Archives

by Asitha Jayawardena

Recently, with a group of dozen others, I counted vehicles and pedestrians at five busy junctions, namely Nawaloka junction (Slave Island), Yakkala junction, Nittambuwa junction, Borella junction where Baseline Road crosses Castle Street, and Rawattawatte junction.

This programme of 12 surveys was not only part of work of Gayathri de Silva and Pearly Siriwardena, MSc research students of Professor LL Ratnayake and Dr (Mrs) Chinta Jayasinghe, but also a joint project between Moratuwa University and Swe-Road in Sweden. The group consisted of Gayathri and Pearly, Lars Persson and Robert Ortegren from Sweden, and several research students and technical assistants of Moratuwa University temporarily employed in the project.

Each day, the survey started at 7.00 a.m. and ended at 6.00 p.m. After an hour, there was a fifteen-minute break except for the half an hour morning tea break at 9.15 a.m., and 75-minute lunch break at 2.30 p.m. Although, during the survey, we were scattered round the junction, during the break, we came to the van we were provided with. With 3 minutes to end the break, Lars would remind "Three minutes more" and we all left for our positions.

The vehicles were counted under several categories such as car, bus, lorry, light vehicle (i.e. vans, pajeros), three-wheeler, bicycle and motor cycle. Sometimes, however, categorization could be tough, in cases such as the army truck with a jeep on tow, and a bicycle carrying a tricycle at Slave Island.

At Rawatawatte, there was one man who passed the junction thrice, rolling empty barrels! There was no categorization for pedestrians. They were counted as those coming to the junction, and those who crossing the road along the pedestrian crossing and on its sides. Except at Nittambuwa, I counted vehicles.

Each morning, Gayathri and Pearly gave us counting sheets, a file, a pencil, and necessary instructions. In their car, Robert and Lars brought two portable chairs, which they sometimes gave to others who were at difficult spots.

Others, although started the day standing, sat wherever they could - on chunks of concrete, on steps of shops, or in chairs or on stools lent by kind shop owners. The last depended on your charms. For example, Mahinda, having charmed the sales girls of a shop in Yakkala using his innocent-looking smile, not only obtained a chair but even enjoyed a drink - a soft one (So he says!).

I realized that Yogi Berra's statement "You can observe a lot by watching" was true. I watched, especially at Slave Island, how motorists entered the junction and then pondered where to turn to. Many did U turns, and some did absurd turns which could be best described as O turns.

Since the traffic volume at Slave Island had reduced after the opening up of Galle Face, it was Borella that was the worst. At times the vehicle flow was so big and fast that one might miss small types which appeared and disappeared so fast. Besides, heavy traffic volume at Borella worsened smoke and noise pollution, and Gayathri's presence within my earshot made the latter far more worse.

Questions

Our presence, specially because of the two foreigners, attracted quite an attention, and resulted in various questions. What are you doing? What for? people asked. One asked what if the same vehicle was counted more than once. I explained that our interest was on the number of vehicles that used the junction, not the total number of vehicles.

This I also explained to the three-wheeler driver who suggested me to go to the RMV to obtain the number of vehicles. Questions were directed to the foreigners as well - some in Sinhala. A laughing Robert later revealed that in such cases he had replied in Swedish. "Perfect understanding," he added.

At Borella, the survey date happened to be a parliament day, and policemen and soldiers were at the junction. Therefore, we had no problem from the passers-by with regard to questions - except Ranil Sugathadasa, a research student, who was counting the pedestrians crossing Castle Street.

To two curious men, he had said that they were disturbing him. One wearing a smile had revealed that they were policemen on duty. Ranil had "buttered" them, and being a good "butterer", he saved himself.

At Yakkala, I was at a three-wheeler park. One driver wanted to know if three-wheelers were counted, too. Another wanted to know if carts were counted. I told yes. He turned to his friends and remarked that Nimal's could be counted, too. Apparently, Nimal's three-wheeler was in so poor condition that his friends called it "Cart".

Fortunately, Nimal was not there.

Requests and comments

There were various requests such as "Count us, please" from pedestrians as well as drivers. One pedestrian requested to take steps to ban all lorries from Colombo. Slowing down his van, a driver asked me to report how parking blocked the road at Nawaloka junction.

At Nittambuwa, Priyanvada received a chair from a salon, Krishantha remained standing, and I sat on the steps of a closed shop, next to a maize vendor and a manioc akka.

A man having bought maize asked me what I was doing. Although I was counting pedestrians, I said "Counting vehicles." There are far too many vehicles on the road and people are still buying more, he observed. I nodded. He added, "Just see our house; we have five vehicles and would be buying another shortly". I smiled and he left. Having told the story to Priyanvada and Krishantha, I added, "He must be living at a bus depot".

New friends

I had made sure that, during the rush hour, the hood of my cap was pulled down as much as possible so that none would recognize me. But this was not quite successful. For instance, at Slave Island, Niroshantha of Sampath Bank on his way to work recognized me and stopped to say Hi!.

As I was busy avoiding the old friends, the survey created new friendships - at least temporary. At Yakkala, having borrowed a chair from Lars, I sat near a kadalay cart. To the curious kadalay seller, I explained that I was counting the vehicles that were coming straight down the road.

Soon he started "helping" me. "There's a bicycle coming down that road, followed by a three-wheeler," he would say. This annoyed me. So while he served a customer, I shifted my chair away from him, pretending that the three-wheeler just parked in front blocked my vision. At Rawattawatte, my new friends happened to be a lawyer couple, who lent me a chair.

Lunch

For lunch, we went out in groups, sometimes all. In the former, the division was political: Chinese or non-Chinese? I always fell into the latter. At Slave Island, the locals traveled to Senkada at Town Hall. Although Manoj and I resorted village recipe (i.e. Gamey Kema) while the others opted Chinese. Either way, it was 99/= per head, but the food was delicious. At Yakkala, the Chinese bill among Sandun and Chaminda exceeded Rs 400/=.

At Borella and Rawattawatte, we went for lunch together. The hotel had too much chilies in its food. Since the foreigners ate chicken and rice, they had little problem.

Damith reported that his fever had been cured. Vasana and Tharanga were wiping tears, and the latter suggested that a dish of sugar should have been served as dessert. At Rawattawatte, the bill at Delimart for eleven of us was just over Rs 500, and the food was fine.

Robert revealed that in Sweden even a cheap lunch would have cost over Rs 500 per head. This explained why Lars had always been eating as if he had never seen food in Sweden.

Lars and Robert always remarked that if a Sri Lankan says "No problem", there is definitely a problem. Fortunately, however, the survey ended without any big problem.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager