Skip to main content

GIVE OUR TRAFFIC POLICE A CHANCE



Last week during an investor interaction  Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials called on police to stop overriding traffic lights while directing traffic.

KCCA argues that the traffic lights are large investment and it makes no sense for police to countermand them.

In a classic case of “The importance of the river was not known till it dried up” on Friday the traffic police desisted from directing cars at the traffic lights leading to the worst traffic snarl-up in the city’s history. People were stuck in traffic jams around the city for hours and long into the night.

Maybe it was the unhappy coincidence of the traditional Friday traffic and pre-Christmas excitement but without the traffic police directing traffic it was a mess. They made their point.

It of course points to the bigger issue of a revamping of Kampala’s road network, which has remained  largely the same since independence but with an exponential increase in cars in the last three decades.

KCCA has done a fantastic job in the ongoing road rehabilitation project around the city and one would be foolish not to recognize and applaud that.

But the issue of congestation in the city will not be eased by widening old roads, building flyovers or even new roads. Studies done by other cities have shown that improvements in road infrastructure may ease traffic flow in the short term but it is only a temporary fix. A more durable solution is restrict the number of cars coming into the city altogether.

An increase in parking fees earlier this year has come with some noticeable change, it is much easier to find parking in the Central Business District (CBD) today than it was months ago. A good start.
KCCA needs to go further and workout a mechanism for charging people driving into town. This “congestion tax” has been applied in cities around the world to great effect.

This should be coupled with a comprehensive public transport strategy that would make it not so painful for people to leave their cars at home, unless absolutely necessary.

The truth is we already have the building blocks of a robust public transport system with our taxi services – which need some organization but nevertheless perform a critical function, and the various car hire services.

The boda bodas only contribute to congestion and the difficulty of maneuvering around the city for other road users.  I support efforts to restrict them to the suburbs at the earliest opportunity.

Of course we are long overdue for a bus service and it is not much to wish for a train service.
That being said the traffic police play an important role, which as we saw on Friday, we take for granted. Traffic control is a science. In a country where the majority of drivers did not go to proper driving school and therefore do not know traffic rules or appreciate road etiquette, the role of the traffic police is doubly important.

And it is clearly not an easy job when not only are you shepherding Kampala’s bad mannered drivers but also battling the elements to deliver the service.

After some thought and given the critical work that they do to keep this city working I propose, and I am willing to oversee, a fund in which we can collect  money, a token of appreciation for the work they do.

And given the timing this can be a Christmas bonus to the men in white from grateful road users of this town.

(DECEMBER 2017)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW TO RECOGNISE A PONZI AND NOT FALL VICTIM

Another Ponzi scheme has come crashing down around the ears of hundreds of “investors”. Unsurprisingly. In its recent reincarnation poor Ugandans were lured into a scheme where they bought computer tablets. This entitled them to a monthly pay off, $100, and a Christmas bonus for their children. In this case the unsuspecting investors -cum -victims were being given a share certificate. Meaning you accept to take the part of the risk in this project. Which was inadvertently reducing their burden of risk and liability for the issuing company. I leave that area to smart lawyers to handle.   As is always the case with these things, it’s not quite clear where the pay-out will come from. A common characteristic of these schemes is that you might get initial payments before you starting missing a few and the stories begin. The promoters of these schemes or scams often use the money from the latest entrants to pay the older “investors” until one of two things happen. Either...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE GOOD THAT CAN COME OF THE NEW UGANDA AIRLINES

I have fond memories of the Old Uganda Airlines. As a secondary school child, I took advantage of ticket concessions (my mother worked for Uganda Airlines) to fly to the UK to buy clothes and other goods for sale to my friends at school. These trips were a great adventure and served as a good foundation for the businessman I am today. It has been reported that the first two planes of the revived Uganda Airlines will be landing in the country within the month. The finance ministry has been presenting to parliament their needs to pay off deposits on the first two of six planes they are to take possession of in coming months. The project has its equal share of supporters and critics. I am a qualified supporter of the project. In business nothing is certain. We deal in probabilities. When getting into a venture we often must weigh the risks versus the returns of a project. If the risk of failure outweighs the potential profit we stay away, otherwise you are gambling...
Post a Comment
Read more

DEAL WITH PLASTICS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

The first rainy season seems to have passed. Not too soon for some of us. It has become standard now that with the rains come the floods and with every season these become not only more and more daunting, but spread all over Kampala. While KCCA has done a lot of work in improving drainage, we are undoing the good work with our bad habits. Everyday we dispose of tons of plastic improperly, these find their way into the existing drainage systems of this city. These cause blockages, which we go about blissfully unaware of until the rainy season begins. The rainwater not only struggles to go past existing blockages but comes along with its own load of plastics to reinforce the existing blockage. The water, which should be finding its way to Lake Victoria, swells out of the drains and finds its way onto the road, into our offices and our homes. That’s the simplified version of events.  This is before we even start examining how we are building in the wetlands ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WE NEED FASTER TURN AROUND ON OUR ROAD PROJECTS

During a recent trip to China I was shocked to find properly paved roads and first class infrastructure deep in the countryside, hundreds of kilometres away from the capital, Beijing. I rode the high-speed railway out of Beijing, doing more than 300 kilometres per hour and I can attest I have never been on anything like it anywhere in the world. Not in Europe. Not in the States. Nowhere. I was blown away and wondered why we can’t at least do a tenth of this at home. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I used the Entebbe Expressway from the airport. I was in Kampala in under an hour. The Entebbe road had become a nightmare. I was shaken out of my good feeling when I had to make a trip to Tororo the other day. On my way back I spent two and half hours between Mukono and Kampala, about the same time it took me from Tororo up to Mukono. Clearly there is a lot of work to be done on our transport infrastructure. The full extent we probably don’t appreciate,...
Post a Comment
Read more

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION, ITS NOW TIME TO WORK….

Thousands of students will be graduating from their respective universities in coming days and months. Makerere, our country’s oldest university will kick off its ceremonies on January 15th and the other universities will follow. The graduates have already had a taste of the real life, having finished their studies mid last year and tried to get employed. Many know by now that the world can be harsh and unforgiving. I hope many are tightening their belts in readiness for the struggle ahead. Some may have decided to kick the tin down the road by continuing with school. And others may have given up altogether. My prayer is that there are more of the first and less of the last kind. In talking to young people, I find that what is needed is a reorientation of their minds – a mindset change. Let me share with you certain facts to help manage their expectations of the world and how they can fulfil their potential in our context. First of all, the world owes you ...
Post a Comment
Read more