Hopeless square?
Just a few months ago, it appeared as though chaotic Ramses Square had finally been tamed. Unfortunately, reports Reem Nafie, the calm did not last
Last December, the masses of people who traverse Ramses Square in vehicles or on foot were shocked to find the square completely devoid of the chaos that usually defines it. The vendors and microbuses that used to take up a great deal of the square's street space were gone, and dozens of traffic officers were lined up everywhere in the vicinity.
Several essential changes had taken place: Cairo Governorate had decided to move the informal microbus stop in front of the Six October bridge on-ramp and the city's main train station a few blocks away, to Ahmed Helmi Street. Police had also been deployed en masse to stop the vendors of everything from combs and magazines, to underwear and clocks, from setting up their makeshift shop tables in the same place. An intricate system of fences and blockades had also been erected to direct and control the never- ending stream of pedestrian traffic that flows through the square.
This fairy tale scenario, however, barely lasted two weeks. With the start of the New Year, the number of police officers helping to monitor and control the square's traffic had gone down from nearly 15 to just two. With the reduced police presence, the square seemed to be on the verge of chaos yet again.
According to Fawzi Hassan, a Cairo Traffic Department official, "it was impossible to keep over 12 officers in one square. The initial plan was to only keep them there until everyone got used to the new rules." Hassan said the pedestrians who choose not to use the designated crossing areas are not keen "on maintaining the square's calm". As for the microbus drivers, "if some do not follow the rules, there is nothing we can do about it," Hassan said.
A Traffic Department study indicates that 280,000 pedestrians and nearly two million cars and microbuses traverse the square every eight hours. As such, argued Hassan, "you can't really teach two million people the ethics of driving. When you know the rules, you should drive according to them."
How the rules are enforced, however, seems to be the crux of this issue. With the reduced police presence, many microbus drivers have begun picking up and dropping off passengers in the square, even though the new Ahmed Helmi stop is only a block or so away. Pedestrians, meanwhile, have gone back to crossing the street wherever they can, rather than using the underground tunnels and pedestrian bridges provided for them.
The only element in the square's rehabilitation that has remained pristine is the absence of street vendors. "Vendors don't like to create problems," said Mustafa Lotfi, who moved his sock table to Ahmed Helmi. "We know we are not supposed to be in Ramses, so we won't go back there. We have established our new base here at Ahmed Helmi."
Hassan and other Cairo Traffic officials said the square's dilemmas would be easier solved if the Culture Ministry finally follows through with its plan to move the huge statue of Ramses II that stands near the centre of the square. "Removing the statue will create more free space, giving cars more room to move, thus decreasing the congestion," Hassan said.
Plans to move Ramses II have been on the table since 1996, when the Culture Ministry said pollution in the square was causing major damage to the statue. Giza's Remaya Square, the village of Mit Rahina, and a new open-air museum near the Giza Pyramids were proposed as alternate homes. In 1999, however, the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which was headed by Gaballah Ali Gaballah at the time, decided to postpone the move. According to Gaballah, Mit Rahina -- where the statue was originally found -- was neither "equipped nor prepared to host such an important statue".
In October 2002, Culture Minister Farouk Hosni decided that the statue would be moved to a planned open-air museum near the Giza Pyramids, thus eliminating the Mit Rahina option. Although work on the new museum was set to begin in November 2002, nearly a year and a half later it has still not started. Culture Ministry officials refused to comment on the delay.
Ahmed Fahim, who heads the area's traffic police unit, told Al-Ahram Weekly that moving the statue "won't drastically affect traffic". Fahim said that since the statue only occupies a small part of the square, "moving it elsewhere will not make a difference". The square's problems, he said, would "never be solved if people insist on breaking the rules, and Cairo Traffic is unable to spare permanent units to monitor the square".
Which means it's probably only a matter of time before Ramses returns to its totally chaotic self.
