Minibuses and the midi buses, which often are used for intercity transport, are now back in town with the recognition of the office, according to Shibru Kelbessa, manager of the City's Public Transport Department at the branch office.
The Code-1 blue and white minibus taxis and the Code-3 minibuses carry 12 people, while the midi buses have 22 to 27 seats, although people are allowed to travel standing in them.
A taxi zoning system was devised as a short-term solution to the transportation problems in the city by Kuma Demeksa's administration, but it has not been realised yet, although implementation was planned for December 2008.
"Route identification and registration of the taxis has taken a long time," an expert who requested anonymity told Fortune.
As part of the effort to resolve the transport problem, the branch office has also set up 13 monitoring stations around the city, including at La Gare; Mexico Square, in front of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority; Piazza, near the Municipality Office; Arat Kilo; Kera; Saris; and Merkato, where serious problems are often observed, says Shibru.
"We have deployed 41 people to monitor these sites and assign taxis where there is much demand," Shibru told Fortune.
The office's staff at these sites try to send the monitors from relaxed areas to busy areas, although that has often led to some harsh encounters between the taxis and the officials. Sometimes traffic police officers have had to interfere to force the taxi drivers to comply.
In some places such as Bole, part of the problem has been the reluctance of commuters to board Higer buses despite the transport shortage, according to Shibru.
The blue and white minibuses carry around 1.1 million commuters a day while Anbessa and Higer, the new midi buses, handle transportation for about 1.2 million and 700,000 commuters, respectively, according to information from the branch office.
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