Sri Lankans using public transport has dropped to 50 % now from 75 %, 20 years ago
View(s):The number of Sri Lankans using public transportation has fallen to 50 per cent now from 75 per cent, 20 years ago, one of reasons why roads in Colombo and the suburbs has become congested with private vehicles. Prof. Amal Kumarage from the University of Moratuwa’s Department of Transport and Logistics Management, said a good example of the efficiency of public transportation is Singapore.
Since the 1970s public transportation has been a priority in that country with 75 per cent of the trips Singaporeans make being through public transport compared to 55 per cent 20 years ago. “These trends show we are going in the wrong direction,” Prof. Kumarage, widely regarded as Sri Lanka’s foremost expert on road and transport management, told the Business Times in an interview.
The newspaper had sought his views on growing congestion in the city and ad hoc policies by the Government and the Traffic Police to deal with the crisis. (Sections of the interview were reported last week.)
Excerpts of the interview:
On traffic snarls, bottlenecks and on whether traffic policemen are doing their duty or creating more chaos:
All of these (congestion) issues were expected and it just a matter of time when it would happen. This happens to any country that goes through economic and social change like an increase in incomes and lifestyles with per capita incomes at US$ 3,000 to $4,000. At that income bracket most people are able to buy a vehicle and when public transport deteriorates or is not developed, most people are tempted or feel this need to maintain their lifestyle and that’s when more people start commuting by car.
More and more people are commuting and these changes are part of becoming a middle income country; it’s part of becoming wealthy and it’s part of being an urban city in a developing country. That’s the philosophical side of things.However we need to find a solution for this. Some (cities) have found solutions through experimenting by introducing new systems. In a way politicians have let us down. They have not heeded the prophetic voices of what would happen and not put pressure on decision makers to provide long term solutions. In fact in the last few years, people liked the short term methods like the one way systems and flyovers because they felt it helped cars move faster. Nobody spoke of the deterioration or the neglect of investment in public transportation. In a way society let this fall upon itself. So the question is what do we do about it?
The time when we could have had a solution on the table is gone. We have to learn to cope with congestion till solutions are on the table.
On the recent experiment of park-and-ride shuttle buses:This was tried out in 2009 (from Moratuwa to the city) when I was National Transport Commission chairman and got money from the Treasury. We carefully designed it, convinced people to park their car and take the bus. It was a new concept which went against the grain of many people’s thinking. It was successful to the point that we were able to recover 70 per cent of the cost in six months; that’s one of the most successful start-ups for a park-and-ride anywhere in the world. Unfortunately when it was being expanded and introduced to other corridors, a new government came in, I moved out and the new appointee (Minister) thought it was a waste of public funds. It was just abandoned. Ministers or Presidents didn’t think it was useful and also there was no public pressure to demand its continuation.
Is police part of the problem or are they helpless? Is there a level of chaos in traffic management and control?
The police are trying to do something for which they are not clearly equipped. You can manage traffic when the infrastructure allows you to do it. Right now there is too much demand on the road space and the police cannot do it. In that sense it is unfair to blame the police when traffic doesn’t move. On the other hand the police are trying to do something they are not equipped to do.
One way roads system is an engineering mechanism. When you have a one way flow, capacity and speed needs to be mathematically and scientifically computed. Without inconveniencing thousands of people we can scientifically say what works and one doesn’t. Thus some of the systems have been done on trial and error basis need not have been done. One of the issues is that with nobody coming up with solutions, people on the ground – the police – come up with all kinds of crazy schemes.It’s time for the politicians, the planners and the transportation authorities to get together and work out a solution.
On demand and supply:
More people are buying vehicles. More people want to use vehicles while the road space is not increasing at the same pace 7 or 8 per cent which is the increase in the rate of car ownership.
If solutions are found and vehicles get phased out (based on more users of public transport), how long will it take?
This depends on how much money the government is willing to put in and how quickly. If all the infrastructure that is required is put it in place, it would take 3 to 5 years to see results. That’s why people have been asking for forward planning because by now we would have had some solutions in place on some roads in the city. As it is now, we don’t have any solution anywhere or a proper plan.
Parking issues:
This is a dual problem. You need road space to get vehicles into the city and then you need road space to park. All cities have to cope with this twin problem. In some places, you resort to, road pricing and increase parking fees to prevent/deter people from coming in.
For a sustainable strategy, you need to offer viable public transport alternatives to travellers with $4000-$5000 to $10,000 per capita income who – rather than use their cars – would pay for a qualitatively, much better transport system, not what we see today not even marginally improved, but an almost entirely new system and introduce road pricing through electronic tolling.
That’s the only way we can keep our roads moving faster. Is there any discussion on improving bus and rail only or other forms that are being spoken of like monorail for example?
It’s a combination of both. We can invest in mono rail and underground which are politically ‘very hot’ but costs a lot of money to construct and operate. But if you look at the bus rail systems, they have been the most successful, serve the most number of people and bring the best return.
We have suggested both. One in terms of things that can be done quickly and bring lot of people and then going on to mono rail Has the outer circular highway helped ease congestion?
Most (roads) in the outer circular highway are open . yet we have never had congestion the kind of congestion that we have now, before. That’s should answer your question. Yes, this highway serves a purpose but not the city’s congestion purpose. Within he city, expressways are not going to solve the problem In most cities is transportation done on a scientific basis? The short answer to that is if you look at a city where traffic is a mess you can be sure they are not applying any scientific solutions. In cities where traffic is smooth and developed public transport systems then they have done things properly and professionally.