I don't understand .... Why would i have to wait for a news report on the radio to here that traffic in some parts of town has been blocked because of riotous behaviour by students from the University of Zambia. Shouldn't The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) have some form of real-time messaging system to inform every motorist residing in a specific town about the situation on the roads?
Every person getting a licence or registering a motor vehicle supplies their mobile number and town. An automated script can single out numbers for those in an affected town and send a broadcast message. I honestly think it's that simple to do.
Apart from this, I think we should have started creating some form of traffic control centre that monitors traffic on all roads whether it has traffic lights or not. Imagine the people charged with road safety being able to adjust the behaviour of traffic lights at peak periods to make driving around much easier. Only if all roads had traffic lights. The one with roundabouts are a special case but at least they (RTSA) would be able to see things build and send an officer to regulate.
Road fines is another area that could benefit from some technological advancement. You get stopped at a road block or randomly and are found with expired road tax but instead of having your car 'seized' or licence taken from you, all the officer does is charge you for driving with expired road tax, scans your vehicle registration barcode, puts a marker on the vehicle that this record must pay a fine before renewing and marker on the driver's licence as well or a reduction in points for deserving a licence. All this in real-time. Think of the accountability and easy of use. Cars with outstanding fines as well as drivers can be deemed not worthy to be on the road if they default. Its impact on bribery is another topic because all together though. And all this is not that farfetched, we already scan our vehicle registrations when purchasing road tax.
The Road Transport and Safety Agency has made some botched technology advancements though, they ordered a machine to assess vehicle fitness that didn't work very well initially. I do not know if the machine is being used now but it would be a case in point for apprehension over making leaps into the unknown of technology. Proper research and consultancy is needed, reports on all the options provided and government to sign off on the one that meets cost and objective.
At the time of writing this, the RTSA website, www.rtsa.org.zm, has been down for more than 3 weeks which is not acceptable. In the meantime, be a responsible motorist and let your fellow drivers know about road blocks and demos via Facebook or Twitter.
