| dc.description.abstract | Transportation is inextricably woven up into
man's life on earth. Movement is essential in order
for man to meet his demands. However, various
problems are encountered in this activity as some of
the natural barriers such as mountains cannot be
conquered. This results in long routes which are what
man would avoid in an ideal situation. Some of the
problems are capable of amelioration and when that has
been achieved man's life is made more comfortable and
convenient.
In urban areas the need for movement is more
emphasized because of the variety of activities carried
out. Traffic is a function of human activities and the
more the activities the more the journeys. Most town
dwellers depend on employment for livelihood and this
necessitates daily movements from and to places of work.
In these movements problems are inevitable. Thus
transportation problems are largely unavoidable
especially where terrain is difficult indicating man's
inability to completely tame nature to suit his needs.
In addition, some of the problems are a necessary
consequence of the way man deals with nature. Thus all
man-made systems have setbacks which are man~s creations
themselves.
Transportation plays a crucial role of
connecting diverse land use activities. As such it
is a very broad field which requires other studies
to be undertaken in order to answer questions posed
by it. Thus it was necessary to conduct a household
questionnaire in this study. The questionnaire captures
the demographic, economic, social and physical aspects
which are all necessary for transportation studies.
Observations, interviews with operators and traffic
counts were also carried out to complete this study.
The results from these have been analysed and show
trends and magnitude of the problem in Maseru town.
It is held that the knowledge of the trends and
magnitude of the problem is a useful step towards
defining possible solutions. A structured random
sample was used giving each respondent a fair chance
of being represented. It would be correct therefore
to argue that the results obtained apply to Maseru town
in general and not only to parts thereof.
Transportation problems of Maseru town arise
from two major sources. These are internal and
external. Of the internal sources the cardinal
factors include topography, land use arrangements and
lack of policy guiding urban and transport development.
Various combinations of these factors have resulted in
most residential areas being inaccessible. Even where
there is a measure of accessibility, the roads are
poorly maintained thus discouraging public transport
services into the _areas. This is a very unfortunate
situation because Maseru town is highly dependent on
public transportation for the movement of its dwellers.
The town centre is not an exception to the plight as
the inefficient arrangement of land uses there have
resulted in congestion especially around the traffic
circle, and in and around the central bus terminus.
Passenger facilities are extremely bad both within the
town centre and out in the residential areas.
To add to these problems which mainly emanate
from management, Maseru over weekends and public
holidays has to cater for additional high demand for
public transport from external sources. This is
dominated by migrants travellers from South African
mines. This high demand meets with poor organization
and induces other problems such as "piracy", overloading
of the transport system of Maseru and increased
incidents of thuggery.
Maseru also houses the railhead which is a
branch of the South African Railways. Through the
South African Railway rating policy Lesotho loses
valuable income to South Africa as railway transportation
costs. It could be argued that had it not been for
Maseru in relation to the railhead that revenue could
have been gained rather than lost. The railhead also
overloads the roads networks of Maseru which are already
limited resulting in congestion, especially along
Moshoeshoe road as the hauliers move goods inland
from the railhead.
Most of these problems can however be solved with
concerted efforts from the Government of Lesotho and
the Maseru Town Administration. There is need to see
these issues as requiring urgent attention. It is
argued that since policy provides guidelines for
action, the most pertinent solutions could be achieved
by starting with the formulation of relevant policies.
There is need to formulate policy on land uses and
introduce a land use development plan for Maseru.
This will ensure that proposed improvements are safeguarded
against undue intrusion which leads to weak
controls and poor structure.
It is considered however that policy cannot be
effective if it is not backed by relevant institutions.
Existing institutional machinery is not only weak but
poorly coordinated. This needs to be improved upon
to ensure harmony, continuity and efficiency.
It is also important to coordinate activities
of town planning with those of transport planning.
These two are actually two aspects of the same cause
and should not be separated. Separating them could
result in inefficient development which is what already
plagues the town. | en_US |
