Last week Cabinet Secretary Michael
Kamau observed that it takes 45 minutes to fly from Kampala to Nairobi and 2
hours to drive from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Nairobi’ s city
centre, a distance of 18 km.
The observation by Mr. Kamau is
not extra ordinarily enlightened. Nairobi’s commuters have to endure endless
and excruciating traffic gridlock. Commuters now think traffic jams are an
inextricable feature of life in Nairobi. The immobility and frustration, and
the cost to business and the economy are both indefensible and shameful. It is an indictment of our urban planning and governance.
Nairobi’s traffic catastrophe has
been years in the making. Our technocrats and decision makers have aided it consistently
and deliberately for the past half-century. And a passive and self-interested public has
actively abetted it. Now the chickens have come home to roost.
Four factors have converged to create
Nairobi’s traffic catastrophe. First is the expansion of major road arteries
into Nairobi; more roads more cars. Second is a substantial rise in car
ownership owing to two things; influx of cheap used cars into the markets and expanded
access to unsecured bank loans. Third is unregulated expansion of high-density affordable
housing in the sprawling suburbs, buoyed by road expansion and lack of land use
zoning in contiguous counties. Fourth is a large and growing urban population;
Nairobi is home to about 1 in 10 Kenyans.
Other factors that explain
Nairobi’s unconscionable traffic gridlock include inadequate, 19th
century urban road infrastructure, a total absence of any form of rational
traffic management, lack of public transit system and the drop the price of gas.
Last week Nairobi’s Governor,
Evans Kidero and Michael Kamau, Cabinet Secretary for transport and
infrastructure admitted that Nairobi’s traffic congestion was a matter of great
concern. There is task force and it has a plan in place to address the traffic
mess. The plan includes: an intelligent transport system backed by a traffic
management centre (How different is this from a similar system, with lights and
cameras was installed in Nairobi in 2012); removal of all roundabouts between
Waiyaki way and Mombasa road; review of PSV termini to reduce number of matatus
entering the CBD, suspension of licensing of PSVs in Nairobi subject to demand
analysis; expansion of existing roads and construction of bypasses.
In the long-term, under a
memorandum of understanding, the national and county government will build a
Bus Rapid Transit and a Light Rail Transit. Also in the works is the so-called
institutional framework through the Nairobi Metropolitan Transit Authority to
address Nairobi’s transit issues.
That the government is grappling
with Nairobi’s horrendous and shameful traffic is laudable. The plan proposed to
resolve the traffic mess is grandiose but myopic. The plan has been greeted
with enthusiastic cynicism. The plan fails to put any burden on private
motorist, and instead suggests, contrary to existing evidence, that matatus
account for a large part of Nairobi’s traffic congestion problem.
The plan places no obligation on urban
and regional planning and makes no reference to the role of the governments of
the contiguous counties of Machakos, Kajiado and Kiambu, which account for a
significant volume of commuter traffic into Nairobi. Moreover, the plan does
not involve the private sector in providing solutions to Nairobi’s traffic
mess. It is big on spending your money.
I offer four suggestions. First, we
need a public private partnership to build and operate park and ride facilities
10 km from the CBD and reliable high occupancy bus shuttles into the city. This
should be accompanied by the elimination of 40-60 percent of street level
public parking in the CBD and a congestion levy for private cars entering the
CBD.
Second, Nairobi County should
enter into an agreement with neighboring counties to regulate the conversion of
farmland to high-density residential use. Planning regulations should outlaw development
of high-density settlements beyond 15 km from a major urban centre.
Third, a partnership among
Nairobi County, the Rift Valley Railway (RVR) and the Kenya Railway Corporation
could increase the capacity of RVR to modernize and expand its services, and
get more private cars off the road.
Fourth, do not rush to replace
roundabouts with four-way intersections. Globally, roundabouts have been shown
to perform better and are safer than other intersection controls modes. What is
needed is clever re-design and better controls at the roundabout.
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