A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999

Traffic congestion has been increasing rapidly in the fast growing city of Colombo. It is causing a huge loss of money, property, time, energy, and human health. Congestion occurs for various factors, which originate also from varied sources. However, the increasing number of vehicles of the city is the primarily cause. Geographical location and surroundings of the city and centralization of administrative services are also causes for pulling more and more vehicles into the city of Colombo. Uncontrolled land use and poor management of infrastructure services are also seen as contributors to congestion. The Government of Sri Lanka has formulated several management measures to overcome this problem. The success of any kind of management measures primarily depends on the willingness of people to cooperate. Consequently, their involvement is most important to implement any management measure. With the above in view, the main focus of this study has been to analyze the road-users' perceptions towards the road environment in general and traffic management measures in particular in the City of Colombo. The research issues covered include willingness to pay congestion charges, responsibility of traffic management of the city, and present conditions of the road network of the city. A questionnaire survey was conducted to determine road users' perceptions and views from tlu·ee types of road-users (pedestrians, drivers, and street vendors). Tlu·ough the questions they were given the opportunity to express their views, attitudes and make suggestions to ease the traffic congestion of the city. Also, checklist interviews were conducted to obtain expert opinions and views of the management officials including the traffic police. Basic information in relation to the traffic volume, number of vehicles, pollution level, etc. were collected by reviewing numerous documents and reports. The results of the study allowed specifying several findings. The perceptions of the road users towards the effects of traffic congestion and the road environment vary according to the time of the day. The busy hours clearly fare worst in characterization of the traffic congestion (always congestion, very noisy and not safe). Most of the road-users have more positive attitudes to regulatory instruments (Rls) than to economic instruments (Els). One implication of this is that the road-users are not well of with the economic instruments and their potential role in reducing traffic congestion and better traffic management. It may also be because they know well that the use of economic measures may require them to pay congestion charges as road users. That this is indeed the case reflected in the findings: a majority of respondents do not like to pay for congestion charges. They view the responsibility of traffic management is of the Colombo Municipal Council and they should rather use regulatory measures for reducing congestion. Another possibility is that the road users consider the congestion as serious for Els to be effective since, after all, they work in an indirect way. The road-users' perceptions and views have, thus, provided valuable insights for developing guidelines to make decisions, policies and management measures (by combining Ris and Els) to ease the prevailing traffic congestion in the Colombo City.