Addis Abeba, a.k.a Confusion Square to become Scary Square

18 May, 2009

Fortune - Owing it to the Chinese generosity worth 170 million Br, the first interchange in Addis Abeba, a.k.a Confusion Square, built in Gottera area on a 40hct of plot, has been open to traffic for two weeks now after 22 months of construction work undertaken by Shanghai Construction Group of China The total length of the road is 8.1Km.

However, a keen observer of the drama along this road network would notice bizarre developments. The road will obviously witness horrendous accidents soon should authorities fail to act by prohibiting pedestrians walking carelessly alongside speeding vehicles, on the section of the road where they are not supposed to be on. The above photo illustrates people walking - absurdly - in areas that were strictly meant for vehicles.

The road signs put on this interchange are proof of another absurdity (right photo). They are too high above the motoring traffic to be visible when vehicles advance towards them; and the size of the font used to indicate the directions are too small to be noticed from a distance.

Ironically, all of the road signs are written in English only. This is in a country where the total adult literacy rate was registered as 36pc, according to UNICEF. Although there is no available data to prove this, it is clear that the English literacy rate is much lower than the total literacy one, yet authorities assume every adult driver would be able to understand the directions written on the sign board to make quick decisions while travelling along the interchange.