Solution to gridlocks is just a mirage

Two weeks ago, when road users in Nairobi complained that the drums used to block certain roundabouts should be put to better use, I opined that we had not seen the last of drama on our highways.

Well... they hardly lasted a couple days and just as we were beginning to familiarise ourselves with “normal” traffic chaos, there were rumours that the drums would be back.

This back and forth simply displays the Nairobi County Government’s “analysis paralysis” as far as addressing the gridlock in the capital.

Analysis paralysis or paralysis by analysis is an anti-pattern, the state of over-analysing (or over-thinking about) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, and thus paralysing the outcome.

A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a decision is never made.

Simply put, analysis paralysis is whereby one cannot make any progress because he/she bogs him/herself down in details — tweaking, brainstorming, and research and ... anything but getting on with it.

The confusing signals we are getting from City Hall as far as traffic management in the city are anything but enlightening. The county government has now resorted to to piecemeal interventions to address the situation.

Last week, Governor Evans Kidero walked along the streets of downtown Nairobi and declared that long distance buses should not be in the CBD. It gets worrisome when it emerges that owners of matatus mooted that idea and also want out — more or less for the same reason that businesses are relocating to outskirts of the CBD because traffic in CBD is unbearable. Just imagine that even the battle hardened matatu fellows are eager to ship out of the city.

How bad has the situation become? Then the “elusive” Southern Bypass is yet another indicator of gridlocked ideas in the county government’s boardroom.

Already, the directive that all heavy commercial vehicles have been banned from the CBD during certain times when they have to use the bypass is being viewed as a publicity stunt.

Truck drivers do not have to be forced because, ideally, no truck driver loves getting stuck in the CBD gridlock when he has a long trip to god-knows which regional country.

Anybody who has had a chat with a truck driver will tell you that traffic jams are their worst nightmare.

Thus, they cannot knowingly get themselves stuck in CBD. As a matter of fact, blaming the whole mess on truckers, who are not even residents of Nairobi, is defeatist.

The government of Nairobi City County needs to table long-term traffic solutions because its current experiments are just not working.