 When you're stuck in street traffic that has become a parking lot as far as the eye can see in both directions - an increasingly common situation in Kyiv - it's natural to begin thinking about how we got into this situation and, more importantly, how we get out of it.
The obvious and most immediate answer cited by almost everyone involved is to point to the endlessly burgeoning numbers of automobiles, trucks and mini-buses. That is, indeed, the answer that almost everyone points to, but I am not prepared to buy into that argument. It's too simplistic and excuses too many people who really should be held responsible.
In Ukraine in 2003 alone, 42,409 auto accidents resulted in 7,149 deaths and left another 47,458 people injured! Is no one responsible for any of this?
These are, incidentally, not locally produced statistics, but those provided by the United Nations, and they lead to a number of questions.
First, one has to wonder how much of the national budget for medical service to the population was devoted to paying for the cost of caring for those 47,000+ people?
However, perhaps the more important and pressing problems have to do with our streets and how they are regulated.
The first problem is that our streets lack any semblance of intelligent and effective traffic control. Even where the traffic lights are working, they do not convey the information necessary to control effectively.
For example, picture this: you are trying to cross the street, the traffic light facing you turns green, you begin to walk inside the cross-walk, which is barely visible anyway due to the low quality paint used. Suddenly you are accosted by a vehicle, the driver of which went through his red light, ignored your green light and insists on making a left turn onto the street that you are crossing, vectoring a course that guarantees a collision with you.
What do you do? Well, you continue walking while watching your traffic light to make sure it does not revert to red. At the same time, your eyes are cast downwards so that you might detect the pot hole waiting to bring you down, and at the same time, watching over your right shoulder for the illegal left hand turn this irresponsible driver insists on making. The human body was neither designed nor intended to perform such contortions.
We might suggest a number of solutions. Some of the positive options would be to install new traffic lights, change the rules of the road requiring that all vehicles move only on a green light, and enforce the rules. New traffic lights might even provide for separate turning signals so as to avoid conflict between pedestrians whose light tells them to walk, and drivers who for some strange reason claim the right to turn whenever they please, even when they are endangering the lives of pedestrians.
Where would the money come from with which to pay for these expensive improvements? Several business people have told me that at one time there were several local manufacturers of traffic control signals in Ukraine. At least one of them must still exist, and would no doubt be quite pleased to be awarded a competitive contract to re-equip the entire city - perhaps even the country - with effective and efficient traffic control systems. A country that has the capacity to build and operate the world's largest transport aircraft and provide the first-stage rockets for the Sea Launch program must surely possess the technical skills to build high quality traffic control systems.
Compare the costs of this improvement with the present expenses of the city in maintaining, no matter how inadequately, a system in constant need of repair, which must be subsidized by the Ministry of Health hospitals' budget, and which degrades the overall productivity of local enterprises.
To compound the lack of effective traffic control devices, the city authorities themselves contribute to the ever worsening and threatening traffic problems of the city with fences, unclear and often-illegible painted signals such as crosswalks and totally ineffective control of parking.
There was a story in the press recently about a pedestrian who was hit by an auto and seriously injured. Supposedly the authorities refused to take action against the driver because it was alleged that the victim was crossing the street but was not walking within the crosswalk boundaries. It's curious that there was no report as to whether the crosswalk boundaries were visible or accessible. Most of the crosswalks in the city are marked only by faded paint and are scarcely visible. If visible at all, it is rare that a pedestrian has access to the crosswalks, what with parked autos blocking access, or deep and large puddles of standing rainwater.
No less serious is the gross incompetence of those who hold driving licenses. Of course we are assuming that those who drive here do have a piece of paper evidencing their right to drive. Stories abound in Kyiv, and even among the Ukrainian emigres abroad about the practice of buying driving licenses rather than taking the driving test. If this is accurate, this is a damning reflection on the integrity of the entire Ukraine civil service. The rumor has been around long enough that it is surprising that no one even bothers to deny the story, nor is even interested in investigating to determine its accuracy.
There is one well-known and highly respected expat businessman in Kyiv who only very recently was able to put aside his crutches, although he will have to continue with physical therapy for some time. His physical problems started when he was leaving the parking lot of a state agency related to driver's licenses, only to be run down by an out-of-control automobile driven by a young man who was obviously incompetent as a driver, but had only minutes before been able to purchase a driver's license illegally from someone in the state agency.
The accident victim spent many months on crutches, with one of his ankles held together only with metal pins. Considerable surgery has now made it possible to remove the metal pins from his ankle, but the businessman recently said, "I doubt that my ankle will ever be what it was before the accident." Luckily, this gentleman had sufficient resources to handle the considerable costs of good medical care. One can only imagine the result if the victim of the incompetent driver with an illegal driver's license had instead been some poor, elderly person living on a pension.
The list of risks needlessly imposed on the populace could go on forever, but one of the greatest risks arises out of the strange practice here in Kyiv of driving and parking on the sidewalks. Not only does this pose a constant danger to pedestrians, but it is also contributing to the destruction of the sidewalks themselves.
Sidewalk surfaces are in such poor condition as to be classified as extremely dangerous. First of all, they are being deliberately exposed to rapid deterioration by having to bear the weight of autos and heavy trucks, for which they were never designed and are wholly inadequate.
Added to the risks imposed by the terrible condition of the sidewalks is the ever present risk imposed by the fact that the sidewalks are no longer the property of the pedestrian, but are now inundated by inept drivers unmindful of any precepts of caution and safety. Not only are they bad drivers - some intentionally so - they intend to be sovereign even on the sidewalks.
Local drivers seem to be characterized by the following: an insane and unhindered mania for speed and an adolescent desire to always be first in line. If they cannot be first in the existing line, then they will simply make a new line and God help any who get in the way, whether another driver or a pedestrian. Unfortunately, those policemen on traffic duty seem to be entirely too fixated on checking documents to pay any intention whatsoever to the conduct of drivers on sidewalks and other areas where they endanger pedestrians.
In fairness to those few drivers who do know how to drive and are conscious of their responsibility, moral if not legal, not to kill and maim the pedestrian population, it must be pointed out that the lack of legitimate parking space in the city contributes to the overall chaotic and dangerous street situation. Again, this seems a problem with a solution already at hand. Most of the sidewalks in the city are much too wide to be of practical use to the pedestrians.
One can well appreciate the vista of wide boulevards with trees and other greenery framing the sidewalk cafes, Paris style. Unfortunately, when these beautiful vistas were designed and built into the street system of the city, there were very few autos and the wide expanse of the sidewalks was an affordable luxury. However, owing to the increase in the number of vehicles using the city streets now, this luxury may no longer be affordable. Simply put, the city could do very well with narrower and exclusively pedestrian sidewalks and wider roadways.
Expensive? Well, is there an alternative? Perhaps we could take otherwise very valuable land areas and convert those areas into parking lots. Or perhaps we could designate certain streets as "No Motor Vehicle Traffic," streets. Or perhaps the authorities could construct multi-story parking buildings using money from bond issues that might then be paid off with the income from parking charges.
Personally, I would very much favor the first alternative: wider roadways, and narrower sidewalks.
Shockingly, I have heard from otherwise sober business and family men and women a long litany of excuses and reasons for this terrible driving culture. Most of these excuses boil down to the same thing: I want to get there first! Whether this is a result of the underlying culture of Ukraine, which does not seem to be born out by the evidence, or the result of a perverted system of driver education and licensing, I cannot say, but I can say that the existing system could - and should be - revised on an urgent basis.
When I first came to Ukraine in the early 1990s none of these observations would have been warranted. But having left Ukraine and then returned after an eight-year absence, I found this devastating driving culture already much in place and it has continued to deteriorate.
This deterioration occurred over a decade and it would probably require another decade of serious and sustained improvement in traffic conditions to bring Kyiv to the level that it would need to support its growth and prosperity. Unfortunately, the city administration's priorities remain fixated on pell-mell growth, with little serious effort to make the hard decisions that are needed to improve the lives of city's citizens.
Safety and confidence of the local pedestrian population aside, one wonders how the sight of our crazy, selfish and unhindered drivers impresses foreign visitors, especially the well-heeled tourist who we hope will return again and again, but also the well-intentioned business investor who is contemplating establishing a business here - in this asphalt jungle.
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