Abstract
Traffic congestion is a major challenge in the city of Harare, especially in the central business district (CBD) resulting in massive delays, a decrease in productivity and an increase in environmental pollution. Therefore, the study sought to assess the management of traffic congestion in Harare urban. The study employed an exploratory design to sample 315 respondents through the administration of questionnaires. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven officials of management institutions in Harare. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS v 21 whereas the qualitative data was manually analysed. The study revealed that massive influx of motor vehicles in the city, bad attitude of drivers (especially commuter omnibus and tax drivers), poor or no urban transport policy framework, vendors all over the traffic ways; massive pedestrians population in the CBD and Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) were the main causes of traffic congestion. The effects of traffic congestion are decreasing sales, higher transport costs, pollution, decreased productivity and stress to motorists as a result of longer travelling time. The study recommends implementation of mass transit system in transporting public within the CBD, public education, strict enforcement of road traffic regulations, construction of proper vendor selling points in the CBD, provision of adequate parking spaces to help manage traffic congestion in Harare CBD as well as implementation of smart urban transportation and mobility technologies. Keywords: Congestion, central business district (CBD), Harare, mass transit, Zimbabwe DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-4-01 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Highlights
Traffic congestion is one of the worldwide urban problems, which can lengthen journey time, increase energy consumption, reduce industrial and commercial productivity, aggravate environmental pollution and result in traffic accident, (Currie & Walker,2011)
In the survey part the male and female respondents had equal chances of taking part as random selection was used.An accidental sampling technique was used in administering the questionnaires on 385, drivers, vendors, pedestrians, shoppers and office and industrial workers found within the Harare central business district (CBD)
Section C was on the effects of traffic congestion in Harare CBD while section D focused on the measures put in place to manage traffic congestion in Harare CBD and the final section, section E on the possible measures needed to manage traffic congestion in Harare CBD
Summary
Traffic congestion is one of the worldwide urban problems, which can lengthen journey time, increase energy consumption, reduce industrial and commercial productivity, aggravate environmental pollution and result in traffic accident, (Currie & Walker ,2011). According to (Texas Transportation Institute, 2011), traffic congestion in the US has increased substantially over the last 25 years. The Brazilian city of Sao Paulo is known to have experienced the world’s worst traffic jams, where people are stuck for two to three hours every day in traffic jams (Mahendra, 2009). Such situation has obvious implication on productivity and the socio-economic development at large resulting in delays, fuel wastage and money loss (Texas Transportation Institute, 2011 Mobility report). Transportation challenges in Harare has been caused largely by policy interventions in the transport sector such as the Zimbabwe Deregulation of the transport sector in the early 1990s mainly after the failure of the Economic Structural Adjustment Policy (ESAP),
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