Sri Lankan roads are dangerous but slow. The new Southern Expressway promises to change that, so people really need to learn a new sort of driving. During the day in Sri Lanka, your maximum speed is about 40 kph, and during rush hour the average is probably 20. On the Expressway, the minimum speed is 80 kph and the max is 100 kph. I have rarely gone about 80 here, nor have many people. Could be trouble.
Current Accident Rate
If you’re going to die, it will be on the Kandy Road, or some interstate/local road between cities. The danger is that something like, say, the Galle Road is both a national highway and a residential street and a tourist strip. Many of these major roads are also two lanes (at times) and to overtake you have to take great risks. There are buses, people, bikes and trishaws on the road and it’s a bad scene.
In city driving, by contrast, it’s the same craziness at a much lower speed. Unless you get caught in an intersection you’re unlikely to get hammered at speed, though fender benders are likely. It’s also important to note that car sales have increased dramatically after the tax decrease and there are more, newer drivers on the road. For an idea of current accident rates, see the Daily Mirror:
Six people die daily in Sri Lanka from road accidents with a total of 1,750 people having lost their lives from 1,527 fatal road accidents reported up to September this year, the police said.
The largest number killed was 680 pedestrians. Police said 28,625 accidents were reported up to September with 13,463 being injured and 13,590 properties damaged.
They said most of these accidents had taken place in the third quarter of the year with a total of 632 fatal accidents which killed 72 cyclists, 220 motorcyclists, 73 drivers, and 315 pedestrians. (Daily Mirror)
The Southern Expressway is a proper highway (no cattle, roadside shops, tractors, etc), which solves the mixed market problem of, say, the Galle Road, but it also has people going at speeds where any accident is far more likely to be fatal. If you run into a motorbike at 90 kph it’s very different from doing so at 40, and I think even logarithmically different from doing so at 80.
Bleed For Speed
Since the expressway is new, the Chartered Institute Of Logistics And Transport has recommended phasing in its use along with education.
Users should understand that at high speed, a lapse will result in terrible tragedies that could be very serious and involve many vehicles and lives. Drivers must slowly learn the fine art of smooth merging and diverging at ramps. The ramp entry and exit maneuvers are likely to be difficult for drivers who have not used these before. The vehicles on the expressway should give way to entering traffic. It is necessary to establish correct pattern for this before allowing large numbers to use these. (via W3 Lanka)
In the same vein, blogger Serendipity says:
I believe that fewer vehicles should be initially allowed on this road for a gradual transition into the new driving style. So a 6month period of 300% of the proposed toll charge would be a way to control the numbers using market forces. A leaflet upon entry for the first month highlighting these issues must be given to the driver and specifically asked to study this as an added requirement. After all we are doing our best to reduce the cost to the State of accidents, and it is better to be “penny wise than be pound foolish”. Happy Motoring!! (Serendipity)
The government has put CCTV cameras along the road and cops with cars (a rarity, a street cop in Colombo will often use your car to arrest you), but they also made the lanes narrower to save money and there isn’t much of a shoulder to pull over. Nor are there lights for long stretches. Nor, incidentally, are their toll booths built into the original plan, so not sure how they even collect.
On the whole though, I’m impressed that they built a road in less than a generation and am looking forward to checking it out. Apparently you can get down to Galle in 1:30, which would make it almost commuting distance.
120 KMPH is the design speed, according to the RDA website. http://www.rda.gov.lk/supported/expressways/stdp.htm
The lanes seems to be as narrow as lanes on baseline road. They probably haven’t realized vehicles need more road to maneuver at high speeds.
Another critical factor that seems to have been ignored in the rush to get the Expressway open is the road worthiness of the vehicles that might be using it. When vehicles are travelling in convoy at 100 kmph stopping in time depends on correctly working brakes and also brake lights so that vehicles behind have enough notice that traffic is slowing down. Additionally, wearing a seat belt is no use if the mechanisms that stop the belt extending when suddenly put under tension aren’t working – another safety component that should be tested.
Most countries that have extensive high-speed road networks have some kind of safety testing programme. However, in the Sri Lankan context this seems to have been completely ignored. I hope it doesn’t take some major multi-vehicle pile ups for the government to realise this oversight.
Best to stay off this road for awhile…at least some sort of natural selection will occur thanks to the highway.
my thoughts exactly
I’d say stay off the highway for the first 6 months til they iron out the kinks. I saw the editorial in that local motor mag which claims that the lanes are narrower than on an international highway, as is the breakdown lane. This alone could be disastrous even to experienced high-speed drivers in good cars.
Have to agree that the unnecessarily narrow emergency lane (hard shoulder) is a death trap. UK traffic stats show that 32% of accidents on the hard shoulder are fatal or serious compared with 13% of all motorway accidents and 12% of all fatal accidents on UK motorways happen on the hard shoulder. Why didn’t they construct a wider emergency lane?
The lack of raised anti-dazzle strips (vertical paddles) to block headlights from opposite lanes, on the central strip is also puzzling.
i.e. http://www.tz-online.de/bilder/2010/04/09/708062/1077862398-stau-autobahn.9.jpg
Oh well… some poor sod’s going to achieve everlasting fame as the first autobahn death in Sri Lanka.
Southern Expressway is Rajapaksa’s Thamasha: HIGHWAY to NOWHERE
Only Rajapaksa can go from Thamasha to Thamasha (his latest white elephant being the HIGHWAY to NOWHERE( not really even to GALL) after the Colossal white elephant of Hambanthota).
There is always the ‘Hoi Poli to come and enjoy the walk on the highway!!!
This time last time it was the filling of the harbor with same bunch of Idiots (who voted en-bloc to these plunderers in the recent elections) got enthralled by these gimmicks.
It’s so funny it takes 2hrs to come from the heart of the City to the Highway entrance at Kottawa to go on the 1hr long journey to Pinna duwa!!!
Such logic is perfectly OK with the ‘Proverbial Sri Lankan Idiots’ who still flock around the Rajayasha thamashas.
Then Go home and flock around the TV to salivate stupid Tele-dramas( by bimbos like ‘Paba’ and ‘Anarkellie’ and watch ITN and RUPAVAHINI PowerPoint development Programs to be completed by 2030!!!! (by the woodooman Wimal Weerwansa)
So God bless Sri Lanka.!!! :)
It would be useful if one’s comments are based on facts:
“Planning for Sri Lanka’s first controlled-access highway, the Southern Expressway, started in 1988.
Work was commenced by the Kumaratunge administration, was accelerated under Ranil Wickremesinghe, continued under Mahinda Rajapaksa as Highways Minister and is scheduled to be completed in around 2010, behind schedule and over budget.
The 130.9 km highway is expected to cost LKR 33 billion, revised upward from the original estimate of LKR 29 billion.” From a column I wrote in 2006 (http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/fullstory.php?nid=984227178)
Actual cost was LKR 77 billion and more than a year late. Those things you can blame on the President. But nothing else.
And BTW, construction on the ring road has already commenced. It will connect Kottawa to Kaduwela, Kadawatha and beyond. That means that people can bypass Colombo when going from the South to other parts of the country. Even now, Kottawa is not the only entry/exit point. You can enter/exit from Kahatuduwa on the Horana Road: http://www.rda.gov.lk/supported/expressways/stdp.htm.
Totally agree with David Blackler, whoever he maybe — its only those ( few ) who have driven on motorways abroad know and have witnessed the horrendous ” pile-ups ” that could occur in a split second due to a very small mistake. Yes , wait a few months and also the STATE ought to reduce speed limits during this time so as to allow motorists to get used to the concept of high-speed motorways.Motorways do not mean belting the guts out of you vehicle — driving fast requires ever so much more concentration and discipline.Also, who if any has / will test roadworthiness of a vehicle to ply on motorways ie. brakes , acceleration, good tyres, etc,rtc
Best wait a few months before venturing into ,what COULD become a hell-hole !
So it’s open now…
Yes the 80kmph minimum speed is too high; on a German autobahn it’s 60kmph.