The Straits Times

Race to unlock Yangon’s gridlock

Strong traffic in Mahabandoola Road, with the Sule Pagoda in the background, in central Yangon in January. Myanmar’s largest city is growing rapidly, and with more cars and few parking spaces, stationary vehicles take up room on the roads, squeezing out the moving ones. Traffic often slows to a crawl during peak hours. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A crowded bus during rush hour in Yangon, Myanmar, in January. A revamp of the bus system that month eyed the number of bus routes slashed, drawing public criticism. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY, Sunburn HUI YEE

One of the more modern bus stops outside the Sule Shangri-La hotel in downtown Yangon. PHOTOS: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY, Suntan HUI YEE

An outbound train stopping near an apartment building in Yangon. The city’s ageing trains serve only 1.Five per cent of travellers. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

Fresh China-made buses along Pyay Road in Yangon, waiting to be deployed once the paperwork is in order. Motorcycles and bicycles are banned in downtown Yangon. Left with few other choices, 60.8 per cent of commuters turn to buses, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which is advising the government on this issue. ST PHOTO: Suntan HUI YEE

Workers preparing a platform at Botataung Pier for a future boat service that will hopefully take commuters off the roads and ease traffic jams. ST PHOTO: Suntan HUI YEE

A car showroom in Yangon. Persuading the well-off to switch to public transport is likely to be raunchy. ST PHOTO: Suntan HUI YEE

On a repurposed bus still bearing Korean-language transit maps, Mr Soe Than navigates service No. Four through rush-hour Yangon. Powerful air-conditioning keeps the mix of students, labourers and office workers cool even however bus attendants string up off the side of the vehicle through an open rear door. But it’s a long, jerky rail to the suburbs.

“I have been driving here for over fourteen years,” the driver says. “Nowadays, there is powerful traffic all the way.”

Myanmar’s largest city is growing rapidly, and its streets are slowing for it. With more cars and few parking spaces, stationary vehicles take up room on the roads, squeezing out the moving ones. Traffic often slows to a crawl during peak hours.

Unlike other South-east Asian cities, motorcycles and bicycles are banned in downtown Yangon. Left with few other choices, 60.8 per cent of commuters turn to buses, according to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), which is advising the government on this issue. Yangon’s ageing trains, in contrast, serve only 1.Five per cent of travellers.

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“This transport system is experiencing a quick breakdown,” an Asian Development Bank report warned in a report last year.

Traffic jams that used to occur during peak hours at a few junctions are now taking place in many arterial streets, and also at other times of the day.

Left unchecked, it could hurt economic growth, experts warn. It could also widen the social divide, by motivating those with money to buy cars, while damning the rest to even longer bus commutes. The spectre of gridlock afflicting metropolises like Jakarta and Bangkok looms over Yangon’s future. Stunted by some five decades of junta rule, Myanmar is a regional laggard that can avoid the city planning mistakes of its wealthier neighbours. But the National League for Democracy government has also inherited peculiar conditions.

Average peak-hour speed in kmh of cars in Yangon in 2007.

Average peak-hour speed in kmh of cars in Yangon in 2013.

Average peak-hour speed in kmh of cars in Yangon in mid-2015.

Percentage of bus passengers who spend inbetween one and two hours on their daily commute.

Sources: Myanmar Transport Sector Policy Note, Urban Transport. Asian Development Bank (2016), Yangon Traffic Report by auto trading site Motor.com.mm (conducted inbetween late two thousand fourteen and early 2015)

The 14-year-old ban on two-wheelers in Yangon is one, imposed officially to ensure road safety, but widely thought to have been triggered by security concerns. Meantime, both left-hand- and right-hand-drive cars can be found on its roads.

With import controls eased in 2011, the number of Yangon-registered vehicles almost tripled to 773,237 by June last year. Yangon’s 7.Four million population is projected to hit Ten.6 million by 2031, according to projections by the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population.

Dr Maung Aung, secretary of the Yangon Region Transport Authority, is optimistic. “If we can do better public transportation, and make it very comfy and very translucent, the people won’t use private cars,” he tells The Straits Times.

With aid from Jica, Japan’s development assistance agency, state-owned Myanma Railways is upgrading a colonial-era 46km circular railway line that links the outer edges of the city to its centre.

In addition, a private company has been given the rights to run a boat service along two waterways forking to the east and west of the city. And there are tentative studies for a future metro.

What has drawn fire tho’ is a revamp of the bus system in January that abruptly slashed the number of bus routes to free up the roads.

“The buses were rivaling with one another (for business),” explains Dr Maung Aung, a trained economist. “We diminished three hundred thirty lines to sixty in January. But many people faced problems, so we step by step switched it. Now we have eighty six lines, but that’s not the final number. If necessary, we will permit for fresh lines.”

The bus system overhaul is still in progress. Hundreds of gleaming fresh China-made buses now line a carpark near his office at the Yangon Regional Government, waiting to be deployed once their paperwork is processed.

While that has put the lid on Yangon-registered private cars, it has not stopped fresh cars registered in other parts of the country from being driven into the city. Some owners have even duplicated licence plates and used the fake ones on fresh cars.

To counter this, the authorities plan to issue radio frequency identification tags to cars. This will permit cars to be tracked and perhaps fees to be collected from owners of cars registered outside Yangon.

“After solving that problem, we will permit fresh cars with Yangon licence plates,” Dr Maung Aung proclaims. But he could not say how long that would take.

The ban on motorcycles, ironically, makes it lighter to coax commuters onto public transport.

“If we can introduce a good mass transit system, people will voluntarily choose that service,” Jica’s chief representative in Myanmar, Mr Masayuki Karasawa, tells The Straits Times. “But if they are stuck to motorcycles, which are so convenient, it is stiffer to coax them.”

Persuading the well-off is another matter altogether.

In a Toyota showroom on a Sunday afternoon, off-duty military officer Aung Thit Wai admires a US$Nineteen,900 (S$27,000) metallic blue Vios. His wifey gets in, starts the ignition and runs her fingers across the dashboard.

“The middle class don’t want to use public transport,” he says. “It will take time.”

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