Traffic gridlocks stifle economic growth

Traffic jam in Nairobi

Approach any urbanite and ask him or her to list top three nightmares associated with living in a big city.

Traffic jams will most definitely top the list. Ideally, traffic jams slowly but surely stifle economic growth.

How long do we find ourselves stuck in the traffic jam? On average, a daily commuter in Nairobi sits in traffic for up to two hours everyday.

That means that Kenya is losing valuable man-hours which could have used in a more productive way.

Several months ago, the Nairobi City County decreed that it would undertake a major re-organisation of passenger service vehicle termini in the Central Business District. This was meant to help in decongesting the city and ensuring smooth movement of people and goods at an efficient pace.

According to the County Government, the new plans were to see the main corridors having designated stages for buses with timetables so passengers would be picked up and dropped out of the town.

The county government further asked matatu operators to buy buses and discard the smaller vans so that transport in the city can be more efficient. The county government  stated that it would take four years to actualise.

Who has four years to wait for transport to be fixed? I am no urban planner, but I associate myself with knowledgeable people and in my circles, there are urban planners and they maintain that transport chaos in Nairobi can be addressed if there is adequate political will. If we demolished palatial homes in the past in order to build roads, why can’t we find a solution to the traffic jams.

On any given day, Tom Mboya Street is not actually a road but a bus park where passenger service vehicles pick up and drop passengers. Why do we need four years to sort it?

Actually, most streets in Nairobi, south of Moi Avenue are just PSV termini and I strongly disagree that we have to wait for four years to drive PSVs away from Tom Mboya and Ronald Ngala streets.

They say Rome was not built in a day, but the Nairobi City County government should try and make commuting in the city a bit easier by initiating programmes that are aimed at reducing gridlocks.