Monrovia, Liberia - A major challenge in any large, crowded city is simply navigating the traffic in traveling from one place to another. But that task is decidedly more complicated in a city with no traffic lights, few to no stop signs whatsoever and just a handful of traffic agents on the roads. Imagine if all the traffic signals were disconnected and stop signs removed from, say, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn or Fordham Road in the Bronx.
That’s the case here in Monrovia, where the impact of nearly 15 years of civil strife is most easily seen and felt in the city’s traffic. For one thing, the sheer volume of the population of Liberia’s capital has soared as rural dwellers moved en masse to seek employment in Monrovia, the country’s lone big city. The population here has more than doubled since the war, with about 1.5 million people in the capital (half of Liberia’s population now lives in Monrovia) Furthermore, the war, which ended in 2003, destroyed the hydro-electric plant in Monrovia, and rebuilding it has been a slow – if steady – undertaking. At the same time, the number of motorcycles has skyrocketed with officials suggesting that they now nearly rival the number of cars here.
All of that has made driving here an enterprise that is best not left to the faint of courage. The best preparation might well be a month of test driving on an obstacle course (or even in downtown Brooklyn, for that matter). Simply driving onto the highways and streets here — and certainly seeking to make a left turn from a major road — takes a combination of boldness, pluck and sheer bravery. Pedestrians cross roads as best they can, calculating whether they amass the speed to outrace oncoming traffic. There is no traffic light to bring traffic to a halt at an intersection and rarely is there a police officer. So, crossing the street is a highly-charged, track-and-field event for pedestrians. And the presence of potholes of every size is an extenuating challenge for Monrovia’s drivers.
There is a distinctive rhythm to creeping out to enter or make a left turn from the road – it’s the driving equivalent of the school girl poising with intense focus descend into the whirl of jump-rope. “You’ve got be very watchful,” said Michael B. Cole, a 20-year-old University of Liberia student who drives his older brother’s Volvo from time to time. “I’ve been driving since I was 13, starting with my father’s car.”
Driving in Monrovia, he added, involves the utmost in concentration, because of the pedestrians, the unpredictability of the motorcycles’ bobbing and weaving, the potholes and the water that can form small lakes in the roads during Liberia’s rainy season. “You have to always watch, always watch,” he said, while blowing his horn to alert a driver who seemed to be on a collision course with Mr. Cole’s car.
And driving here at night is an altogether advanced level of challenge. With few sections of the city illuminated by street lights, averting the scampering pedestrians in the darkness can be a potentially perilous endeavor to say the least, a virtual suicide mission for those crossing by foot. On a recent event here, the streets at one junction seems even more crowded than during the daylight rush hour and pedestrians at every turn seems to narrowly avert catastrophe.
And yet, amid the motorcycle darting, the fearless pedestrians and the incessant blaring of horns, there is an abundance of courtesy that seems to prevail. Some drivers will simply stop at an intersection to allow the elderly or young children cross. It is not uncommon for a driver, seeing the desire of another to make a turn, to slow down and flash his lights, a sign of allowance to make the turn. All of it is acknowledged with the courtesy of a wave in return.
But things are due to improve, said Miekee S. Gray, the chief of traffic for the national police. “We have plans to get many more traffic signals placed in the busy intersections,” Mr. Gray said, in an interview. “Right now we just have about 150 traffic officers on duty during the course of the day. In two years, I think you will see a big difference in the traffic in Monrovia.”
For one thing, he said that the increase in traffic signals will make it possible to reduce the number of traffic agents on the streets, freeing them to do other police activities. He said there are also plans to set up video monitoring systems that will enable the police to watch traffic around Monrovia from a command center and dispatch agents as necessary. Also, the police will conduct widespread training to better acquaint drivers with standard international traffic signs.
Also, Mr. Gray said, police officers have cracked down on enforcing seat belt regulations so intensely that most drivers now understand the importance of wearing them. And the department plans more public awareness campaigns, he said. “We are making progress and we will be making a lot more progress in the next few years,” he said. “You'll see street lights in bigger numbers and a better flow of traffic” (To be completely accurate, there is one functioning traffic signal here now, at the Port of Liberia).
In the meantime, drivers have to make the best with conditions. “I think things will get better in time,” Mr. Cole said. “It’s a pain driving in the city. But you have to make the best of it for now.”
By Jonathan P. Hicks
