When Abidjan and Cocody experience a rise in traffic at the start of the school year, traffic causes a late arrival for students, teachers, and parents.
Many many wonder: how could ICSA help out without the help of the government?
Abidjan is known to be a traffic filled city, but over the past few months, the traffic has increased significantly. Both the French school and ICSA start at the same time, which causes congested streets.
The Main Causes of the Traffic Outbreak
Cars have become most people’s main form of transportation. In Abidjan alone, approximately 83.33% of people use a car for transportation .The air quality gets worse due to the CO2 emitted from the vehicles.
The roads in Abidjan are mediocre. The city doesn’t maintain the roads as often as they should, and over time, they lose their overall quality. There are several checkpoints around Abidjan (whether official or unofficial) that delay travel, increasing your time in traffic.
There’s also the reason of the school’s starting times. Blaise Pascal, the #1 French school in Abidjan, starts at 7:30 am. ICSA starts at 8:00 am. Normally, these starting times would be ideal, as students would leave at different times, and therefore lessening the traffic.
But because the traffic is already so intense, ICSA students have to leave at an even earlier time in order to make it to school on time. The peak hours when traffic is the most intense seem to line up with the same times as when the students leave for school.
Coincidence? Many ICSA community members think not.
The Impact on Our Lives
In addition to staff members and students’ struggles, locals are also having trouble getting around.
Kassoum Coulibaly, PE teacher and local says that,
“Professionally, it has made arriving on time much more difficult, as I’ve had to leave much earlier in the morning to avoid being stuck in traffic. Personally, I’ve had to plan my errands and personal schedule around peak traffic hours after work which adds stress to my day.”
This issue does not only impact people, it also impacts the environment. Cars are releasing more CO2, worsening the air quality. On average, the air quality stays in the moderate range, staying in the 50’s and the 60’s. Poor air quality is known to be directly linked to several heart and lung diseases.
What Can We do to Keep Traffic Moving?
It’s not easy to find a solution to this complex issue. We can’t help really help with the traffic, since that’s a job for the government and not an international school. But we can still brainstorm some solutions, even if it’s not going to make a massive difference.
There are several possibilities in regards to helping this problem. For one, ICSA members can try and leave the house even earlier in order to miss rush hour. But this solution may cause additional problems. Waking up earlier for school can decrease overall productivity and cause teenagers to be more tired in class due to their need for more sleep.
Changing the schedule could also be a way to improve the situation. Starting school earlier, and therefore ending earlier as well might work. Starting school later could also be an option, allowing for staggering times. Unfortunately, both of these have their share of consequences.
The Issue With These Solutions: Why They Might Not Work
Starting school earlier would also be a problem for the students’ sleep schedule. Mr. Breece, director of ICSA states that, “ Trying to start teenagers at, you know, say for example, 7:30 a.m. and make sure that they’re here by 7…. I think if that was the case, they wouldn’t deal with traffic, but would their learning be affected? They would be more tired.”
All different schools around the world start and end at different times, all for different reasons. Whether it’s to help the students’ health, or just for convenience, changing our school’s time could be for the best.
The better option out of all three could be to start school at a later time, but that would also bring issues, such as coordinating after school activities and sports.
There may not be a perfect solution for this issue without the government. They might, and hopefully, will step in one day to help with road planning, traffic workers, and public transportation.
Great work!!