added.
Sergeant Daniel Tadesse, public relations officer at
the Addis Abeba Traffic Police, agrees with the
expert's opinion. He said the driving habits of
motorists in the city is out of bounds of what is
stipulated in rules and regulations. Daniel claimed
that fines for moving violations and educational
programmes will eventually change the attitude of
drivers. Daniel said that radio traffic programmes
contribute a lot to changing the country's driving
culture, and often contributes to the programmes by
giving traffic information, particularly to Radio
Fana.
Traffic on Air
Radio Fana, which began its broadcasting service 13
years ago, was a pioneer in introducing traffic
updates. The radio started broadcasting when it
launched its short wave transmission for Addis Abeba
residents and its environs two years ago. At the
beginning, the 15 minute traffic update ran every
morning at 8:30am and at noon. The updates include
live reports from journalists who are deployed to
selected areas of Addis Abeba most likely affected
by the congestion. Apart from providing vital tips
on alternative roads obtained from the reporters,
the news anchor often invites someone from the
Office of the Addis Ababa Traffic Police.
When the station changed transmission from short
wave to Frequency Modulation (FM) 11 months ago, it
also added another 15 minutes of traffic updates.
However, Samuel Endale, head of Fana FM 98.1, told
Fortune that the latter time was solely allotted for
listeners to call in.
"Our studio telephone would usually ring minutes
before we actually broadcast our listeners on the
air," he said. "Everyday six to seven people call us
at their own cost."
The listeners mostly called from their cars or key
traffic vantage points. They inform the other
listeners of the traffic jams on road X or Y in such
and such area of the city. Samuel admits that the
country's economic capacity does not allow for
better reporting of traffic conditions, such as
informing the public by use of helicopter. He
believes what they have done so far has achieved the
two main aims of the programme: bringing behavioral
change and creating awareness.
However, some criticize the FM stations in the city
for being late to deliver information when an
accident happens. Daniel said that in other
countries, traffic accidents and jams are covered
like breaking news; however, in Ethiopia one has to
wait for the allotted time to get such information.
Daniel and his friends hope this will change when
Fana FM implements its new program structure in the
coming weeks. Though the final decision has yet to
come, Samuel said that the radio station has a plan
to increase the frequency of news bulletins and
traffic updates to every hour or two.
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