Worsening traffic congestion frustrates Yangon commuters

  For  office  worker  Ko
Maung Oo, hours spent
traveling to and from work by bus each day are
a source of “anxiety and
frustration.”
His experience is
common among Yangon
commuters, whom a recent survey found spend
an average two hours each
day in traffic.
“Traffic  moving  at
a snail’s pace in the congested spots makes us feel
despondent,” Ko Maung
Oo, who commutes from
his suburban home to an
office downtown, told The
Global New Light of Myanmar on Thursday.
“Our precious time
has been stolen on the
buses stranded in daily
rush hour congestion.”
The  Yangon  Traffic
Report released by auto
trading site Motor.com.
mm found 44 percent of
bus commuters spent between 1-2 hours a day
on their daily commute,
while 35 percent spent
twice as long commuting.
The survey, conducted
in late 2014 and early 2015,
received responses from
about 500 commuters.
It found 65 percent of
road users were caught in
severe  traffic  jams  at  least
six times a month, 35 percent were affected three to
six times a month. Urban
commuters face the most
drawn-out journeys due
to  traffic  woes,  the  report
pointed out.
Statistics show 3.7
million, or 79 percent, of
Yangon’s almost 6 million
people use buses for their
daily commute, with 7 percent catching ferries, 4 percent riding circle trains and
2 percent taking taxis.
Taxi driver Ko Lin
Phyo said he and fellow
drivers were losing money
while stuck in traffic.
“Heavy congestions
in Yangon reduces our
potential earnings as it is
unavoidable to be stuck in
traffic  for  several  minutes
every day,” Ko Lin Phyo,
28, said.
Since the introduction
of a scheme to replace old
vehicles with imported
autos, Yangon has seen
an  influx  of  cars,  with  vehicle numbers rising on
roads downtown, as well as
in suburbs and satellite
towns.
According  to  figures
compiled last December
by the Department of Road
Transport Administration,
433,788 registered vehicles are running on Yangon
roads, accounting for about
80 percent of the country’s
643,719 cars.
The report listed Pyay
Road between Myaenigone
and Hanthawady roundabout, Hledan Junction,
Tamway Junction, areas
near  Bayintnaung  flyover
and Theingyizay market
among the worst places for
congestion.
Some 26 percent of
respondents to the Yangon
Traffic  Report  blamed
bad drivers for the city’s
traffic problems, while 16
percent cited the dramatic
increase in vehicle numbers. Another 15 percent
pointed  to  insufficient
road infrastructure.