Daily News Editorial

National Policy on three wheelers

21 December 2016

Nearly 40 years after three wheelers were allowed into the country in a monumentally wrong decision, Sri Lanka is finally getting a National Policy to regulate the tuk-tuk service. One just has to compare the traffic situations of countries that did not allow three wheelers to come in (Singapore, Malaysia) and countries that did allow them (Sri Lanka, India and Thailand) to comprehend the adverse effect of three wheelers on the traffic and road users.

With more than 1.2 million three wheelers in regular service around the island, this was a long overdue measure. Transport Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and the main three wheeler associations must be commended for this initiative. As accidents involving three wheelers have reached an all-time high, the three wheeler community itself has been shocked to the core. In fact, they were the first to demand that three wheeler licenses should be issued only to those above 35. This proposal has been taken into consideration for the new National Policy.

This is commendable from several angles. Most accidents involve three wheelers driven by those aged 18-30, many of them unlicensed. This is generally an age range where the youth are lured by speed, at the risk to their lives. But there is an even more important reason. Today, anyone can walk into a bank and get a three wheeler lease with hardly any documentation. Most post O/L and A/L youth have bought three wheelers as an “easy way out” of higher education and unemployment. They then ride the three wheeler on hire for a few hours each day, earn a few thousand rupees and lie idle. This is admittedly not a very good form of self-employment. Worse, they can easily get addicted to a life of drugs and crime. This is the cream of our youth who do not make any positive contribution to national development. It is a criminal waste of our youth resource. Another noteworthy fact is that three wheeler passengers are rarely insured and may not receive any form of compensation if an accident occurs.

Any national policy on three wheelers must necessarily include plans to limit and ultimately stop three wheeler imports. The three wheeler market is already saturated – go to any junction and see how many three wheelers are lying idle – and imports should be cut gradually. As for the argument that the three wheeler is used as a family vehicle and for good transport in many remote areas, which is true enough, the authorities must focus on alternative measures.

One very effective measure is to implement a bigger tax cut on sub 1,000 CC cars. The Government should also consider the motorised quadricycles manufactured by three wheeler makers themselves as a four-wheeled alternative to three wheelers. If these vehicles are cheap enough and the gap in pricing is only around say, Rs.300,000, they have the potential to knock three wheelers off their perch. Why not make cars of the Nano/Alto class cheaper and give the people a much more comfortable and safer alternative?

Let’s face it, three wheelers are dangerous contraptions and a menace to other road users. Nano and Alto taxis already offer almost the same rates in a vehicle that has four proper doors, complete weather proofing, air-conditioning and much better safety features. Do we still want to see three wheelers on our roads by say, 2035? A car-based taxi system is a must if we are to realize our development ambitions. People in rural areas will also be able to buy the cheaper cars.

It won’t be easy to discipline the there-wheeler drivers but the recent fine increase has had the desired effect even before being properly introduced. It will take another column to describe the offences regularly committed by the three-wheeler drivers, but here are a few: Overloading, speeding, making abrupt U-turns (having removed the anti-U turn device in the front tyre), cutting in and out of traffic, sudden braking for picking up passengers, rude behaviour and flouting road rules and road signs. There are even instances of the driver sharing his seat with a passenger, because the rear seat is fully packed. There are of course, instances of three wheeler drivers riding high on drugs and alcohol.

Most three wheelers also come with a door guard on the right side to prevent passengers from alighting from that side instead of from the left. However, there are many instances of three wheeler operators removing this guard so that passengers can enter and exit from the right side as well. The passengers who do so face the risk of being exposed to the fast flowing traffic. The Police must keep a strict check on this safety feature.

The Western Province Megapolis plan calls for certain three wheeler free areas, but if you want to experience right now how easy it is to drive without the presence of two wheelers, head to an expressway. We hope that a few decades from now, this is how all roads in Sri Lanka will look like.