Implement projects with users in mind

As we navigate the murky waters of financing major road projects such as the Kampala-Jinja Expressway, this is the opportunity to review project requirements and set up better systems to supervise contractors. 

Existing projects such as road construction are often allowed to implement first and handle eventualities as we go. Years later, motorists have to contend with roads too narrow to handle growing traffic, lack of lighting or improperly conceived junctions, among other anomalies. 

The Kampala Road Safety Annual Report 2021, identified the top 10 blackspots between 2019 and 2021 as well as the top 10 fatal crash corridors. By 2021, 70 percent of high risk locations for crashes and accidents were on major roads and the recommendation was that these findings should inform road improvement.

One such new project is the Clock Tower junction that seems to have failed to anticipate the direction of flow of motorcycle traffic towards Usafi, one of the major city taxi parks and market centre. 

In cases like these, users start to make their own provisions where planners seem to have forgotten to cater for them. This explains the continuous breakdown of facilities a few years after installation where provisions are missing or inadequate for waste water or rubbish disposal, among others. 

The other issue that should concern planners is the growing number of motorcyclists especially in the busy capital Kampala and the seeming lack of forethought regarding this major traffic source. 

According to a press release by Kampala City Authority in January 2023, the city has an estimated 150,000 boda boda (commercial cyclists). Every day, more young people procure these motorcycles and take up more inches of space on the newly constructed and existing 2100 kilometres of road network in Kampala. 

Without an efficient public transport system for the city, these numbers will only keep growing yet the solutions are hazy or slow in coming.

If the big city planning has been overtaken in some respects by growing populations, the growth and development of infrastructure of other cities should not fall to the same fates. Construction of roads, drainage, housing and industrial spaces cannot be left to chance. 

Let’s study the needs of the people in advance and then plan to accommodate traffic and human activity, especially in busy centres.