The Sunday Mail
Ashbold Mari
Mass transit therefore provides solutions to the economic, social, energy and environmental challenges in the city.
Provision of a reliable, efficient transport system to move goods and labour is required if Zimbabwe is to grow its economy through urban productivity.
The country has been urbanising at a high rate. Ironically, as urban population grew, conventional public transport declined.
This was mainly as a result of an adverse operational environment.
The two factors of increasing population and the lack of conventional public transport stimulated the growth of the informal public transport and private car ownership. As the informal sector and private motorisation expands, the city’s main urban public space is increasingly more congested, impeding rather than facilitating the urban population’s ability to access the required social and economic services.
A vivid mismatch of the demand for traffic space and its availability is evident.
Demand for traffic space exceeds that of its supply, inevitably resulting in congestion which can be protracted.
Demand for transport has increased faster than the City of Harare can provide and is creating health and safety risks, impeding economic development.
The increasing public-supply/demand gap compelled the proliferation of pirate taxis.
There are absolutely no mechanisms within the Harare City Council to reduce congestion in the CBD because council itself does not have its own public transport service.
In July 2015, Harare City Council entered into Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with two local public transport companies to offer scheduled urban passenger transport services in the capital, and the ambitious deal suffered a stillbirth.
Despite the recent needless operation by the Harare City Council, the reality is that motorists and pedestrians have suffered at the hands of both commuter omnibuses and illegal pirate taxis, commonly known as “mushikashika”.
Running battles between the police (ZRP and Municipal) and public transport providers have left many injured and some even dead.
These small cars and minibuses park willy-nilly, blocking other traffic and causing congestion. However, driving commuter omnibuses (kombis) outside the CBD would not ease congestion.
This is because the same number of passengers would require the same number of shuttle service as commuter omnibuses to ferry them to their respective ranks in the CBD, thereby creating the same volume of traffic.
There is need to decongest the city and that we all agree, but the move by the City of Harare was ill-timed because there are a number of issues that need to be addressed first.
Driving kombis outside the CBD will not address the problem because congestion is also compounded by small vehicles which are used as modes of public transport.
The mass transport system is a reasonable suggestion because the present public transport system is characterised by small vehicles and the operations are fragmented and inefficient as they are run by individuals.
Secondly, mass transit vehicles carry a far higher number of passengers, making them an efficient user of road space, ultimately decongesting the city.
Thirdly, due to their sizes and ability to carry people en mass, the cost per passenger kilometre is lower, making them affordable to users.
Fourthly, as mass transit systems carry more efficient engines, they can save fuel better than small vehicles.
Finally, their impact (negative effects) on the external environment is lower compared to small vehicles.
Mass transit therefore provides solutions to the economic, social, energy and environmental challenges in the city.
The legislative framework for mass transport system is already in place, but what is required is a commitment by stakeholders to implement the policy.
There are three possible options for the implementation of that policy:
l Minibus operators forming an association to acquire conventional buses or empowering the current operators to acquire bigger buses),
l Franchising high-demand corridor routes, and
l Public Private Partnerships (PPPss)
Harare City Council is facing grave challenges which, inter alia, include an increase in population and the number of motor vehicles, a deteriorating transport infrastructure, severe congestion, an inefficient public transport (if ever there is any) and a high rate of accidents.
All these snags have implications on achieving a sustainable transport and hence the need to raise the question on the requirements of achieving sustainable transport for the city.
If there shall be no consensus on the form of public transport that the City of Harare should adopt, there is, however, a strong view on a mass transport system as the backbone of public transport.
All the efforts that the city fathers or the Government may try to implement in trying to ease congestion should not be instant and abrupt but rather must be a process.
If the mass transportation system is implemented; issues of sustainability and reliability should be taken into consideration.
Ashbold Mari is a transport and logistics professional. He wrote this article for The Sunday Mail.
