LUSAKA stands out as the country’s busiest and most densely populated city, providing vast business opportunities and vibrant prospects to both its inhabitants and visitors.
A growing undoubted menace to the quality of urban life in the capital city has been that of traffic congestion, particularly during “peak hours.”
In trying to curb this problem, Government, in the recent past, borrowed and spent more than US$348.8 million towards the construction of 400 kilometres of urban roads in Lusaka, which, going by today’s traffic situation, did not seem to solve half of the problem.
Ordinarily, the conventional solution to solving the problem of traffic congestion has been that of building the necessary infrastructure to accommodate it.
However, people are likely to make more movements when they are provided with infrastructure that makes driving easier. This increase in movement therefore results in traffic congestion.
Another of the most perceptible reasons behind the increase in traffic congestion can be attributed to an increase in Lusaka’s population – which has been increasing by a hovering average of four percent over the past four years.
This upward demographical change has translated into an increase in commuters and a subsequent increase in the number of privately-owned motorcycles and vehicles, all of which largely circulate around or end up in Lusaka’s Central Business District.
Additionally, from a “fairly naïve” perspective, some suggest that positive signs of economic growth have resulted in traffic congestion, premised on the assumption that an increase in household income has led to an increase in vehicle population and thus traffic congestion.
Conversely, traffic congestion and economic growth are arguably strange bedfellows owing to the fact that the long unproductive hours that are lost when the city’s workforce sits idly in a traffic jam – burning more fuel than would otherwise be optimal, is in essence a hindrance to positive economic growth.
This notwithstanding, the primary reason behind traffic congestion in Lusaka can closely be linked to the fact that too many people want to move at the same time every day.
The simple and yet complex reason behind this could be because the boundaries that define Zambia’s educational, economic and, to some degree, religious systems, confine people to run their pertinent day-to-day errands within the same hours, thereby compelling them to wait in line for that limited road space.
As the burden of alleviating road congestion continues to weigh heavily on the shoulders of Zambia’s policy drivers, there are several alternatives and few social changes that need to be considered to make a “congestion-free-Lusaka” a living reality, as we cannot even imagine what the near-future will look like, should the status quo prevail.
Enhance flexible work hours
Zambian labour laws dictate a maximum eight-hour working day, a maximum 48-hour working week, a rest break of at least 24 consecutive hours in every seven-day period and a meal break of an hour on each working day.
Furthermore, there are no regulations that constrain the employer or employee from varying their working hours or work location, provided that these terms and conditions are agreed upon between both parties; reminiscent of the working patterns that ensued during the Covid-19 pandemic period, when employees were allowed to work from home and only report for work on selected days.
Equipped with these employment laws and lessons drawn from the work patterns that were adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic, one would beg to ask the question as to why almost all employment contracts in the entire country seem to require employees (and in many instances school going children) to report for work at 08 hours, have their meal/lunch break between 13-14 hours and then knock off at 17 hours, without expecting to conjure a traffic jam of some sort?
It is about time that public sector organisations and private businesses started to take flexible working patterns a little more seriously. Other than empowering employees with greater control over their working schedules, flexible working allows employees to work from home which reduces their need to commute to and from work thereby reducing the number of vehicles on the road during peak hours and consequently allowing traffic to flow smoothly.
Furthermore, flexible working can help to spread out the peak traffic times. This is very important seeing that most people travel to and from work at almost the same hours.
Allowing employees to start and finish work at different times can help to spread out the peak traffic times, meaning that there would be fewer people on the road at any one time, reducing the likelihood of traffic congestion.
Public transport incentives
Another convenient and easier approach to reducing traffic congestion is to promote and incentivise the use of public transport.
This can be done by offering incentives such as reduced fares or improving public transit systems while ensuring that public transportation vehicles use dedicated lanes during “rush-hour” to bypass traffic, thereby providing faster and more reliable services.
In a narrower context, the solution here would be to reduce the number of lanes available to private vehicles in favour of public transport.
Another public transport avenue worth considering is that of revamping the local railway transportation system. One primary advantage of using the railway system is its ability to move large numbers of people quickly and efficiently.
This can be especially effective during peak travel times, when roads are often congested with cars. By offering a viable alternative to driving, railways can reduce the number of cars on the road, easing congestion and improve traffic flow.
Another advantage of using railway systems rests on the fact that trains are less likely to be involved in accidents than cars, have less negative consequences on the environment and are also able to operate in all weather conditions.
Controlled parking
One of the most crucial components of any city’s road transport system is the effectiveness of its car parking mechanisms. The absence of enough parking spaces, as the case is in Lusaka, is a great source of confusion, in as far as decongesting the city is concerned.
Interestingly, the lack of car parking space could also be used to the local authority’s advantage. In this scenario, Lusaka City Council may need to consider devising a system that seeks to gradually place limitations on the use of private vehicles in town by ensuring that car parking on routes that are likely to create traffic congestion is either disallowed during certain hours or is priced exorbitantly.
Using this mechanism, only public transport would be allowed to enter into the CBD while at the same time discouraging private cars to take trips in town during peak hours, especially on roads where the volume of traffic is such that more space is needed to ease the flow.
Implementation of Smart traffic lights
In its current state, Lusaka City’s main roads use the traffic light signal technology, which is generally used to control the flow and motion of vehicles. This type of traffic management technology uses fixed time settings which ensure that traffic lanes at a given intersection wait in line for the traffic lights to turn green as a signal for a go-ahead or turn red to signal a halt.
However, this system does not take account of traffic in real-time. For example, some drivers may have experienced a time when the traffic lane that had the longest convoy of vehicles had a very short go-ahead green light while the traffic lane that had a shorter convoy had the longest time indicating red. This scenario usually ends up in traffic jams that are occasionally detangled by Human Traffic Officers.
With these limitations, the onus rests upon the government to consider investing in smart traffic lights that have the ability to observe and control traffic in real-time for better road traffic management by calculating the optimum time when traffic lights can turn green or red depending on the congestion levels as opposed to pre-programmed timing schedules.
Moreover, smart traffic lights could also be linked together to create a network of interconnected traffic lights that can be used to monitor traffic conditions across Lusaka city as a whole thereby allowing traffic flows to respond quickly to changing conditions.
Conclusion
Traffic congestion continues to pose indications of worsening with each day that comes by, which poses a threat to the quality of urban life. This threat is heightened by the fact that most Zambian’s today aspire to buy a personal vehicle, due to the comfort, convenience and perceived status that comes with owning one.
This, among other reasons, foretells the imbalance that will continue to ensue in the matrix that concerns individual attainment, the use of public transport and traffic congestion.
The onus rests on the local authorities, public institutions and business owners to begin the fight against traffic congestion, with ideas such as the ones discussed, among many other strategies
In addition, we ought as a city, to understand that technological advancements have opened up more possibilities for providing better solutions and new alternatives for dealing with road traffic management.
The avoidance of solving this problem, may sooner or later appear in the deterioration of business productivity, environmental pollution and subsequently the healthiness and sustainability of our city.
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