Economics and Business

Death by traffic

By Vivid writer: Ray Breden

Bucharest's traffic is now so bad that even Romanians complain about it. With the exception of the rather slight improvements to DN1, nothing is being done to improve the road system. There's a high price to be paid for such inaction

Posted: 25/06/2008

Average speed in downtown Bucharest

Several months ago I was giving a lecture on meeting skills and remarked that the initial protocol was driven by the culture of those at the meeting. I said that the British tended to talk about the weather for the first few minutes (or more!) but until about two years ago there was very little small talk before a meeting with Romanians. But that had now changed.

How come, asked one student. I threw the question straight back, and the student asked what was the content of the small talk. Bucharest traffic, came the answer from me. When I thought about it some more, I realised that every meeting I had been to in the past two years had started off with a discussion about the horrors of the traffic - usually because everyone was late for the start of the meeting. After that lecture I found it very difficult not to laugh at meetings. I knew what the opening remarks would be, and sure enough out they came!

But there is a serious point here and it needs to be addressed. There is no doubt that most people want to have a nice car and to drive everywhere. The mobility that is achieved by having a car is unquestionable. However, in Europe it is recognised that in urban areas and particularly city centres it simply is not possible to provide for the seemingly endless demands of the motorist. A number of cities have taken measures to deal with this matter.

I am not against the car - I have one myself and I use it daily - but it is also clear to me that it is not efficient in the city. In Bucharest, it is now accepted as normal to have total gridlock and to expect journeys to work to take at least one hour, if not two. I am usually skeptical about the attempts of economists to put a price on "wasted time", but just think about the time that is wasted daily in Bucharest by sitting in a traffic jam that is going nowhere fast.

The explosion in the development of Bucharest is obvious. Not only are there new developments in the city - in the north of the city office complexes are being built with amazing speed. With the exception of the rather slight improvements to DN1, nothing is being done to improve the road system.

Talk to any expert in city planning and he will tell you that you cannot meet the demands of motorists because their demands are basically infinite. All sensible planners have the "stick and carrot" approach. Use the stick to reduce the number of cars in the city. Restrict parking, impose a congestion charge, allocate roads to buses and make it generally difficult for the motorist. But the stick does not work without the carrot. To get people out of their cars you have to have an efficient public transportation system - buses, trams, metro and taxis, plus planning for cyclists and pedestrians.

But is the transport system sufficient for the needs of the city? The answer is clearly no. One of the reasons why there are so many cars is that there is no viable metro alternative. Where is the metro to key parts of the city? Imagine the difference if there was a park-and-ride scheme in the north of the city (by the airport?) where you could drop your car and be whisked into the city centre by metro in 15 minutes? Where are the lines from the west, south and east with park-and-ride? Why is there no orbital system?

The buses and trams, with some honorable exceptions, are not much better. And why? Because they have to compete for road space with cars. Why do we not have more bus lanes with strict enforcement to prevent cars from using those lanes?

I can already hear rumblings of dissent. Where will the money come from to fund the building of an efficient transport system? Whilst it is true that it will cost a lot of money, my main concern is the lack of planning. In other words, there seems to be a complete absence of "joined-up" thinking.

I talk to people who I know have been campaigning for many years to persuade the authorities to have a long term, well thought out strategy. They pointed out 15 years ago that Bucharest needed more metros, bus lanes, traffic management, control on development unless it took into account integrated transportation needs. They were right, but not much has happened.

The price to be paid for not doing something, and not doing something now, will be very high. Businesses will suffer, because they will have a work force that is tired of long journeys to and from work, arriving unmotivated and always thinking of how to get something better without so much travel. Businesses will suffer because travel to and from meetings takes so long and is wasting time.

The price paid by people living in Bucharest is also too high. Sitting in a car for three hours or more each day just going to and from work is tiring and is definitely not good for one's health. It is time that you lose with your family. The whole quality of life suffers.

We are witnessing before our eyes the death of Bucharest by traffic strangulation. Do the planners have the willingness and the energy to prise the hands of the traffic away from the windpipe of the city to enable it to breathe again? That is the challenge.

Ray Breden is a Director of the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Director of Taxation Services at KPMG Romania.

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