How to cope with traffic jams

How to cope with traffic jams

= Maung Than Weik =

The biggest problem in Yangon today is the mega traffic jams the whole commercial city is facing almost every day. Except on the Myanmar New Year Day (on which only the famous pagodas are crowded with a very large number of Buddhist pilgrims) and one or two days afterwards, Yangon streets have become driver-friendly and parking-friendly again like they were ten or more years ago. Traveling on these two or three days in the city is a dream both for drivers and passengers.

But nowadays we will have to concede that traffic jams have become the symbol or everyday life of Yangon. Taxi drivers charge more as these jumbo traffic jams eat up most of their precious money-making hours. As for city bus drivers and ticket collectors it is an irritating situation making them rude and short tempered that commuters have to take these public transport vehicles at their mercy. Most of the commuters have become early birds riding these overcrowded slow moving vehicles for long hours while exercising total restraint all along their journey from the start to the end. So, some jokingly say that taking the public transport enhances power of forbearance. In many cases passengers are pulled into the bus and push out of the bus by ticket collectors before the vehicle actually stops which make bus-riding something like a theme-park adventure!

As for the private cars finding a place to park is the most difficult thing that is even harder than the work of driving on the congested thoroughfares where some cars, especially commuter buses and taxis practice racing or aggressive driving. Because of such acts and traffic violations to reach the destination fastest Yangon is prone to road accidents that make comprehensive motor vehicle insurance the most popular business of the insurance industry.

Surprisingly Yangon has worse traffic snarl-ups than Tokyo or Seoul yet the number of registered cars in the Myanmar’s commercial city is much fewer than those two mega metropolises of the Asian economic giants.

So what is happening in Yangon? What is the cause of these mega traffic jams of Yangon that is not a mega city yet?

One thing is that Yangon has not many or no specific parking areas as the work of building special places for keeping cars is just in its planning stage. So, most of the cars have to park on the roadside platforms shrinking the area of traffic lanes of thoroughfares or leaving only a small area for cars rolling on the narrow streets. This expands the volume of traffic jams and lengthens their existence. Another problem is the lack of discipline among many drivers. Some even don’t know the traffic rules thoroughly although they are holding a driving license.

One of the main contributors towards these mammoth jams is the plummeting automobile prices that many in Yangon now can own a car despite the scarcity of parking places. Although authorities are building flyovers with the participation of private companies they are not the real answer to the problem. For example, Hledan junction is still crowded with cars despite the emergence of an overpass. The regional government has some gigantic Yangon extension plans that may alleviate traffic jams. But they are not clear maybe because of the lack transparency.

One possible reason is that the company concerned may not want to release any information before the start of the project. In many cases people are confused, so they turn to unverified information or rumors about a company or companies that win a certain project with the help of some under the table dealings. In the absence of clear official announcements such unconfirmed news may be the only source of information for the people to rely on or believe.

Some Yangonites dream of underground tubes that are reducing the number of cars on roads even in the cities like Bangkok notorious for their traffic congestion. As the cost of building a city subway system is very high and the work is much sophisticated we may need financial and technical assistance from international community to have one in Yangon city.

International financial bodies like World Bank, IMF, Asia Development Bank are working together with Myanmar in some infrastructure development projects, but we still need more if we are going to launch a gigantic infrastructure project like a city subway system.

The best is not come yet. But we can start with what is within our capacity.

For example, building multi-store car parks, improving the existing city circular railway system, extending the roads where and when possible, enforcing traffic rules and completing the renovation works of underground conduits and cables that involve parts of roads in time can also do the job.

#Themyawadydaily