Provincial
Sh24bn lost in traffic jams yearly: minister
A traffic jam along Mombasa road in Nairobi. PHOTO/FILE
Posted Sunday, August 30 2009 at 15:00
A cabinet minister has said that Sh24 billion is lost annually on the roads by motorists due to traffic jams.
Nairobi Metropolitan minister Mr Njeru Githae said private motorists ought to be banned from entering the central business district in order to ease traffic congestion.
Mr Githae said it was only in Kenya where public service vehicles (PSV) are denied access into the city's Central Business District unlike other countries.
“Private motorists should be banned from the city centre. At the same, until certain things are done we cannot tell people not to use their vehicles,” said Mr Githae.
He said the notice by the city council of Nairobi intending to bar upcountry PSVs from accessing the city centre was premature since it was against what professionals had suggested.
“How do people reach the city centre if they are dropped at Kariokor or Westlands (Nairobi city suburbs)?” asked the minister.
The minister said there was need for having one way streets and removing of parking for matatus at the city centre.
The minister made the remarks during the closure of Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) annual convection at Whitesands hotel in Mombasa.
He said plans by his ministry to make Nairobi more competitive will proceed as planned.
Mr Githae said with the construction of a super highway from Nairobi to Thika,it would be prudent to set up a domestic airport at Thika and that Jomo Kenyatta international airport be left for international flights.
The minister said that plans were underway to assist PSV owners get full returns from their investments noting that they lose almost 40 per cent of their earnings to police, gangs and even their employees.
He said the loss by investors in the public transport made it impossible for them to investor in big passenger vehicles.
-
Submitted by CountrymanPosted November 05, 2009 02:00 PM
-
Submitted by betterkenya
This is all good news @ ones but i would like to reffer those in charge of kenyan traffic to a report that was lately published by Japan. This report adresses the course of traffic and how it can be avoided. Am a mathematician by proffesional and right now we are doing a research on traffic issues based in Philadelphia,hopefully if we succesed and am very optimistic about that, then i will invest the technology of our findings to my country Kenya. I love this country to death.
Posted August 30, 2009 10:13 PM
RSS
If they do not develop and run these themselves, (at agreed rates, if they took the easy loans), then they should be compulsorily purchased and developed by the City or government as a revenue generator. Then drastically reduce the number of parking spots along the city centre roads, which will effectively give each road an extra lane in each direction. More one-way streets will also greatly help. Better policing of traffic rules by a specially trained city traffic police team, will also be essential to avoid the jams caused by the selfish drivers who know noone will stop them.