Chris Blattman

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This town needs an urban planner

I’ve just reached Kampala after a week-long stay in the north of Uganda. I thought the traffic here was bad before, but it’s gotten so bad that the street vendors now sell shoes. Picture it: they come to your window with three or four pair, and drivers have just enough time to try them all before the cars in front start moving again. It takes an hour to cross town. 

I miss the north already…

7 Responses

  1. I've noticed so far that right around Nakawa is the worst. Between the construction and the new traffic cop presence, it takes an hour sometimes to go less than a mile.

  2. Same problem in Nairobi, it used to take 20 minutes to get anywhere in Nairobi, and now you can't traverse even a two mile stretch in less than an hour during the day.

    The problem though, is that I cant foresee this situation being solveable, even if the funds were to magically appear, or not dis-appear, for a massive road building and infrustructure program.

    I say this because in Los Angeles, where I live, road and transport planners have "discovered" a catch-22, whereby new roads, and transport networks, increase usage at rates faster than the growth rate in the very infrustructure being built.

    i.e. as new freeways go up, people drive more, all the way up to congestion kicks in. The LA dept. of Transportaion's study concluded that no matter how many billions they allocated to freeway construction, usage would grow faster, all the way up to congestion again.

    If you apply this same problem to an environment like Kampala or Nairobi, that is massively under built in infrustructure, and add the limited rescources available to those two respective governments, even beyond the political will to allocate it efficiently, chances are that road building will likely only ever just barely releive congestion, before it stops up again, and a new cycle of building kicks in, with the result of barely releiving congestion.

    One other point, our political class in East Africa, is over enamored with roads, which affect them directly, and would do better to invest public funds in a massive public transport network, that would yield much better political mileage to boot.

    My favourite concept a Bicycle freeway system, with large lifts and escalators at key points to lift groups of cyclists to an elevated series of tracks that do not slope beyond a manageble level of exertion. A maximum grade so that the city could be traversed with ease. The bicycle freeway would not require the width of a car/truck freeway, or the density and strength of tarmac, saving on considerable costs, for motion achieved. Not to mention the health bennefits. I fully realize this would be much tougher in hilly Kampala, as opposed to Dar or NBI.

    Just my 2 bob.

  3. Maybe there needs to be more research on urban planning in Africa! There isn't much out there….

  4. Not helped, of course, by our infamous Northern bypass road which was designed to take traffic out of central Kampala. Unfortunately it is several years behind schedule and uniquely has begun to develop potholes before being open to cars.

  5. Yuba Mundo! Xtracycle! Cargo bikes are so insanely awesome in congested environments.

    Seriously, I own one in urban Honolulu and it's amazing how much easier a lot of things get. Especially during rush hour.

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