Transport Wars

Tuesday, September 19, 2013, was the fourth day of a new school year for close to 200,000 private school students in Addis Abeba, as they return from a three-month summer break.

At 7:00 am, Jemila Akmel, 31, was at the taxi terminal around Woyera Sefer, in Kolfe Keranyo District, to take her five-year-old daughter, Halwuya, to her school. She is attending the Cruise Kindergarten, located on the ring road on the way toAlertHospital. She couldn’t involve herself in the struggle among people to take a taxi, however, for the sake of her little girl.

“I was here for the last 30 minutes, but I couldn’t get a taxi,” Jemila told Fortune, while scanning the street in search of an empty taxi. ‘‘However, the struggle is like free wrestling.’’

Before the new academic year began, Jemila used to leave her house at around 8:00am to head to her workplace, aroundMexico. There, she works as a secretary in one of the private companies.

‘‘Although there was a struggle to find a taxi, the last three days have been hectic since the schools are opened,’’ she told Fortune.

Commuters all over the city seem to share Jemila’s experience, since the transport chaos in Addis Abeba continues to be one of the major problems faced by residents. These include Hermela Negusse, 17, a grade 10 student in a private school located around Haya Hulet Mazoria.

She was late for school on Thursday morning. When Fortune met her aroundMexico, she was waiting for a taxi to go to her school before the administrators closed the doors.

“During the last academic year, I used to leave my home at around 7:30am for school and the roads were free,” Hermela said. “Now, however, the road is crowded and I have to wait for several minutes to get a taxi.”

The problems associated with the availability of minibuses at most of the terminals, which has been the case for several years, continues to exist in the city with a population of 3.7 million. This is even after the introduction of the taxi zoning system, two years ago.

Close to 1.4 million commuters are catered for by the estimated 9,000 blue and white taxis brimming all over the city, according to a research published by the Addis Abeba city Administration, in January 2013. The remaining transportation, including – 760 city buses, 462 midi buses and 6,000 vehicles – serve close to 600,000 commuters every day.

However, a recent study conducted by Abebe Kebede, Road & Transport Bureau Programme Production Team Coordinator, indicates that there is a daily 1.4 million public transportation service coverage demand gap in Addis.

The research, entitled – ‘’The State of Public Transportation Service inAddis Ababaand Future Plans’’ – noted that “recently a 2.2 million public transportation demand has been addressed using all available modes of transportation. But still, there is a 1.4 million gap felt’’.

The study also reveals that out of the total population of Addis needing transportation services, 60.5pc are pedestrians, 11pc use buses, 20.6pc taxis and the remaining 3.3pc use public, non-government and private vehicles.

Although figuring out the exact number of taxies operating in the city is difficult for the Abeba Road Transport Bureau, officials claim that the existing taxis are not functioning appropriately, creating artificial demand.

Enforcing the taxi zoning system strictly would be our main propriety for this year, Genet Dibaba, Communication Affairs Support Process Head at the Bureau, told Fortune.

Taxi zoning has played a role in easing the problem by bringing fair taxi distribution across the city. The problem could be worse if the zoning was not started, according to Genet.

Genet also said that her Bureau is working hard to enforce the strategy by employing new 240 controllers.

“We are also working with the Anbesa City Bus Enterprise to deploy an additional 50 large buses, over the coming month,’’ Genet told Fortune.

Anbesa ordered the articulated 18m long buses with trailers, in July 2013, from the Metal & Engineering Corporation (MetEC). They are to be delivered in October, at a cost of 200 millionBr.

On top of this huge gap between the supply and demand for transportation, commuters like Hermela, who find it difficult to get to their destination, are affected by the road and railway construction undertaken by the government.

Most ofAddis Ababa’s busiest roads, including from Megegna to Torhayeloch, which Hermela uses to get to her school  and a road stretching from Abune Petros to Asko  are currently under construction.

The transport problem was relatively smaller last year, says Hermela.

“The problem started to reach its peak after the construction of many roads started,” Hermela said. ‘‘Nowadays, commuters have to wait for hours to get transport, especially fromMexicoto Torhayloch.”

Hermela’s observation can be illustrated by the experience of Endale Guta.

Endale, 33, is minibus taxi driver who provides a transport service for students from Woyera Sefre to two private schools, located aroundMexico.

Since he has to use a longer road in order to transport the students he has raised his monthly fee to 175 Br from 150 Br, recently.

“Currently roads are crowded and we cannot do business as much as last year, so to compensate this my friends and I have to increase our fee,” Endale told Fortune.

To avoid transportation difficulties, Jemila has paid an advanced payment to a minibus taxi, which provides a transport service to Halwuya. She has now agreed with the driver to start getting the service, starting from the coming Monday.

However, the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority (AACRA), one of the City’s administration wings in charge of maintaining and constructing new roads deems that all necessary measures to use roads wisely were made.

“We have done all necessary works to prepare alternative roads. We will also conduct small repair work to improve the functioning of the main roads, starting in the coming week,” Fekade Haile (Eng), head of the Authority, told Fortune.

This will enable residents to move without major difficulty, said Fekade.

However, after an hour of waiting, Jemila decided to wait until the hustle was over and headed to a nearby café, in front of the taxi terminal.

“We can’t travel under such conditions, even if it means my daughter and I will be late,’’ she told Fortune, while crossing the road to reach the café.

 


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