2011 and Africa's Public Transport

The wheels are grinding slowly to a halt as 2011 comes to a close. For Africa's public transport, another mixed bag of hopes, raised, met and dashed in varying measure.

Political Will and Public Transport
As with every economic sector in society, public transport is a lever for driving change in society. The key thing about public transport is that it provides a platform for all other activities in society. Mobility is central to human life and the more intertwined and conflicting these become, the greater the need for high level co-ordination, high value infrastructure that meets the needs of all users. This is where political will is vital to achieving investment in public transport networks. There is evidence to affirm that many countries on the continent are gradually beginning to visualise their overall goals of prosperity through the prism of a viable, beneficial transport network. It is also becoming evident that many of the MDGs that form the crux of the African Union's NEPAD agenda require an integrated transport system.

Here is hoping that as governments cast their visions into the new year, they will acquire and retain a strong desire to build modern transport systems that will drive established and new economic activities. Of course, I expect that the some of the key frontiers in African transport investment - South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal will continue to provide leadership in this context.


Upskilling the professionals
I wish to pay tribute to the leaders of UATP, the African section of the UITP for their tireless effort to raise the human capacity in the African public transport sector. I attended a workshop in Lagos that was organised by UATP and resourced by the World Bank Transport Group. It brought together professionals from across the continent. This is the type of interventions that I expect governments to continue to put together in the new year.
The key point to note is that local public officials and local operators should be brought into the mainstream in order to ensure that they are able to interpret high level visions and deliver them for the benefit of the public.

Finally, I thank you all for following my conversations and expect to share more with you in 2011.

Best wishes and a happy new year to you in 2012.

Lagos, Nigeria – Counter-productive Traffic Measures on Lagos BRT?

Pedestrian fatality on Africa’s roads and other trespass deaths on rail and water services contribute to the high rate of deaths on the fledgling transport infrastructure. In the case of road and rail, there is usually poor segregation of motorised and non-motorised traffic. There are issues of social and historical dimensions responsible for this lack of segregation and they continue to pose a huge challenge to transport planners in developing countries.

Part of the problem is also economic because street trading and itinerant traders and artisans use the transport corridor as a place to pursue their business. Additionally, planners have often been weak or connived in the abuse of traffic management regulations.  In most areas, the transport corridor is prone to encroachment and outright conversion to non-traffic uses. This has been true of all modes of transport including rail and water which by nature ought to be protected from such abuse.

Transport planners have sought to apply many balms while seeking long-term, more enduring solutions. One such solution is based on engagement with stakeholder groups such as market associations and community groups including, where present, traditional rulers and chiefs. Often, such measures serve only to cement vested interests and create a platform for key groups to hold the government to ransom through periodic planned disruption.

Nevertheless, the needless recurrence of pedestrian deaths has led to options in the design and management of the transport corridors to achieve a degree of segregation.

One such common initiative is to build pedestrian bridges over busy carriageways to prevent pedestrians crossing through very fast road traffic. This has been used in Lagos, Nigeria where communities have been split in two after a new highway is built. Compliance is arguable because many people still choose to cross the road rather than use the footbridge.

Since the advent of LAMATAwww.lamata-ng.com, a more robust approach has been applied to managing the traffic corridors in its jurisdiction.  A recent look at the way pedestrians are required to use BRT bus stops in Lagos suggests that LAMATA is encouraging pedestrians to walk the walk of death. The following presentation illustrates the above observation. Judge for yourself and let me know your views.

This series of pictures were taken at Maryland Bus-Stop on the north-bound Lagos BRT route towards Ojota.

Pic 1. 4pm 25 August 2011, Maryland Bus Stop on Ikorodu Road southbound – LASTMA officials on duty in the median for the afternoon peak traffic

 

Pic 2. Across the road is Northbound BRT Maryland Bus Stop with a bus about to stop and release passengers. Please note the Zebra Crossing in the service lane of southbound Ikorodu Road

Pic 3. Northbound BRT bus has released passengers. They now cross the BRT lane into the merge lane right into the main carriageway of Northbound Ikorodu Road

Pic 4. A LASTMA official is monitoring traffic in service lane. Passengers are in the median and looking frantically at traffic to make the dash across the main southbound carriageway

Pic 5. Passengers have spotted a gap and make a dash across the southbound carriageway. Watch the man in white.  The commercial motorcyclist in green helmet waits for a fare

Pic 6. The man in white has crossed but has not used the Zebra Crossing…

Pic 7. Doesn’t seem as if any of the pedestrians is crossing the Zebra…

Observations:

1.       It appears that the majority of the passengers getting off the northbound BRT Bus Stop are going to the community across the road. This also appears to be the case for the cars and buses as most are actually turning right into the side road. If that is the case, a safer crossing ought to be considered.

2.       The Zebra Crossing is not very useful. From my observations, the crossing is too close to the right-turn junction ahead and therefore it seems impractical to require cars not to drive and stay on it for pedestrians to cross from the other side. The crossing is also dangerous as it encourages pedestrians to cross a fast carriageway to get to the other side.

3.       Pedestrians are actually crossing into the path of southbound BRT buses that are reputed for their speed and high frequency

Options:                                                                                                                        

1.       Build a footbridge - [money is scarce]

2.       Block the median with a physical barrier

3.       Direct pedestrians to use the crossing at Maryland Mobil Petrol station to get to the other side. I am not an engineer and my views may be considered   simplistic but at least the last two options will indicate to users that what they are doing is unsafe. At the moment, the traffic managers seem to be encouraging a daily dance with death.

UATP President, Mr. Ousmane Thiam, UITP most senior Vice-President, becomes UITP President, effective mid-October 2011

Press Release

Brussels, 21 September 2011

Alain Flausch to follow Hans Rat as Secretary General of UITP

The members of the Executive Board of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) have selected Alain Flausch as new Secretary General. He will take over from Hans Rat, who will retire after running the Association for 13 years. This appointment will be effective by the end of the year. Mr. Ousmane Thiam, most senior Vice-President, will follow Alain Flausch as President, effective mid-October 2011.  

As the CEO of the Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB), the public transport company in Brussels, for the last 11 years, and President of UITP since 2009, Alain Flausch has long-standing experience in the public transport sector and in UITP.

Since April 2000, Mr Flausch has led the STIB through an in-depth cultural change, conducting a complete renewal both of the commercial approach and the corporate management, setting a new company culture where clients are at the very heart of the service provision. Since 1999, STIB ridership has increased by more than 100% and last June STIB received the '4-star Recognised for Excellence' label awarded by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

Alain Flausch's election acknowledges his strong commitment to UITP. Among other roles, he has been a member of the UITP Policy Board since 2004 and has been President of the Association since 2009. He has been a member of the UITP Business and Human Resources Management Commission and the Metropolitan Railway Committee and chaired the UITP European Assembly.

"UITP gains a highly experienced person both in the private and the public sectors. He is strongly committed to UITP and to PTx2, the ambition to double the public transport market share worldwide by 2025. He actually contributed to it by achieving impressive results with the Brussels public transport network. I am convinced that UITP is in good hands," said Hans Rat.

In accordance with the UITP by-laws, Ousmane Thiam, most senior Vice-President, will take over Alain Flausch's mandate as President. Mr Thiam is President of the Conseil Exécutif des Transports urbains de Dakar (CETUD), Senegal, and President of the African Association of Public Transport (UATP), acting as the African Division of UITP. His mandate will be confirmed at the next UITP Executive Board meeting, to be held in mid-October 2011 in Milan.

Current UITP Secretary General Hans Rat is retiring after 13 years at the helm of the Association. During his time, UITP grew and diversified its membership to embrace the full public transport supply chain. Today, UITP has an impressive worldwide presence thanks to the establishment of 11 regional/country offices.

"Hans Rat's passion for the sector and his worldwide strategic vision for the Association have pushed the sector to be ambitious and it will be an exciting challenge to continue in his footsteps," stated Alain Flausch. "He has created a strong legacy at UITP and amongst its membership through his personal commitment. UITP thanks him for all his achievements."

African Cities are Walking Cities, but are they Walkable? | This Big City

African Cities are Walking Cities, but are they Walkable? | This Big City

Nigerian Ultra Modern Railway Network Project

Photos taken at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria..August 2011. 

IS THERE SOMEONE IN CHARGE OF GETTING RID OF SCRAP AT THIS AIRPORT?

Africa airports need investments

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Wednesday, 07 September 2011 23:40

digg By Alawi Masare BusinessWeek Reporter Dar es Salaam. Aviation stakeholders are calling on public and private sectors to work together to improve airport operations.The initiative should include employing modern technologies to meet demands of the market. Most airports in Africa are unable to handle the increasing number of travellers and amounts of cargo volumes because their infrastructure is poor. During the 17th annual Aviation and Allied Business Leadership conference in Dar es Salaam recently, 200 participants from various countries and institutions said most airport terminals in Africa had poor infrastructure. They had ineffective safety and security systems which cause unnecessary delays in cargo handling. The stakeholders called for joint initiatives between public and private sectors in investing in infrastructure improvement.The operations director of the Astra Aviation, Mr Michael Mutahi, said improving cargo terminals, parking and lighting facilities would improve services. “There is a need for partnerships between airports and airlines for airport operators to understand the demands of cargo airlines. Our customers are surely not happy with the way the services take too long to be delivered,” said Mr Mutahi.He also added that the charges for air cargo transport were higher in Africa than in other continents. The sales director of Sita for Sub-Sahara Africa, Mr Sam Munda, said most airports in the continent had poor information and communication technologies to enable the aircraft,  personnel and passengers to be tracked. He noted that 48 per cent of the airports were still using social media like the Facebook and Twitter for communication.Sita plans to install CDM to top 50 airports in Africa by 2013. He also said that the airlines were delaying to start using services such as self-check-in-kiosks, self-boarding and self-bag drop although the basic infrastructure was available at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam. South Africa and Ghana are using the “self services”. “Airport authorities and airlines operators need to have collaborative decisions on the application of self and other services like smart cards and e-passports. They make the journey more secure and simpler,” said Mr Munda. “With declining prices of mobile phones, airports also need connectivity for such services. Mobility, self service and collaborative decisions are key elements of the intelligent airport.” While some aviation stakeholders call for the adoption of modern technology, others fear that replacing human labour will leave many people jobless.“We must also think of the youth employed in terminals for boarding and bag dropping to aircraft. The governments should think on how to take care of them,” cautioned the Ghanaian deputy transport minister Dzifa Attivor. Mr Kenneth Horhammer, Vaisala marketing manager, said the highest risk phases of flights were during the take-off and landing, thus much concentration was supposed to be on airport infrastructure.He advised airport authorities and the private sector in Africa to use appropriate technologies to work jointly and make serious efforts on best practices. “Most African airports are small with poor runways and no instrumental finding systems; but you should standardise the concept of small airports and organise forums for sharing best practices,” said Mr Horhammer. According to him, Africa has only 15 large airports, 440 medium-sized and 1,917 small- sized ones. He argued that the continent could do better with the small sized airports if it had seriously invested in them. This is the case because many airports globally are small.  “By the way 98 per cent of the world airports are small and medium sized.”Swissport Tanzania CEO Gaudence Temu noted that the implementation of technology employment projects at the airports was slow.  “The self services like self check-in kiosks are not fully utilised in most airports including our own JNIA except South Africa. Most airports remain outdated and today’s’ needs are growing,” said Mr Temu. He also noted that the cargo terminals were still poor.

On the Buses - A Personal Trip on Lagos BRT

One of my concerns about governance in sub-Saharan Africa is the huge disconnect between the leaders of our countries and the people they govern. I call it the 'democracy upside down'. It's the democracy I define as 'the government for the people by the people avoiding the people'. In one quick phrase, the leaders don't govern in the public interest. Indeed, the truth is that the governors in most African countries do not use the services for which they are making policy. In the more common cases, most top functionaries educate their children in elite schools overseas, use medical services in these countries and do their tourism away from the continent.

Nowhere is the disconnect I mention more prominent than in the transportation sector. While everyone may use the public roads, they use them in different ways. Evidently, the poor in Africa travel about using privately-provided forms of public transport enduring bad roads in very unsafe and dangerous vehicles and low quality of life. Car-ownership thus becomes a deathly aspiration as it is seen as the ultimate escape from sharing public transport with the 'wretched of the earth'. It is not a surprise that as people move higher the social notch, personal use of public transport - Danfo or Molue - in Nigeria or Kenya's  Matatu, almost certainly becomes a thing of the past. This abandonment may be of crucial benefit to entrepreneurs and active professionals whose work quality is raised by more efficient time-management. The downside to this trend is that it cements the disconnect between the elite and the poor in a way that affects the democratic foundations of government policy

Fortunately, sub-Saharan African governments are taking steps to improve the standard of public transport across the continent. For the first time, in many decades, business, professional and government employees are having first-hand experience of using a regulated bus service in their cities. 

A classic case is the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit http://www.lamata-ng.com/brt.htm.

I had the privilege of using the Lagos BRT during my recent visit to Lagos last month. I recommend it wholesomely to anyone travelling in Lagos along the BRT corridor. On the day in question, I had the ready-made offer of being driven to Lagos Island in an air-conditioned car. Personally, I had an idea how long the journey would take at 10 a.m but, as with anything in Lagos, the expected 20 minute trip and its return was not predictable. I might not get back to Ikeja in six hours! I asked my driver to drop me off at Maryland BRT Stop. I bought my one-way ticket for 120 Naira [about UK 40 pence]. A blue BRT bus duly turned up after three minutes and I hopped on. The Bus Captain checked my ticket and I went to find a seat. The bus was clean and the seats and other furniture were intact. I was impressed with the driver's skills as I enjoyed the scenery from the dedicated lane. As the bus swept past the exotic SUVs and other vehicles, I noticed that all occupants in the bus were people who would normally have ridden on dilapidated vehicles because they had no choice.There was a young man fiddling with an iPad. Interesting.

Apart from a short delay stuck behind another BRT bus at Palmgrove, the journey was smooth and I arrived at CMS 27 minutes later, refreshed and happy at the money I had saved. Had I chosen to hire a red cab or other taxi, I would have paid anything between 2500 Naira [UK £10 and 4000 Naira [UK £17] for the same trip. The journey time would have been comparable.

I left the BRT at CMS BRT Bus Stop and crossed over to my destination using the footbridge by the marina. Returning to Maryland, I took the BRT again and made the journey in 24 minutes.. Total cost for both journeys: 240 Naira [less than £1]. That's what I call value for money. When I reported my experience to my associates, they typically expressed shock that I had done a thing like that, insinuating that I had free time on my hands and unduly risked my personal safety! Yet, they could not deny that what I did was perfectly sensible. I actually mentioned that it was thought to be so safe that one person actually was using an iPad on the bus. I found out he was an Engineer with Shell, the oil giant. The cynicism was compounded by underlying political antagonism and reference to the 'background'of the BRT drivers as 'former Molue drivers'.

My summation:

1. The Nigeria elite, like their counterparts across the continent turn up their noses at public institutions.

2. Travelling around your city, using the means used by ordinary citizens - on a regular basis - is a sound way of engaging with policy impact.

3. Out with government 'official' cars and escorts. Take the bus to work and other places and experience if your policy is working. If you don't like it, others won't.

Thankfully, there are more high-capacity transportation projectshttp://www.reavaya.org.za/ coming up across the continent. When the elite realise how much time their poorer citizens are saving by their travel on public transport with improved work-life balance, perhaps they too will get out of their SUVs and learn to relax on the metro. That'll be the day!

Keep moving - Africa is moving!

Interesting times ahead in Africa's Transportation sector

Last year, in the first week of October 2010, I arrived in Dakar, Senegal for a week of discussions with transportation professionals from across Africa. It was the first gathering of such a group under the aegis of the International Union for Public Transport [UITP], through its African unit, UATP. It was a useful assembly with a deep focus on the need for high level focus on public transportation by governments, business and other stakeholders. It also marked a watershed of interaction between anglophone and francophone countries, especially in West Africa.

Many of the presentations showcased on-going initiatives and raised issues of pertinence and relevance to all participants. The main thread that ran through the sessions was that Africa needed to raise its game and energise the Transportation sector. A moot point was that our inefficient transportation systems were a major factor in the level of mass poverty, ill health and insecurity. Decision-makers were encouraged to make strategic transportation planning a key item on national economic planning.

If anyone thought that the Dakar Declaration was the end of another talk-shop that would little fruit, it was a great delight to attend a joint World Bank-UATP  Integrated Mobility Planning workshop at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.

Held over five days from 31 May - 5 June 2011, sponsored by UATP in conjunction with the World Bank and similar agencies, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority [LAMATA], hosted a contingent of Africa's top transportation professionals. I found the interactions at the workshop very valuable and met many fellow transportation experts who were very receptive and keen to take ideas forward in their cities.

For those among us that had been in Dakar the year before, it was an affirmation that two of the key issues - advocacy for public transportation in Africa and raising human capacity in the sector - were gradually being addressed.

The message is this: public transportation is taking off in Africa in a big way.

In future blogs, I will talk about the key issues driving transportation in Africa today, highlighting success stories and the challenges we face in doing our best to move Africa's people and their goods.

 It's time to get African moving - modern mobility measures for a modernising continent.