Transportation hardship: need for viable options

Before the just-ended Women’s AFCON, there were legitimate fears about whether Cameroon was going to fulfill all its commitments in ensuring an efficient transportation system during the tournament.

The answer today is yes; but we are far from a situation where transportation, especially within the city milieu is easy, not to talk of being comfortable. That is why the government is getting very concerned about the situation to the extent that it is considering the outright banning of clandestine transportation systems within Cameroonian cities.

The government obviously has some concerns; least of which is not the fact that many of such clandestine transporters may be encouraged simply by the fact that during the Women’s AFCON everything went well and may start thinking to carry the same situation to coming events such as the Men’s AFCON coming in 2019.

Obviously, the scope of the two AFCONs is not the same and if the just-ended one went along without many hitches, same cannot be expected of the 2019 event which is much larger in scope as it will involve not only 16 teams at least, but will also involve many more cities.

Even if the government did not insist on requiring that city transit systems be given a facelift during the Womens AFCON, some personal attempts were made by private citizens to improve the quality of taxi services, many of which were before the tournament in very bad posture characterized by torn seats, disrupted equipment within the sitting areas often resulting in passengers ending up with torn clothing, poorly dressed drivers or simply vehicles in advanced stages of disrepair.

The government thinks it is about time an end should be put to these practices. Just this week it was announced that a number of buses were coming to ensure public transportation.

But that is certainly just a drop of water in an ocean of urban transport problems. A few years ago, the President of the Republic, from Douala, was encouraging a disciplined use of motorbikes as a way of solving the urban transport problem.

This solution definitely has limitations because its effectiveness in getting urban dwellers into the suburban areas has not been quite the same in its attempts to get into the inner sections of the city where the management of traffic, especially on cars, is a lot more complex.

Can the buses announced for the cities of Yaounde and Douala address the situation? It is difficult at the moment to say, given their limited number and in the face of the great demand in urban transit.

The situation calls for the attention of all the principal stakeholders. Our city council authorities are still too timid about addressing this important component in city management, seen from the very small interest in the transport segments of their budgets.

It is up to our local councils to think of or about the most viable and productive options that can ease transportation in our various municipalities.

Texts indicate that these initiatives can be taken; but what stops our Government Delegates or Mayors from taking such actions which, in the long run, go a long way to making life easy for the local populations and for which they do not require any authorization from Yaounde!