Getting to grips with gridlock By Gihan Shahine Survival of the fittest seems to be the only rule governing Cairo's streets these days. But the criteria of fitness also depend on whether one is a motorist or a pedestrian. To avoid accidents, motorists must develop manoeuvring skills. They must acquire the knack of avoiding a car speeding the wrong way down a one-way street, braking suddenly, or changing direction with no prior notification. A skillful driver must know how to avoid bumps and potholes, and escape imprisonment after running over a careless pedestrian dashing across the street. Drivers' skills are best demonstrated at intersections. Car indicators are usually ignored, forcing drivers and commuters alike to use their hands, and sometimes their whole bodies, as more visible alternatives. Pedestrians, meanwhile, must develop acrobatic skills if they are to cross roads without being run over or falling into an open manhole. An intensive body-building course is also recommended for those who seek to climb Cairo's sidewalks -- which are built especially high, one presumes, to discourage drivers from using them as impromptu parking lots. "It is hard to know what is going to happen next when it comes to venturing onto Cairo's streets," exclaims Ghada Salah, a physician, who has lived in England for the past five years. Salah no longer dares to drive or walk in Cairo. The traffic, she says, has driven her crazy. "Traffic was not as bad only five years ago," Salah insists. "Nobody respects traffic laws and regulations, everybody simply goes his own way. It takes hours and hours to go anywhere. Streets are blocked day and night." Salah is not alone. Ask any driver in Cairo about the traffic -- just ask. "Cairo was not like this at all 30 or 40 years ago," laments Salah Abdel-Fattah, a retired professor of chemistry at Ain Shams University. "Downtown was beautiful. Walking down the streets of Cairo was a special treat. There was hardly any traffic. Laws were respected. Roads were well paved. Pedestrians were taken into account. Public transport was clean and fast, and almost everyone used it. Private cars were a luxury. Today, Cairo has become extremely chaotic, even more so in the past few years. I've almost stopped using my car to avoid traffic jams." Are traffic problems the result of legal loopholes, or of a failure in urban planning? Have people just stopped caring? Do drivers not know that a red light means stop? Or is it a case of too many cars, too little time? According to statistics released by the Interior Ministry's General Traffic Authority (GTA) last October, the number of licences issued rose from 822,919 in 1997 to 851,412 the following year. In the past 10 months, up to four cars an hour were licensed, adding to the million vehicles licensed from Cairo that fill the capital's streets every day, and the half that come to Cairo from Giza and Qalyubiya every day. The number is likely to reach two million over the coming year. Can Cairo's streets cope with the ever-increasing number of vehicles? Everybody seems to agree that Cairo is crumbling under the twin pressures of traffic and population. Each vehicle requires 25 cubic metres of precious space; 6,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries are caused by traffic accidents every year. "Cairo's streets are definitely not qualified to accommodate the increase in the number of vehicles," maintains Milad Hanna, an expert in urban planning. But despite the public and official consensus that the increase in the number of vehicles is one major reason behind traffic crises, health problems and strained nerves, many experts believe other factors are involved. "Cairo has been over-planned," says Hanna. He explains that the linking of Cairo to the satellite cities of 6 October and Al-Obour, located to the north-east and south-west, has encumbered the capital with an additional traffic burden. "The result is that Cairo is suffering from what I would term arteriosclerosis," he adds. "Without declaring Cairo a closed city, I am afraid traffic will even get worse and people will have to suffer for at least another 10 years." Sherif Kamel, a veteran urban planner, agrees that Cairo is in dire need of better planing if traffic is to be streamlined. A case in point, he says, is the district of Doqqi, originally planned as a neighbourhood of villas and boulevards. The owners of most villas in the district randomly expanded their abodes into more profitable high-rise apartment blocks. The streets and the sewage system, however, could not cope with the resultant increase in the number of the inhabitants -- especially since few of these apartment buildings included garages. Planners, Kamel adds, had to expand the streets at the expense of the sidewalks -- "a big mistake". "Expanding streets and adding more fly-overs and tunnels is not always the solution to traffic congestion," Kamel notes. Rather, he explains, these measures encourage the influx of more vehicles into already congested areas. "I believe the right solution is to develop an efficient public transport system, such as the metro, which would probably decrease the current extensive use of private vehicles. A committee of traffic specialists and engineers should be formed to study the problem and draft a comprehensive master plan. Such planning is widely absent at present," Kamel maintains. But for Zaki Hawwas, another planning expert, "the traffic crisis will not be solved unless several easily accessible multi-storey garages are built around Cairo. Apartment and office blocks should also include garages. These, together with the Ring Road and the pedestrianisation of some streets in the city centre, will relieve much of the traffic congestion in downtown Cairo." Recently, the government has been exerting extra efforts to streamline traffic in Cairo and Giza through better planning. Three multi-storey garages are going up in especially congested areas: Darrassa, Giza and Mustafa Mahmoud Square in Mohandessin, according to General Abdel-Aziz Mohamed, the head of the GTA. In a recent interview, Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata announced a comprehensive plan to streamline traffic. Conditions, however, will only begin to improve in two years, Shehata said, when the Ring Road, due next April, and the 15 May fly-over are completed. The completion of construction work on the second metro line, scheduled for next April, linking the densely populated district of Shubra to Giza, will also alleviate much of the pressure, according to Shehata. Once the subway line is functioning, several public transport terminals can be moved to Cairo's suburbs. The Ahmed Helmi terminal has already been relocated to Abboud, located at the Cairo-Qalyubiya city limits. A parking lot with a capacity of 800 vehicles will be built there at an expense of LE8 million, and planners hope commuters will leave their cars there and take the metro into Cairo. The GTA has also formed a committee of senior traffic policemen whose task is to help streamline traffic in congested areas. "But the Traffic Authority cannot solve the traffic crisis alone," maintains Abdel-Aziz Mohamed. "We are constantly faced with collapsing sewage networks, buses that stop in the middle of the street, and owners of apartment buildings who turn their garages into shops in violation of the law. All these factors complicate the problem, and we cannot remedy them." Brigadier Magdi Amin, head of the Qalyubiya Traffic Authority, adds that financing has been another major challenge. Losses caused by traffic accidents are estimated at about LE1 billion a year, but only LE40 million a year are allocated to the Cairo Traffic Authority, he explains. In a recent seminar on traffic problems, guest speaker and veteran Al-Ahram journalist Abduh Mubasher concurred with Mohamed that traffic is the responsibility of several authorities. The Ministry of Education should teach young people traffic regulations and respect for the law. The Ministry of Interior should also ensure that policemen and junior officers can drive properly before granting them a car, he noted. The Ministry of Industry should also be involved so that the number of cars produced does not exceed the city's capacity, he suggested, while the Ministry of Local Government should improve the paving of the streets. As for the Ministry of the Interior, Mubasher wondered whether it conducts proper driving tests, including questions on traffic laws and regulations, before granting licences. "Are cars checked thoroughly? And are traffic laws strictly enforced? People do not have to answer questions about traffic regulations, which explains why most people are not driving properly," he noted. "The result is that driving mistakes are passed on from one generation to the other. Drivers on the streets today know nothing about traffic laws and penalties." Safwat El-Alem, a researcher on traffic problems and professor at the Faculty of Communications at Cairo University, agrees that driving exams and the licensing system are lax. Many experts feel that driving schools must be established to qualify drivers for driving tests, which should be more detailed and strict. Officials concede that driving tests are "not efficient enough", but insist that this particular problem has been dealt with, since the Interior Ministry has recently "developed a very strict driving test in which the driver is examined on all traffic rules," Mohamed states. "Fewer than 25 per cent of applicants have passed since the new system was put in place. Those who fail the first time around cannot try again before three months have passed. If they fail a second time, they must wait a year before trying again." To further control drivers' misconduct and solve traffic problems, the Interior Ministry has also drafted a new draft law which was recently presented to the People's Assembly. The law would impose higher fines on violators, harsher penalties on those driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, an LE50 fine on those driving without seat belts, and a penalty on those driving without lights. The bill also includes a term stipulating that a driver's licence will be suspended if he or she commits three traffic violations in a period of six months. The new bill has triggered mixed public reactions. Some think the imposition of harsher penalties will force people to abide by the law, and thus solve a big part of the traffic problem. Many, however, believe the new law will be useless unless people are acquainted with its new terms, parking solutions are provided and the law is enforced "on everyone without exception". Both Kamel and Hanna agree that the new law will not make any headway in the absence of a master plan addressing all the factors involved in the traffic crisis. "Before we impose harsher penalties on motorists, we should provide solutions. Otherwise, the new bill will simply be a means of collecting money without improving conditions," Kamel concludes. Mahmoud El-Hamalawi, an engineer at the Ministry of Planning, complains that very few people have any idea of the terms, fines and penalties entailed by the new bill. "I am one of the many citizens who do not know much about the new law, or the old one, for that matter," he complains. "People should participate in the drafting of laws, or at least be informed properly before their implementation." Officials, however, retort that a media campaign has recently been launched to acquaint people with the new law and that the bill is still being studied by the People's Assembly. So much for cars; what about the pedestrians? "Death is inevitable," Hanna scoffs. "Pedestrians have always been disregarded. The planners have always focused on traffic problems and financial losses. Pedestrians are not included on their maps. Cars have taken over sidewalks, which are no longer safe, and pedestrians have been forced into the middle of the street." Officials concede that pedestrians have been the principal victims of traffic problems. They hope, however, that by establishing multi-storey garages, developing efficient public transport, imposing fines on violators, removing street peddlers and relocating public transport terminals, traffic will be streamlined and pedestrians will be able to walk and cross streets safely. Two years ago, the government launched a project to pedestrianise a number of downtown streets. Alfi Street was a successful case in point, but the plans to expand a downtown pedestrian promenade was scrapped -- it would have created unthinkable traffic jams. The Al-Azhar tunnel project is another attempt to pacify pedestrians, in the framework of a comprehensive project to ban cars from Fatimid Cairo and turn the area into an open-air museum. "Still," Kamel contends, "zebra crossings are not respected by motorists and there are areas like the Autostrade and Salah Salem Street where it is simply impossible to cross from one side to the other. Some pedestrian bridges were built, but I think they're useless. Many people are not physically able to go up long flights of stairs." Instead, Kamel suggests, tunnels should be dug below main streets, and escalators or ramps provided. While waiting for such large-scale construction work to be carried out, some have decided to take matters into their own hands. A Doqqi-based NGO has decided to lend a hand in solving traffic and pedestrian problems. "Bring back our sidewalks: that is our motto," exclaims Sohaila El-Sawi, a member of the Committee for Doqqi Community Development (CDCD), affiliated to the larger Society for Environmental Preservation. "By bringing back sidewalks," El-Sawi explains, "we mean cleaning the area, removing kiosks, planting trees, collecting garbage, and redesigning squares and pavements according to international specifications. We believe that if we have appropriate pavements for people to walk on, many traffic problems will be solved. Pedestrians will no longer have to walk in the street, holding up traffic even further." To attain these goals, the CDCD has formed a team of students enrolled in the Mit Oqba government school. Many of these children live in working-class suburbs bordering on Doqqi. "We have taught these children how to clean their surroundings and how to work in groups. And the idea was very successful," El-Sawi claims. With the help of these environment scouts, the CDCD has rebuilt the pavement in front of the children's school, planted a few trees, and furnished it with a ramp on one side for the disabled. "Many of our neighbours liked the idea and decided to follow in our footsteps. Officials have also become more cooperative," says El-Sawi enthusiastically. Perhaps, then, there is hope for pedestrians too in the urban jungle.
