Urban Transport Strategy. Management in Developing Countries John A Cracknell, страница 42

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4.8         Conclusions

4.8.1.      The conclusions are summarised as follows:

Conclusions on Institutional Arrangements for Traffic Management Issues

Institutional issues vary in scale from city-to-city - with the city size, “starting point” organisation and complexity of traffic problems - but the issues are basically similar and wide ranging and include:

§  lack of recognition of the need for a strong, professional traffic management agency with well defined powers

§  fragmentation of responsibilities and lack of inter-agency co-ordination

§  no continuity of staff or work program in the traffic management agency due to political change

§  inadequate regulatory powers for effective traffic management

§  low levels of staffing and professional capacity

§  lack of operational and implementation resources

§  lack of traffic regulation enforcement capabilities

Institutional requirements for an effective traffic management agency

The issues require a range of actions for resolution but key will be the creation and/or strengthening of

§  a city based traffic management agency with well defined responsibilities and accompanying powers to fulfil the tasks required for effective traffic management;

§  an institutional framework which recognises and legalises, the formal role and responsibilities of the “traffic management agency” in relation to the traffic police, to the "highways agencies" and all other agencies with interests in the transport sector.  In some cities formation of a traffic management agency may require redistribution of responsibilities away from existing agencies. This always presents difficulties but if traffic management is to be effective, this issue has to be faced

§  a forum ("traffic committee" or equivalent) for policy decisions and to which the "traffic management agency" reports;

§  As far as practicable, the traffic management agency should be de-politicised to avoid technical staff and program changes when new mayors or political parties take office.  In seeking to overcome this problem, some cities have successfully used traffic-transport institutes or companies, which may be municipally owned, but which have a high degree of autonomy in everyday action and employment of staff and thus are able to provide career paths and realistic salaries for traffic management professionals, if the professional agency is successful and respected, the likelihood of erratic change is much reduced

§  Increased contracting out of traffic management functions may be possible but this does not eliminate the need for a professional and competent core traffic agency team to prepare and manage contracts § Traffic management is often starved of resources for implementation and operation of schemes. Traffic management has significant potential revenues (parking, traffic fines, congestion charges, concessions for busways etc). and other potential funding sources for traffic investment might be available such as urban fuel surcharges and contributions from property/business taxes  If traffic management is to be successful, cities need to capitalise on these revenues and consider earmarking funds to the traffic system (similar to road maintenance funds);

Institutional role of traffic police

In the past, traffic management was concerned only with direction of traffic, accidents and on-street parking and often these functions were carried out by the traffic police; this is still the case in some developing cities.  Traffic police tend to concentrate on “keeping traffic moving” and in particular “keeping cars moving”.  As traffic congestion has worsened, as techniques of traffic planning and operations have become more complex and have evolved to make major contributions to transport policy (e.g. through bus priority), the scope of traffic management has moved beyond the area of competence, background, skills and training of the traffic police.  Policy directions for traffic police are likely to be: