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Wanted: The angel to end Dar traffic blues
2008-03-21 09:46:27
By Editor
Dar es Salam has been bedeviled with traffic jams for quite a long time. Much as this problem has been noted, discussed, expounded, clarified and articulated, it remains as solid as ever, and the situation, apart from improving, is getting worse on each coming day.
Sad to say, even the construction of new roads and highways has not kept pace with increased car use. For one who looks at the issue lightly, he may confine it to a mere traffic problem and nothing else.
However, traffic jams have a huge impact on the economy and job performance in the city of Dar es Salaam and elsewhere. The man-hours being lost daily, the frustrated plans, the chronic delays at workplaces and the ensuing disincentive to work are factors that retard production output and reverse the pace of progress.
It is sadly interesting to note that whoever is responsible for ending this mess in Dar es Salaam has not woken up to the above-mentioned fact, which is a matter that should have propelled the authorities to move at breakneck speed.
We all know that the whole issue of slower speeds, longer trip times and increased queuing has to do with flawed city design and lack of foresight, but it is also true that this situation can be reversed, and the earlier, the better.
Critics have said for umpteenth times that all Dar traffic flocks to the business district at the beginning of the working day, and from there, moves out to suburbs and localities at the end of the day, hence the chronic traffic jams.
To end the crisis, suggestions have been floated for the construction of ring and additional arterial roads, flyovers, new highways etc. Nevertheless, for a critical mind, such steps may alleviate the problem to a certain degree, but will not end the traffic mess.
The real solution lies in the construction of New Dar es Salaam, in which all major social and financial services will be available, and where key public offices should be relocated.
Additionally, there has to be a deliberate move to construct satellite cities which are self contained, in a sense that a person living there would not be compelled to travel far to secure basic needs or conduct financial transactions.
The suggestions that are being given here are nothing new, and in fact, almost everybody who matters in this city and in Tanzania has toyed aloud with the idea, but quite surprisingly, things have ended there.
Why do the authorities delay in taking this much awaited feasible step? It is because they expect that the expansion of the city`s road network and the introduction of the rapid bus transport system will see the traffic mess dead and buried.
It does not need an expert to say that they are wrong, and time-that tireless teacher--will soon prove them wrong.
By the time they will wake up to reality, it will be too late to take meaningful action, because the city traffic will almost be at standstill at that time.
Whoever is the angel who will construct a new Dar es Salaam city for us, this person`s name has to be carved-in-stone at the gates of the new city, and these words will have to be engraved in his lasting memory: `He saved the people of Dar es Salaam from a dreadful traffic mess.`
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