Exploiting Lockdowns and Quarantines’ for Better City Transport in Africa

After the announcement of the cessation in Nairobi area, there were crazy respites witnessed especially for those people who found themselves out of the boundaries.
Today cities around the world; Nairobi experience relatively easy traffic and great flow of movement from cars and people. There is tremendous low carbon pollution in Nairobi that was caused by more than 500,000 buses and matatus in Nairobi CBD and it’s suburbs. With school buses the number shoots higher.
NTSA data and records from sourced from some popular Nairobi city bound SACCOs indicate a possibility of 3000 psv vehicles operating on Limuru Road daily. Today due to cessation and closure of public & private school the numbers have gone down exponentially and that has eased the crazy connection in our streets.
SO WHAT IS MY PROPOSAL?
Nairobi through the governor’s office and the Nairobi regeneration team has been planning to decongest the CBD by blocking matatus from entering but the move has been failing 3 times now.
I think they can take this opportunity to.
1. UPGRADE MAJOR STAGES TO THE REQUIRED STANDARDS and put up central monitoring units to ensure order and smooth flow of picking and dropping off passengers is done appropriately.
2. REMOVE all STATIC Taxis in the CBD that pack for more than 3/4 hours without much movement and replace them with ONLINE TAXIS that are mobile. This is Uber, Bolt, Little Cab, Wasilla,SWas, lla a PTG Travel (Pewin) etc. opening
3. BAN ALL LONG DISTANCE BUSES and MATATUS from the CBD to operate in our satellite towns like Limuru, Thika, Athi river, Kikuyu, Kiambu, Ngong, Kitengela, Rongai, Ruai, Ruiru and many others which would connect to the rest of the country.
Traveling to my village in Miharati, Nyandarua, instead of travelling from ruaka to Nairobi to pic TULAGA I would take a matatu to Limuru and take a tulaga from there.
Traveling to Muranga, then I would choose which route would be easier for me between Thika, Ruiru or Kiambu. This to me would create a bigger network of movement and reduce the number of vehicles coming in Nairobi for passengers. Transport fare too would be the same of slightly lower due to the demand and smooth flow.
4. NTSA TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PSV REGISTRATION IN NAIROBI. I know ntsa intends to register 1.5 m by 2030 but I feel like this will do us more harm than good. This is the right opportunity for the lazy transport minister to bring on board the high capacity buses to use the designated area paths.
5. MOTORCYCLES (Boda Boda)
Play a major role in our city but there need to be proper planning on where to operate from.
6. IMPROVE INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK Nairobi CBD shouldn’t be experiencing potholes in this time and age, why do we have bad roads while this is the major city, a capital centre where the economy operates from. We can recarpet all the bad roads in Nairobi without the fake technology that Sonko brought a few years ago that destroyed the roads more than they used to be.
Working traffic light, street light, street cameras, proper road marking, interchange roads and proper law enforcers. Designating a fresh team of TRAFFIC MARSHALS who would control the traffic instead of the rogue city askaris who only harass posts. With this curfew, we can do sooo much on our roads.

7. STRICT TRAFFIC LAWS
Those who disobey the rules gets a strict penalty. I know we have this law but I think getting a new team esp NTSA that was led well by Mr Francis Meja would be great. I believe the new boss is stepping in shoes well polished. I find the team reliable.
Transportation is not a science, but a field of inquiry and application. As such, it tends to rely on a set of specific methodologies since transportation is a performance-driven activity and this performance can be measured and compared. Transportation planning and analysis are interdisciplinary by nature, involving among others, civil engineers, economists, urban planners, and geographers.
Being a third world country but we can take this opportunity to engage and roll out plans that can be helpful to our country people.
I’m not a transport expert but as a concerned citizen I think we can improve.
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