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Gerald Maguranyanga Traffic Friday
Harare is a bonafide bustling, modern metropolis by any measure. Sadly, a suffocating business (and political) environment in Zimbabwe over the past one-and-half decades has largely resulted in the depressing decay of the city. Some would argue that Harare has not been proficiently run for many years. For reminiscing older folk, it is like the city has now permanently engaged the reverse gear, and following a precipitous decline.

Harare is now a far cry from the Sunshine City once ranked amongst the cleanest and best run in Africa, and beyond!
The decay spans over many city deliverables.

Though much sticks out like a sore thumb, crying out for urgent attention, one cannot help but easily notice the exponential rise in traffic and the consequent, agonising, poor traffic movement in recent years.

Traffic flow into and out of the CBD and other busy nearby suburban areas is particularly suffocating around peak times on all week-days.

Whatever has been accomplished in attempts to control the resultant traffic jungle is grossly inadequate. The jungle is getting wilder and seemingly cannot be tamed.

A few years ago, the Mayor Masunda-led city administration initiated an ambitious traffic control signal head renewal project.
In fact, this columnist, regularly in touch with Harare’s hierarchy then, was officially invited to attend the new traffic control signalling system launch function by the Mayor himself at the corner of Samora Machel Avenue and Enterprise Road. Behind the scenes, I had for years pressed the city to work at resolving several challenges the municipality was facing.

One of my key interest areas was the traffic lights, popularly named “robots” in Zimbabwe.
However, Samora Machel Avenue/Enterprise Road traffic lights are frequently down, can inexplicably stay frozen for days, and even worse, can dangerously signal right of way to conflicting traffic!

See, the conventional, incandescent light bulb-fed robots in Harare are ancient, and could very well be sought-after antiques. Except for a few heads that were installed a few years ago, reportedly as state-of-the-art, energy-saving and solar-powered, the rest of the robots have more than doubled their lifespan.

It is said that the recommended lifespan of a current traffic light signalling system ended 15 years ago but, thank goodness, some of these robots have been blessed to enjoy life until today.

Unfortunately, as with old machinery in constant use, the breakdowns have become constant, initiating countless frustrations and posing danger to the public.

Many of the traffic light heads, even when fully functional, have be overtaken by time; they probably do not even carry capacity for a basic addition like a traffic filter light.

It means such old robots unnecessarily hold up traffic, inducing frustrations and bad behaviour by impatient road users. Anyone who has tried to make a right turn from Josiah Tongogara Avenue into Sam Nujoma Street can testify to the agonising pain!

There are many busy intersections where if the traffic light malfunctions even for a short period of time, mayhem ensues that can even endanger the public. This is true of areas downtown where the ruffian commuter omnibus drivers and big delivery trucks conspire to create a typical traffic jungle.

Notwithstanding, the occasional ZRP traffic and municipal police efforts to control traffic at peak times, Harare’s attempts to fully resolve the constant logjams at intersections have been, at best, half-hearted.
Several false starts to install a complete, new traffic signalling system over the years have not yielded the desired results.

In my opinion, the way forward is for the city to immediately establish a committee of stakeholders, preferably including Government, and invite bids from bonafide organisations to revamp the city traffic light signal system.

This writer is privileged to be in Gaborone, Botswana, for this whole week on a national assignment. It is not easy, considering that I am coming from Harare, to marvel at the attractive, modern, powerful projection, well-synced, LED traffic light signals all over this growing and much cleaner city where littering is intolerable.

The environment is in sharp contrast to Harare. It obviously helps much that Gabs does not endure the rolling power cuts that frustrate daily life in Harare, hence making it easy for our city to conveniently attribute much of the non-functional lights to lack of power.
It is disheartening that Harare’s road users have been told all sorts of why-not stories. The so-called city fathers (and mums, and uncles, and tetes, etc) should remember that ratepayers do not care about excuses. Any fool can create an absorbing, fast-and-furious tale.

It has become a pressing need for Harare City to install a genuinely modern, power-backed traffic light signal control system that works, come rain, come sun-shine.

And that system, like that in Gaborone, must allow for the safe, unhurried crossing by pedestrians, at a well-marked intersection. It would even be more user-friendly with a pedestrian control panel.

Sadly, in Zimbabwe it has been years since the poor pedestrian has been accorded right of way at a traffic light-controlled intersection by the typically impatient, on-the-edge Zimbabwean motorist, oh that is a whole matter for another  day.