Blantyre Driving

Driving in Malawi is a challenge. That is just a given in life here, but most of the time, visitors think that refers to the challenge of rutted dirt roads in remote areas, no signposts anywhere and narrow bridges constructed of tree logs. While all of that is true, the greater challenge is navigating through Blantyre, the largest city in Malawi.

Blantyre has grown up with Malawi. It was a trading center that grew into the commercial center of the country. The roads were laid out when few people owned cars and were designed to meet the need of the time. The driving population has doubled in the last 5 years, from about 7% of the population owning cars to about 14%. The complicating factor is that close to half of them live and drive in Blantyre. Added to the congestion is the limited parking in the city. In an attempt to address this, the parking is primarily angle parking on most streets in town. This adds spaces, but makes the streets narrower for driving and difficult for backing out into traffic when one is ready to move again. This last challenge has been met by those colleting the parking fees (there are no parking meters). Once they collect their fee, they step behind the car and direct the driver backing into traffic. Sometimes that is stopping traffic and sometimes not. A driver must always keep an eye open for the folks in the iridescent green jackets attempting to stop traffic for someone backing out. Many people wait for those times, eager to take that parking spot before someone else grabs it. Some impatient drivers have taken matters into their own hands and double park, thinking they will just be a short time with their business. This makes the roads even narrower to navigate. This is particularly popular on the main street in town, Victoria Ave. An additional hazard is the drivers of the minibuses. Minibuses are the major mode of public transportation. They are the style of the old Volkswagen bus, but accommodate up to 15 passengers. They do not have routes, as such but stop at the will of the driver to pick up and discharge passengers. They cut in and out of traffic at will.

If this were all, Blantyre would not be all that different from some of the major cities in the States that have overflowing driving populations. But there are other factors to watch for. While Blantyre is a city, it still has the features of a trading center. The bicycle is still the major mode of transportation everywhere in Malawi. Blantyre is no different, so rush hour is a mesh of cars, trucks, the ever present minibuses, and lots of bicycles. The cyclists dart in and out of traffic, making better time than the cars, but at a risk to themselves and the motorists. Many times, these bikes are the mode of purveying good to the market, so are loaded with chickens or wood or bags of charcoal, all protruding on either side of the bike, making it a wide load as it maneuvers through traffic. Pedestrians are not restricted from the roads. Many use the sidewalks, but others choose to join the traffic of the road, walking behind the parked cars or down the center of the road. This is especially the case if the walkers are trying to sell goods, some on the way to the market and others using the available drivers as customers for their wares of vegetables, mops and brooms, or even goats and chickens. Some others take the opportunity of stopped traffic to beg.  All, whether beggars or vendors or pedestrians, parade among the cars, adding to the challenge of driving.

Most recently all of this has been further complicated with the fuel shortage. No, that has not meant fewer cars, but rather periodic long lines weaving from service stations in the center of town that have just received a shipment of diesel, the rare commodity these days. The trucks and minibuses create a third lane, between the parked cars and the passing motorists, as they wait their turn to enter the station and fill up. This usually means that traffic is reduced to one lane of moving vehicles that take turns moving around the line of waiters. These are the days that I miss the ease of driving in the traffic of Washington DC or Los Angeles.