Keep adjusting the sails
ALWAYS look for something positive in each day, even if some days you must look a little harder.
Remember we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails (Dolly Parton). (Philippians 4: 8) — Dr Mazvita Machinga.
URBAN transport system has been a nightmare for many people in Zimbabwe. An efficient transport system augments economic development and growth and ultimately enhances the standard of living.
Access to basic services such as education, health, workplace, leisure centres and markets, among other essentials hinges on transport.
The transport system boosts mobility of people, goods and services.
However, urbanisation is synonymous with motorisation. They are like Siamese-twins the worldwide.
Developed countries are endeavouring to detach the two, while developing countries are in the fast lane to motorisation. Transport infrastructure in the cities and towns catapults motorisation.
In Zimbabwe, for instance, driving is a status symbol. Owning a car is a measure of wealth, regardless of the make and age of the same.
We used to have a vibrant car assembly factory, Willowvale Mazda Motor Industry, but it is now no longer fully functional due to several reasons.
The country relies heavily on imported vehicles. Importing brand new cars is a luxury and is a preserve of the affluent due to the price tag. Second-hand imports have become a “birth-right” to many Zimbabweans.
The pre-owned cars are imported mainly from Japan, Singapore, Thailand, United States and United Kingdom.
Studies have proven that motorised- urban transport contributes signifi cantly to the public health concerns. Th ink of pollution, in particular noise and air pollution.
People with pre-conditions (such as respiratory conditions), the infants and pregnant women are the hardest hit by air pollution.
The fuel used by motorised transport emits greenhouse gases which destroy the environment.
Now, the iron of the matter is that developed countries tolerate certain levels of greenhouse gas emissions, beyond which, they are expected to get rid of the smoky cars.
There are ready markets to dump these condemned second-hand cars. Zimbabwe is one such market.
Road carnages and congestion symbolise the motorised urban transport system. Congestion associated with peak hours is inevitable as people rush to work and school errands.
When it rains, all drivers suffer from ineptitude. Only the highway-code prohibits driving against on-coming traffic and to straddle the yellow markings.
A single lane often creates three “free-ways” leading into the central business district. Road rules are thrown through the window.
Patience and reasoning vacates even the learned colleagues. Wisdom on the urban roads is measured by your ability to meander through a traffic jam unscathed.
If you are using a commuter omnibus (kombi), you only breadth-out on arrival. The driving increases your adrenaline. Issues of affordability and accessibility also come to the fore. At this moment, the country is seized with liquidity crunch.
Private public transport operators demand cash, and are reluctant to accept plastic or mobile money as fares.
This culminates into social exclusion, inequality and coercion. The drivers have all attended the proverbial “School of Ideological Insults and Abuses”.
The planning authorities seem oblivious of non-motorised transport systems like walking and cycling.
In some corridors of ignorance, it is not surprising to hear some people giggling once you mention walking and cycling as alternative means of transport.
It sounds ridiculous, primitive and like dinosaurs and perceived as means for the poor and the vulnerable. The well-to-do people walk or cycle for fun or training!
Growing up, I used to believe that cycling is meant for security guards for they were the majority of people I used to watch cycling to and from work.
The urban transport infrastructure favours the motorised transport system.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the places of residences are pushed far from the central business districts, where most people are either formally or informally employed.
Walking for 20 kilometres is by no means a joke. The authorities have tried to convert roads into one-ways, but the situation is not improving either.
The urban road infrastructure has crowded out non-motorised modes of transport. There are no prescribed side sidewalks and cycle tracks.
We now have vulnerable road users in the form of pedestrians and cyclists.
People compete for space on the roads and/or pavements, some of whom would be wearing headphones with music on high volume. The situation is not helped either, by the vendors who can be vicious to the same potential customer should he or she stumbles on their wares.
The existing infrastructure does not guarantee safety of the vulnerable road users.
Th e elderly and persons living with disabilities are left behind, in a decade of action as enunciated by the Sustainable Development Goals, where all nations are called upon to leave no one behind.
Many a times, I have seen people on wheelchairs battling to negotiate their way through the pavements. We do not have talking robots to help the blind.
In Harare, we only have two overpasses in the central business district, the one over Julius Nyerere connecting Inez Terrace and Rezende Street, and the other one over Robert Mugabe connecting Eastgate Mall and Eastgate complex.
In some developed countries, they have constructed parking lots for bicycles, where people operate cycling facilities as a business.
Is it really necessary to drive from the Avenues area into Samora Machel or from Market Square to Roadport?
Walking is an option, but one is put off by the dusty “walkways”.
We lack safe infrastructure for non-motorised transport system. It is high time that we have a mindset reorientation as a people. The wheel is already invented, but the will is lagging behind.
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