Kampala Mobilities and Future
Traffic, chaos, noise, pollution, are some words used to describe mobilities in the city of Kampala: What is the future of Kampala’s mobilities in light of the growing city population and deteriorating infrastructure?
Kampala is home and living environment of an estimated population of 1.75 million residents and working environment for an estimated daily work force of 4.5 million. The annual growth rate of the city is at 4.5% due to majority rural-urban migration.
The state of Kampala mobilities can be broken down into three main modes of transport; Walking is the main mode of transport in Kampala with 70% of city dwellers walking to work everyday. The second commonly used mode of transport is public transport (Matatus) that carry passengers to different locations of the city, the third mode of commonly used transportation is privately owned cars that constitute a smaller percentage in relation to pedestrians and matatus.
Kampala city is characterized by heavy traffic during on and off peak hours as well as narrow roads and lack of pedestrian and cycling lanes for commuters. With 70% of city dwellers walking to work everyday, priority needs to be put on rebuilding a proper road network with pedestrian and cycling lanes. Today without pedestrian and cycling lanes it becomes virtually impossible to walk around the city without fear of being knocked down by a speeding car or a boda boda (motorbikes) since everyone is in the scramble for the same pathways. Pedestrians are also not respected and are often abused by taxi drivers and boda bodas who disregard them as road users. There’s need to build capacity on rightful treatment of humans who share the same facilities. Policies need to be put in place to prioritize the elderly andpeople with disabilities in public transport.
The entry of boda bodas in the central business district (CBD) also adds to the traffic problem. Majority of these motorbikes are unregulated and do not follow any traffic rules and while they help navigate small and narrow spaces often unreached by motor vehicles, they cause the most threat to human lives and have been the leading cause of accidents in the city. Plans have been underway to regulate these motorbikes and limit them from entering the CBD but these have never come to fruition; It is alleged that some members of government have a stake in the boda boda business and frustrate all efforts to limit them in the CBD.
What needs to be done? Mass transport needs to be given priority. What Uganda needs is a well developed public transportation system that works. A system that carries majority of the people to different locations and as a result reduce on the matatus and boda bodas in the city. Non motorized plans also need to be prioritized by building functional walkways for pedestrians and cyclists.
In the short term, the best interventions will be the ones that reduce pressure from the already existing roads. Innovations like Uber need to be encouraged to enable especially the youth to have alternatives to their transport means. Today the first thing most youth do when they get a new job is to buy a new car. Some even prioritize buying a car to paying rent or buying a plot of land. With Uber and other technology interventions, hopefully this trend can change and instead of buying more cars and adding to the already existing scramble for the same narrow roads we can use better existing alternatives. Moreover the data collected by companies like Uber can be useful in mapping out a better mobility framework for the city based on the movements of people. Development of traffic infrastructure like street traffic cameras can also help innovators find ways of using data and GPS to give real time traffic information to motorists.
It is also estimated that approximately 2,000 people migrate to cities everyday in search for employment. Most of these young men end up becoming boda boda riders and adding to the stress on Kampala roads. There’s need for inter-sectoral development in rural areas to reverse this migration. Agriculture is one sector that needs to be prioritized and made attractive to enable youths to stay and work where they are instead of migrating to cities.
Well planned neighborhoods with basic resources required by most urban dwellers need to be developed. Kampala needs more self sustaining neighborhoods where people can access services such as supermarkets, pharmacies, parks, cinemas etc. If we have these in major towns and planned neighborhoods, a lot more people would stay in their neighborhoods instead of traveling across the city in search of such services.
Figuring out Kampala’s mobilities and future will require a lot of government intervention, law enforcement agencies to enforce traffic rules and proper human behavior but most importantly implementing of physical development plans that have been on paper for ages.
