CONFERENCE ON COMPETITION AND OWNERSHIP IN LAND PASSENGER TRANSPORT

Male, the island capital of the Maldives, an archipelago of over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean faces chronic traffic congestion. This 2 sq km island is home to over 100,000 people. There is a taxi service comprising of around 450 vehicles and a dhoni (ferry) service amounting to over 100 vessels to neighbouring islands. Male, which is fast becoming a small urban centre faces typical peak period traffic issues. The vehicle fleet is dominated by motor cycles which still contribute to traffic congestion in narrow streets. The taxi system which comprises of individually owned taxis registered with a ‘call centre’, provide limited services but fails during peak demand periods especially on rainy days. There is very little coordination between the ferry and taxi services. The paper is based on the results of a detailed urban transport planning study carried out in Male Urban Area which included passenger interviews, vehicle counts and travel time surveys covering all modes of motorized and non-motorized travel. This paper investigates the introduction of a mini-bus transport system that would provide easy transfers between ferries and major traffic generators and attractors. The contribution of a mini-bus service in the long-term is also discussed with respect to implementation of traffic demand management measures. This paper discuses the most appropriate type of vehicle that could be used and the potential framework for ownership and management of such a system taking in to consideration the multi-modal connectivity and also the service parameters for the operation of a successful minibus service. Kumarage and Jayaratne 2 The paper also analyses the present operation of the ferry services and investigates its ownership and operation parameters for efficiency and cost effectiveness. The paper reports reasons for the varied efficiencies seen on the different routes and the impact the informal and loosely regulated service providers have on the key performance indicators of these services. It also compares cost between different ferry services and studies the relationship between the ownership structure, technology levels, productivity and fare. INTRODUCTION Male, the island capital of the Maldives, is an archipelago of over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean. This 2 sq km island is home to over 120,000 people. Male Urban Area is made up of five main islands as follows: • Male – the primary island on which most commercial, administrative and residential activities take place and also the most motorised island. • Hulhule – the airport island with no residential population • Villingili – a newly formed residential island where the use of private motorised vehicles are prohibited • Hulhumale – a newly developed residential island where private vehicles are allowed but has no land connection to the main island • Thilafushi – an island with only commercial activities There is a taxi service comprising of around 450 vehicles in Male and a dhoni (ferry) service amounting to over 100 vessels operating between the islands. Only Hulhumale has a small bus transport service. The motorized vehicle fleet which is mainly made up of motor cycles amounts to over 20,000. As a result, Male, which is fast becoming a small urban centre, faces typical peak period traffic issues. The paper is based on the results of a detailed urban transport planning study carried out in Male Urban Area in 2006. This included passenger interviews, vehicle counts and travel time surveys covering all modes of motorized and non-motorized travel. Figure 1: Male Urban Area VEHICLE TRAFFIC PATTERNS The Male traffic patterns show a longer traffic day of about 17 hours, extending from 6 AM to around 11 PM. The traffic flow is quite uniform as most roads carry only around 5 to 6 percent of the daily traffic during each hour. This is possibly due to the short A Multi-modal public transport solution for Male, Maldives 3 distances of travel and workers’ keeping some what flexible working hours as is the common practice in the Maldives. According to an Origin-Destination matrix that was developed, there are an estimated 37,500 motor cycles and 12,500 car/taxi return trips per day in Male. Therefore the vehicular trip rate in Male is estimated to be around 0.4 return vehicle trips per person per day. Trip Purpose Analysis was done on the purpose of these trips made by passengers of the vehicles. It was found that out of the 67% of work related travel; home based work trips made up 17%, work related trips made up 15%, and work based other trips made up 35% of travel. The balance trips were home based other trips. In this case, work trips refer to those that are undertaken for work or business purposes while home based work trips refer to trips to and from work. PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC PATTERNS Most of the major roads have between 10,000 to 20,000 pedestrian movements per day. It was also found that around 30% of roads have more pedestrians than passengers travelling in vehicles. These roads are in commercial areas, areas adjacent to the ferry terminals and in the CBD. Furthermore, it was found that more than 100 of the 873 road links in Male have more than 1000 pedestrians and vehicle users per hour. Due to socializing and shopping patterns in Male, the heaviest pedestrian movements were observed during 2000 to 2100 hours. OD surveys estimated that there are 58,000 pedestrian return trips within Male’ on a week day. On analyzing the road nodes (junctions), it was found that at 117 of the 673 road nodes in Male’, the pedestrian flow was greater than the vehicle flow. 109 nodes had more than 1000 users per hour. The pedestrian return trip rate per person per day is thus estimated to be 0.5. ROAD SPACE UTILIZATION The average vehicle passenger occupancy rate was observed to be comparatively low ranging from 1.35 in motor cycles to 1.81 in cars and vans on roads in Male’. When comparing facilities provided for different road users, pedestrians are provided only 3% of the road space, even though they made up 34% of the total number of road users in Male’. On the other hand, 4-wheeled passenger and goods vehicles which make up only 25% of the traffic flow, take up 66% of the road space. Therefore it can be concluded that a disproportionately high amount of limited road space is taken by these vehicles for both circulation and on-street parking. The road inventory survey found that 70% of all cars and vans in Male’ are parked on the street during the day time, while the percentage for motor cycles was less at 53% and for taxis it was 48%. TRAVEL CHOICE It was found that the most predominant mode of transport used in Male was walking (48%). In fact non-motorized trips including the 3% of bicycle trips made up a total of 51% of trips. When considering the motorized modes, the motor cycle dominates with 31% of the share, with taxis and ferries making up 8% and 7% respectively. Private Kumarage and Jayaratne 4 vehicles presently contribute only 2%, while buses carry just 1% (as they are operational only in Hulhumale). TRAVEL COST Household Income and Expenditure data were also collected from households. The total cost for all households for personal travel was thus estimated as Maldivian Rupees (MRf) 108 million per annum (approx 1% of GDP). It is pertinent to note that the use of private vehicles make up MRf 67.4 Mn of this amount, followed by taxis as an MRf 27 million industry and operation of ferries as a MRf 12 million business. When adding goods transport the total transport contribution to the economy could be around 2-5% of GDP. Prorated cost for transport in Male’ Urban Area would be at least 4-10% of the GDP of the Maldives. VEHICLE OWNERSHIP The household survey indicates that the total number of vehicles in Male Urban Area was 22,303 of which 77% were motor cycles and 14% were bicycles. Four wheeled vehicles made up only 9% or just around 2,000 vehicles in 2006. In Male’ Urban Area there is a clear positive linear relationship between the vehicle ownership and household income. There was however an inversely linear relationship for bicycles and a maximum rate of ownership for taxis at an average household monthly income of between MRf 15,000 to 20,000 per month. Motor cycles and cars show an elasticity to income greater than one, where the rate of increase in car ownership exceeds the rate of increase in household incomes. The growth in vehicle fleet has been consistently high, varying between 10 to 25 percent per annum. It is very probable that this growth trend will continue for the next decade or so unless some interventions occur. A very conservative estimate of 50% population increase has been made for the next 15 years in Male Urban Area, accompanied by an approximate 60% increase in per capita incomes during this period. This will result in the total vehicle fleet increasing from around 20,000 to 60,000 which would be a 200% increase in 15 years. Even if this was solely confined to motor cycles, it would still cause severe constraints on road space for circulation and more importantly for parking. FERRY SERVICE Ferry services have long been a part of the Maldivian passenger transportation system. Being a country consisting of a number of small to medium islands in the Indian Ocean, it is well suited for passenger and goods movements by ferry. A survey was conducted on four different short-distance ferry services operating between the islands within the Male Urban Area to find out the pattern and travel behavior of urban ferry users. These services were: • Male to Hulhumale Ferry • Male Villingili Ferry • MaleHulhule Ferry • MaleThilafushi Ferry A Multi-modal public transport solution for Male, Maldives 5 All the above services except the Male-Hulhule ferry were operated as monopolies by the State owned Maldivian Transport & Construction Corporation (MTCC). In the case of the Male-Hulhule ferry service this service was provided by a number of individual operators wo