It is a situation many show they hate: The Kampala traffic jams. The drivers will honk pointlessly. If at a junction, the traffic police will have possibly pulled rank to rule against traffic lights. It is scorching hot and the taxi glass windows won’t slide open, the type that would justly be marked ‘leave it.’
Or maybe, it’s raining and a mysterious heat is ‘brewing’ you. Here, the options of jumping out to walk faster on foot are nil. The police will appear to have forgotten your lane, allowing the other to flow forever. Practically, you are breathing-in each others carbon dioxide.
Pathetic! you snarl under your breath.
An on-the-spot check around Nakivubo, Mulago round-about, Spear Motors, Ntinda Trading Centre, Clock Tower, the whole stretch of Kampala Road, parts of Jinja Road plus entries and exits from both the New and Old Taxi parks reveals that traffic jam has become the norm especially at peak hours. During these times, vehicles, motorcycles and pedestrians jostle for space in a nightmarish state.
According to Dr. Kiggundu Tamale, an urban planer and President Uganda Transport Users Association(UPTUA), 23,813 man-hours are lost each day by commuters because of traffic jam and lack of an efficient transport system in Kampala.
Kiggundu, in his blog articles cautions about an impending threat of a traffic standstill in Kampala unless sweeping measures through a well-formulated traffic master plan are put and implemented.
While there was a raised pulse of traffic life in Kampala after the opening of the European-Union funded Northern by-pass, it is too little an achievement to celebrate for long. First, that road is too narrow for comfort. The bigger problem however is that many vehicles continue to drop onto the country’s roads each day, a pile that is not matched by any road width expansion.
Inspector of Police Maate Brian, in-charge records at the Central Police Station traffic section says creation of a Southern by-pass would do the city much good to supplement the ease brought about by the Northern bypass.
Maate who occasionally regulates traffic at Kampala’s Clock Tower thinks traffic along Entebbe Road is a chocking affair because there are no effective arterial roads that majorly link areas south of Kampala.
He defends the continued traffic police’s continued stay at road junctions with working traffic lights (the Inspector General of Police recently said they would leave) saying the lights constantly fail. He also says some drivers and riders behave like they know no rules, including respect for traffic lights.
To return sanity on Kampala roads, the following measures would be good starting points:
The much-talked about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system should be implemented. This will relegate the traffic jam-prone taxis to suburbs at a reasonable radius outside the city centre. With the constant rumour that many influential politicians own hundreds of taxis plaughing the Suburb-City-Centre routes, implementers will have to gear-up against political nosiness. This measure should apply to motorcycles often referred to as Boda-bodas which all accident statics rate as the main cause.
Equally, shopping malls that appear to be an attractive investment nowadays should be constructed in city suburbs where most people reside and not the City centre. This calls for shrewd leadership that will formulate urban decongestion policies that they will stick to, to full implementation.
With a crack-down on illegal structures in Kampala that has seen several pulled down, the road reserves should be widened. This should go with creation of dual carriageways and overhead driveways at junctions and round-abouts.
Authorities should also consider levying a high public parking toll to halt the craze of everyone seeming to want to drive a car. mostly the cheaply imported used cars which in a double tragedy streak are environmentally un-friendly.
With the management of Kampala now under the central government, city residents hope for an improvement in the transport system. Conflicts between Erias Lukwago, the Lord Mayor, and Jenifer Misisi, the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority could however easily dash these hopes if not resolved.
It’s like a fight of two bulls…of different sexes!
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