A Call for a Public Transportation in Mekelle
by
Mesele A (
and
Tsehaye Z (tsehaye@gmail.com)
04-28-16
On the morning of March 22, 2016, Mekelle was hit with a bajaj strike. A bajaj is a four seater (including driver), three wheel motor vehicle used as an alternative transportation mode, mainly in the developing world.
These bajajs went on a strike in response to the newly proposed regulation regarding the operation of this service. The city administration was trying to force these vehicles to have a designated routes in which they travel on. Suddenly, Mekelle residents found themselves scrambling for transport to get to their daily business.
Now more than ever, Mekelle needs an alternative transportation system to the current bajas and taxi dominated system. It is quite disheartening that an urban city such as Mekelle lacks adequate and efficient public transport system. Therefore, the current bajaj strike provides ample opportunity to revisit the discussion about the need of alternative transportation system in Mekelle. The following is a short op-ed about the issue at hand.
Mekelle is a city home to close to half a million inhabitants and is steadily growing city. Lack of smooth mobility, standard and futuristic city road network neither exists nor are conceptualized, at least in a visible way to the public. Existing roads are narrow and crowded by the ongoing effort to build high rise buildings. The city contain less than 30 kilometer of asphalt roads connecting the city within itself. And as a result of that, mobility related problems have become the norm of life in the city.
According to the 1999 Ethiopian population census, the city's population was estimated to be 97,000. Eight years later in 2007, it was estimated to be 215,000. In 2011, municipality reports estimated its population close to 254,000. Today, non-official figures indicate that the day-time population of the city is close to 510,000. The demand side of transportation system all depends on population size; the larger the population, the more trips are produced, the more the city sprawls, the longer the trips become and the higher the travel time takes
Contemporary Ethiopian demographic dynamism is mainly characterized by high rural to urban influx. Due to same reason, Mekelle has become one of the fastest growing city in Ethiopia. Thus, it becomes imperative that the city addresses critical issues of mobility that accounts for future population growth. Currently, Mekelle’s lack of standard asphalt coverage coupled with narrowly designed roads puts damp on the city’s transportation capacity. To begin with, the city is dominated with "low-capacity-public-transport” in the form of minibus taxis and bajajs. Therefore, it is not surprising that the city’s mobility continues to be strained.
During peak hours (i.e. morning, noon and evening), traffic congestion is becoming a daily scene in some of the busiest roads. It is common to observe long lines to find transport services. As a consequence of the congestion, the frequency and severity of road accidents is on the increase, while pollution is steadily growing.
Experiences from cities around the world shows that those who invest on urban transport significantly contribute to the development of livable cities. In the case of Ethiopia, there exists a budget constraints. However, governments can intelligently invest a fraction of their meager budget in a long term in such a way that urban transport would incrementally grow and become reliable and sustainable. So, we believe that the major area of intervention for policy makers is modern and robust mass transit system.
Considering the persistent transportation problems in Mekelle, we had high hopes that the city administration, the regional government in collaboration with the federal government would plan means to address the acute shortage of transport in the city. To solve the daily problems, the regional government looked into purchasing buses to start a public transportation.
According to the June 2015 Addis fortune report, at a cost of 14 Million Birr, six buses were purchased by the Mekelle city Administration. The buses (a.k.a Amora) were purchased from Bishoftu automotive Industry (BAI). According to Gebremichael Haileu, Deputy Head of the city’s construction, Road & Transport Office, each bus accommodates 90 people and the buses were supposedly to be running to six lines, from one end of the city to the other end. However, introducing buses without the proper planning posed another problem. There were no proper bus stopped that were constructed and thus the bus transportation system became inefficient. The fact that the buses were of a poor quality did little to improve the transportation system. At the writing of this article, most of the buses were parked at their station and hardly operating. What this experience shows us is that introducing busing system without proper planning, including training of the population on how to use the system, is a path to failure.
The Reality on the Ground
According to a very coarse-grained approximation using the classical transport modeling approach, out of the 500,000 population of the city, 300,000 can be considered between the ages of 5 and 65. This group of population is actively moving several times a day. If we assume that each person produces a single trip on a daily basis, Mekelle requires public transportation that has the capacity of moving at least 300,000 people around the city on a daily basis.
According to sources from the Bureau of Transport of the city, currently, there are more than 500 taxis and about 1500 bajajs. At a given time, these are capable of moving approximately 11,000 passengers.. Again with a rough estimation, to move 300,000 travelers a day, each of these vehicles need to make more than 30 trips a day. However, the reality is much more complicated, in the city.
The transportation system is "loosely controlled" (i.e. mismanaged) thus, during peak hours, bajaj drivers hide themselves and make a contract based on trips with a higher payment. Taxis also contribute immensely to the chaotic transportation scene observed during peak hours. Normally taxies have a designated travel route; however, what makes it difficult taking a taxi is that the taxies do not move until they fill up. This creates a bottle neck choke on the efficiency of the transport system. Residents are forced to sit still inside the taxies until the taxies fill up with passengers. This has an immense consequences for the passengers as residents are heard complaining about not being able to make it to work and school on time. It is a well-known fact that tardiness plays a major role in the citizens being unproductive.
Some of the basic factors for urban public transport are how smooth transfers are (connectivity), how frequently the services are available (headways) and how useable (accessibility) the service is. To the contrary, taxi stations are highly disconnected and a single bus is assigned to a corridor. Neither, the buses nor any other public transport service in the city considers the situation of the handicapped and the elderly at all. In contrast, modern and sustainable transportation systems in the developed world are designed in way as to accommodate everyone. Perhaps, this is a lesson that Ethiopian policy makers ought to think about before designing and implementing an integrated public transport.
We believe that three important questions be asked. 1) What is the future mobility system of the city? 2) Where and when will the expansion of the city stop and how transport addressees the expansion in a sustainable way? And 3) how slow modes (i.e. cycling and walking) as well as rail systems, would be integrated into the city's transportation planning in short and long term?
While the first question tries to find out what transport technologies, infrastructure, and mobility scheme should we plan, the second one brings a larger view of possibilities to integrate nearby towns and suburban residences into a long term "Master Plan" of the city. This integrated "Master Plan" should conceptualize transport oriented development and mixed land use approaches be introduced in the long term. The last question is all about making the city bicycle and walking friendly so that shorter trips can be made through slow modes, which also enhance health and wellbeing of the citizens. Further, the last questions requires how the existing transport infrastructure could influence the possible introduction of light rail or even metro systems in the long term.
National economic progresses will push for the nation to be car dependent and will mean huge number of cars flowing all along streets. But we strongly believe that Mekelle, in its current mobility vs. demographic dynamism and policy reaction, is not capable of serving this type of society. Therefore, development of smart mobility and laying down the necessary infrastructure not only to the Mekelle we see today, but also to the Mekelle we will hope to see four and five decades later is a crucial milestone.
In conclusion, Mekelle city needs a pragmatic mobility plan for the coming several decades; because transport infrastructures highly influences our future life style. Let us stop demolishing buildings, roads, and historical treasures to build roads that we again will demolish few years later. It is time for Mekelle to think of comprehensive plan to introduce modern, high capacity, low floor, dedicated right-of-way type of bus systems, cycle friendly as well as walk-able streets. It is time for the city to explore possibilities to move more people while keeping few vehicles on the road. It is time for the city to reconsider the role of bajajs for a city that has passed half-million in population. There must be a mechanism by which the bajajs are limited to a certain area of the city and to keep their number smaller in order to facilitate the flow of the city’s traffic.
Safe and reliable public transport is a win-win formula for all the city residents. A parent must be able to send his/her children to school knowing there is a reliable transport. Civil servants must have access to affordable and reasonable quality public transit services. Low paid workers and daily laborers must access safe, timely, affordable and reasonably quality transport system. Even the few "wealthy" residents who have means of personal transportation should be encouraged to utilize public transport.
If the existing transport service in the city is not addressed in a robust and sustainable way, the difference in living standard will continue to be high in the city. The discontent of the "lower and middle income" society will increase as few benefits over the majority. The few unethical owners and drivers of taxis and bajajs will continue to harass the low and middle income, discourage his/her contribution to the good of this nation. The large civil servant who is unable to own a car will continue to dis-value his/her job/profession as it continue to earn little money and more harassment. And, the paradox of life in the city will continue to mess up.
Therefore, it is high time for Mekelle to see how people move every day from/to all corners of the city in a reasonable time, with a reasonable cost and a reasonable comfort. It is also a high time for the city administration and the regional government, to think ahead of time and ease the challenges that for example Addis Ababa, and for that matter many fast growing cities in the world face ( i.e. the trade-off between expanding and growing city and keeping the city livable for everyone). It is a right time for the authority to see the challenges and opportunities of the so called "Master Plan" to integrate to as far as Adigudem, Hagere-Selam and Wukro for tomorrow's growing neighboring towns.
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