When you hear people talking about the weather that means either they are looking to "break the ice" and start a conversation or they have run out of things to about! Well, we now have another topic in Sri Lanka that is fast out-placing "weather" for this purpose - Traffic! (this is great for some as they would now have two topics to talk about and sound less boring!) You just need to drop the word "Traffic" and it will spark non stop conversation about how someone got late or met with an accident or just didn't go out due to disgust!
The number of vehicles on the roads of Sri Lanka have increased exponentially over the last couple of years. As seen in the graph below the number of new car registrations peaked in Oct 2015 at a staggering 15,000! This is compared to an average of around 2500 over the last decade.
I don't have stats that show how many vehicles were taken off the road but I would imagine it can't be more than a couple of hundred (per year) because in Sri Lanka we don't dispose anything! We use it till it corrodes and falls apart and find ways to get around things like emission tests etc. A vehicle that would normally be condemned and scrapped after a bad accident in a western country could be repaired to an almost original state by skilled workmen who have loads of experience doing this so there is no reason to really dispose of the vehicle...ever.
Unfortunately this just results in a huge burden that we Sri Lankans need to face up to daily...even on weekends. This is not just in Colombo but in most towns and major roads in the country. Of course Colombo is the worst...there is congestion getting in and out of the city from as early as 6am till at least 9pm. It is estimated that over 500,000 vehicles enter Colombo Daily! (http://colombogazette.com/2015/12/13/over-500000-vehicles-enter-colombo-daily/). And mind you a good number of these are not small "hatchback" type cars. People new to Sri Lanka would be shocked to see that we have almost all types of vehicles on the road from Teslas, Mercedes Maybachs, Hummers to the new humongous Nissan Petrol and Land Cruiser V8s. Some of them can barely get through some of the roads we have but unfortunately size of the vehicle is more important than practicality for some, so we need to live with that. The issue is compounded by the selfish undisciplined manner in which some people drive without realizing we are all trying to get to our destinations at a reasonable hour. You will often see people creating a 4th lane on a 2 lane road, sometimes including the pavement as well! (there is a facebook page that publicizes such violations - https://www.facebook.com/srilankantrafficviolations). Sadly, politicians and officers of the law are the biggest culprits here since they think they are above the law and can do whatever it takes to get to their destination on time at the expense of hundreds of others who get de-railed along the way. Almost every week we see some sort of a protest in the heart of the city where people block the roads and sometimes trigger police barricades and riot squads - one road getting disrupted means all that traffic then gets diverted to another road that is already congested and causes major havoc on the roads. Similarly every so often we get a foreign dignitary visiting the country and the government then decides to create a new "traffic plan" during his stay so that he won't get held up by traffic. The traffic plan means closing down half of the roads in the city with short notice, which can often add a good 2 hours to ones daily commute! What a sacrifice we all make to show our foreign visitor that we have nice open roads to get to anywhere in just a few minutes!
There is really no concrete solution to the issue and it just keeps getting worse by the day. The traffic police tries but fails miserably due to the volume and the constant increase of vehicles. They have tried making certain roads one-way and opening up additional lanes on the opposite side of the road during peak hours but don't think this has improved the situation at all. 18 months ago It used to take me 30 mins to drop the kids in school if I left home at 6.30am but now it take me 40-45 mins leaving at the same time. If I leave work around 6pm it can take me up to an hour and fifteen mins to get home (10Km). But if I work late and leave at 10pm it takes me only 10 mins to get home - that's the difference that traffic makes.
There are no comfortable public transport systems in the country although there were discussions about monorails etc during the election. So if you want to get to your destination in your own vehicle you will no doubt face this burden. It is really hard to plan a journey since it can easily take you 10 mins or 2 hours to get from point A to B. For the more tech savvy who are happy to rely on automated recommendations, Google Traffic is now available in Sri Lanka and does an awesome job at showing the current situation on the road - well, they just need to paint all the roads RED! If you can't take the stress of driving on these roads then there are many options available from convenient and affordable taxi services like PickMe, Uber or the famous TukTuks! However this doesn't take away the fact that you still end up spending 2-3 hours a day on the road, depending on where you live and work.
Two years and a bit since returning to Sri Lanka and traffic is probably the most frustrating factor so far. There are times that the mere thought about traffic and lack of parking keeps you away from getting out of the house, especially if that journey is optional!
The number of vehicles on the roads of Sri Lanka have increased exponentially over the last couple of years. As seen in the graph below the number of new car registrations peaked in Oct 2015 at a staggering 15,000! This is compared to an average of around 2500 over the last decade.
source: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/sri-lanka/car-registrations
I don't have stats that show how many vehicles were taken off the road but I would imagine it can't be more than a couple of hundred (per year) because in Sri Lanka we don't dispose anything! We use it till it corrodes and falls apart and find ways to get around things like emission tests etc. A vehicle that would normally be condemned and scrapped after a bad accident in a western country could be repaired to an almost original state by skilled workmen who have loads of experience doing this so there is no reason to really dispose of the vehicle...ever.
Unfortunately this just results in a huge burden that we Sri Lankans need to face up to daily...even on weekends. This is not just in Colombo but in most towns and major roads in the country. Of course Colombo is the worst...there is congestion getting in and out of the city from as early as 6am till at least 9pm. It is estimated that over 500,000 vehicles enter Colombo Daily! (http://colombogazette.com/2015/12/13/over-500000-vehicles-enter-colombo-daily/). And mind you a good number of these are not small "hatchback" type cars. People new to Sri Lanka would be shocked to see that we have almost all types of vehicles on the road from Teslas, Mercedes Maybachs, Hummers to the new humongous Nissan Petrol and Land Cruiser V8s. Some of them can barely get through some of the roads we have but unfortunately size of the vehicle is more important than practicality for some, so we need to live with that. The issue is compounded by the selfish undisciplined manner in which some people drive without realizing we are all trying to get to our destinations at a reasonable hour. You will often see people creating a 4th lane on a 2 lane road, sometimes including the pavement as well! (there is a facebook page that publicizes such violations - https://www.facebook.com/srilankantrafficviolations). Sadly, politicians and officers of the law are the biggest culprits here since they think they are above the law and can do whatever it takes to get to their destination on time at the expense of hundreds of others who get de-railed along the way. Almost every week we see some sort of a protest in the heart of the city where people block the roads and sometimes trigger police barricades and riot squads - one road getting disrupted means all that traffic then gets diverted to another road that is already congested and causes major havoc on the roads. Similarly every so often we get a foreign dignitary visiting the country and the government then decides to create a new "traffic plan" during his stay so that he won't get held up by traffic. The traffic plan means closing down half of the roads in the city with short notice, which can often add a good 2 hours to ones daily commute! What a sacrifice we all make to show our foreign visitor that we have nice open roads to get to anywhere in just a few minutes!
There is really no concrete solution to the issue and it just keeps getting worse by the day. The traffic police tries but fails miserably due to the volume and the constant increase of vehicles. They have tried making certain roads one-way and opening up additional lanes on the opposite side of the road during peak hours but don't think this has improved the situation at all. 18 months ago It used to take me 30 mins to drop the kids in school if I left home at 6.30am but now it take me 40-45 mins leaving at the same time. If I leave work around 6pm it can take me up to an hour and fifteen mins to get home (10Km). But if I work late and leave at 10pm it takes me only 10 mins to get home - that's the difference that traffic makes.
There are no comfortable public transport systems in the country although there were discussions about monorails etc during the election. So if you want to get to your destination in your own vehicle you will no doubt face this burden. It is really hard to plan a journey since it can easily take you 10 mins or 2 hours to get from point A to B. For the more tech savvy who are happy to rely on automated recommendations, Google Traffic is now available in Sri Lanka and does an awesome job at showing the current situation on the road - well, they just need to paint all the roads RED! If you can't take the stress of driving on these roads then there are many options available from convenient and affordable taxi services like PickMe, Uber or the famous TukTuks! However this doesn't take away the fact that you still end up spending 2-3 hours a day on the road, depending on where you live and work.
Two years and a bit since returning to Sri Lanka and traffic is probably the most frustrating factor so far. There are times that the mere thought about traffic and lack of parking keeps you away from getting out of the house, especially if that journey is optional!
