Improving Public Transport in Kampala
Kampala is a sprawling urban metropolis with a daytime population of about 4 million. The Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area covers the Kampala district and extends into the neighbouring Mukono and Wakiso districts. The city has a radial urban form, with most of the business concentrated within the Central division of Kampala. There is a lot of business along the main transport routes radiating from the city centre to the suburban outskirts of Kampala.
Public transport in Kampala is provided by 14-seater minibus taxis and motorcycles locally known as boda-bodas. There is a significant number of private cars which is growing at an alarming rate of about 11% per annum. This has led to high levels of traffic congestion as the development of transport infrastructure lags behind population and traffic growth.
Improving public transport should aim at providing an attractive alternative to private cars in terms of quality of service and journey time. This is an ambitious undertaking that will require several short, medium and long-term interventions covering the entire Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area. These interventions will be used to reduce journey times and improve road safety by prioritising public and non-motorised transport. Developments and improvements should be cognizant of the minibus taxis, motorcycles and pedestrian traffic which forms the largest percentage of trips in Kampala, to ensure equitable development.
Firstly, I would recommend the compilation of existing data including parking surveys and traffic counts for links and junctions to understand growth trends and bottlenecks within the system. Household data from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics should be studied to understand the population, inform travel demand projections and build models to test different scenarios. Studying the available data would show the gaps in the data so that supplementary studies can be carried out.
Short-term interventions should focus on reducing parking supply, especially within the central business district to discourage the use of private cars. On-street parking should then be re-allocated to public transport and segregated non-motorised transport. Dedicated bus lanes should be created and enforced along strategic corridors like Kampala Road, Lugogo Bypass and Jinja Road. Junction improvements in the form of widening and signalisation should also be used to reduce localised traffic jams and prioritize buses. These measures will improve bus journey times and encourage private car users to switch to public transport.
Governance and funding should be considered while implementing short-term interventions so that when it is time to implement medium and long-term projects, there is an established governance mechanism. A metropolitan transport authority should be established to manage the different stakeholders. This authority should innovate the regulation of existing public transport service providers and arrange contracting agreements for the provision of mass transit in the medium and long term.
In the medium term, the city should implement Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The
current bus-based public transport is not up to BRT standard. Metropolitan transport authorities should provide a standard bus rapid transit (BRT) system, which should integrate minibus taxis and boda-bodas to provide last-mile transit. This can be implemented along the major corridors like Gayaza road and Kampala-Entebbe Expressway. The solution should be built into future developments like the Kampala– Jinja Expressway and the Southern By-pass. Furthermore, there should be strategic improvements of taxi rank facilities in the outskirts to provide transfers from BRT to minibus taxis serving areas where the BRT corridors are not feasible. Major road improvements should incorporate BRT routes instead of just considering private car traffic. The traffic light system in Kampala should be integrated into a centralised traffic control facility, to enable coordination of signals to prioritise BRT at intersections and to improve the efficiency of the system during peak hours when demand surges.
New developments within the central business district should also have to be
prohibited from providing excess parking through building regulations in the form of parking maximums. KCCA should collect revenue from the limited parking provided; this cost will be passed on from car park owners to private car owners. This model would serve to reduce private car traffic, especially if KCCA would endeavour to provide strategic park and ride facilities on the outskirts of the city, with BRT stations and taxi ranks nearby to provide transfers into the city centre.
Corridors should be reserved for future light rail developments to serve upcoming suburbs around Kampala. These corridors should be used to provide rail links from these areas to the city centre. Dedicated right of way makes rail fast and therefore an attractive alternative to private cars for the middle-class suburban residents, more so when integrated with BRT and pedestrian links within the city.
In the long term, the city authorities should construct rail and light rail. UN-Habitat predicts that Kampala will be the fastest growing city in 2030 with a population of 5.5 million, growing at a rate of over 5%. Kampala has an existing railway corridor which was used briefly to transport commuters between Mukono and Kampala. I would recommend that this corridor be repurposed to provide rapid mass transit with park and ride facilities. Paid parking could be provided at places like Nalukolongo and Namanve to keep private car traffic from entering the city. In addition to repurposing the existing rail, new light rail links should be constructed along corridors connecting different suburbs to the city centre. With fast railway links from the park and ride sites into the city centre, and quick BRT transfers within the city, private car traffic could be reduced in the long run leading to better journey times and attracting enough passengers to make the service economically feasible.
Non-motorised transport infrastructure has been piloted in the city centre and this should be extended and connected to the transit facilities. In the long-term bicycle and pedestrian lanes and facilities should also be provided, in neighbourhoods outside the city centre, to provide first and last-mile connections to and from train and BRT stations.
Smart ticket integration with train, park and ride and BRT should be used to improve transfers and provide subsidies to attract high ridership. The metropolitan transport authority should publish their transit data as a GTFS feed to be shared with developers including google maps. This will attract ICT innovations that improve transport services and ridership by providing information and mobility as a service (MaaS) to transit users.
Investment in transport infrastructure should stop prioritising private cars and two-wheelers which use space less efficiently, causing traffic congestion and other related negative impacts. Public-Private partnerships coupled with the use of a portion of revenue from fuel taxes and parking fees should be considered when building models for funding these projects. The land-use policy should be used to make Kampala’s urban core denser in the long term, making it more attractive for transit. Transit-oriented development should be the priority for improvements and widening of major corridors and construction of future infrastructure in greater Kampala.
This article was originally written for a transport consultant job application and is loosely based on my master’s dissertation. The opinions expressed in this article are based on my personal research and experience and do not represent the views of my employer.
