Life to get harder for city motorists
A traffic jam along Mombasa road. Life for Nairobi motorists could get more difficult in the next three months as the Nairobi Metropolitan Development ministry rolls out a plan to make the capital city less congested.
What you need to know:
- Parking fees to go up in Nairobi as the slots will be reduced
Life for Nairobi motorists could get more difficult in the next three months as the Nairobi Metropolitan Development ministry rolls out a plan to make the capital city less congested.
In a move that will see the already limited parking spaces drastically reduced, motorists will pay much higher fees for the few parking slots that will remain. The fee is not specified.
According to an advertisement placed elsewhere in this paper, the ministry has finalised several interventions to improve traffic flow within the Nairobi Central Business District.
This way, the ministry hopes to create much more space within the central business district.
The decongestion programme, which will be in two phases, will include the creation of one-way streets.
Affected streets include; Koinange, Muindi Mbingu, Harambee Avenue, Moi Avenue, Tom Mboya, River Road and Kirinyaga Road.
Some of Nairobi’s narrower streets have already been converted into one-way streets.
The conversion of these streets will also lead to the removal of on-street parking in the affected areas.
There will thus be fewer parking spots on these roads.
The ministry says to curb this reduction, new parking bays will be identified along Thika Road, Mombasa Road, Ngong Road and Waiyaki Way. In addition, the ministry says, storied parking lots will be built.
It is however not clear when these will be put up and whether funding and space for them has been secured.
Dedicated bus lanes
However, before this is done, Nairobi residents will have to suffer more traffic snarl- ups as redesigning these roads will require the reconstruction of some of the affected roads and junctions.
Dedicated bus lanes will be created along Moi, Kenyatta and Haile Selassie Avenues.
Property owners in Nairobi will also be affected as they will be required to put plates on their building by the end of November showing numbers given to them by the ministry.
The changes will be effected in the whole Nairobi Metropolitan area.
The area includes 15 local authorities, among them the county councils of Thika, Kiambu, Masaku, Olkejuado and Mavoko.
