Traffic woes

Traffic chaos has now become a regular feature of Kathmandu Valley. Every time you are headed for office or for an appointment you wonder whether you will make it on time. On a bad day you can get stuck in traffic jams for hours. Things get worse and Kathmandu traffic becomes unmanageable in case there is an accident or a VIP motorcade is on the move. Even minor obstacles can create jams that last hours.



The traffic chaos is a result of a combination of things. Growth in the number of vehicles in the Valley has far outpaced the expansion in road network. The number of vehicles registered in Bagmati Zone, about 98 percent of which ply in Kathmandu streets, doubled in the last five years, allowing little time for a commensurate expansion of the road network even if such was the intention. But the truth is, we also did not anticipate that things could get this bad so fast nor did we have adequate resources to actually do something about it. What has happened in the end is, the Valley road network hardly increased at all, creating huge traffic pressure on existing roads.



Add to this the policy level mistakes. Some two decades ago when Kathmandu Valley hardly had any traffic pressure since road vehicles were so few and far between, we had big public transport buses (Sajha Yatayat then being omnipresent). But even as traffic pressure grew, Sajha Yatayat was allowed to die, its buses became extinct like the once mighty dinosaur, and we encouraged the import of taxis, three-wheelers and microbuses as our means of public transport. Small vehicles for public transport means big traffic problems anywhere in the world.



Our traffic problems can no longer remain fixed, for that would mean waiting until a complete breakdown. The government should take immediate measures. The first measure could be to upgrade the under-staffed Traffic Police so that they will have more personnel on the ground to take on traffic rule violators and enforce lane discipline, which will significantly ease unnecessary traffic obstructions. Secondly, we should expedite road constructions along river banks in the Valley and develop alternative traffic routes. Third, big and reliable pubic transport vehicles should be promoted and route and time discipline enforced so that they will earn public trust and, over time, replace small vehicles. But it’s also time we began to think of a long-term solution. Without a flyover or subway transport system we cannot address Kathmandu’s traffic chaos on a permanent basis.

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