Congestion charge the only way to control traffic jams

When I heard that the Nairobi County government was going to get rid of roundabouts, I was a bit worried.

The intersections that would replace roundabouts increase both the chances of accidents occurring and their severity.

In his book, Traffic, Tom Vanderbilt notes that 50 per cent of all accidents in the US occur at intersections. Roundabouts act as a calming influence that forces drivers to drive at oblique angles as they join the merge.

More importantly, roundabouts offer space for a bit of urban landscaping, which serves as advertising area for cement companies to pretend they care about the environment.

Getting rid of roundabouts would increase the risk of accidents, lead to lower speeds, and make our cities uglier.

To their credit, Governor Evans Kidero and his team did not get rid of roundabouts but put cement-filled drums preventing right turns. This maintained the cars coming in at oblique angles to join a merge, which maintained the best aspects of a roundabout without turning it into a free-for-all intersection.

The drums, cement slabs and, interestingly, quarry of stones put around the Westlands roundabout seem to be speeding things up on some roads, but the same effect is not replicated on others. These are stop-gaps measures that will not work since they do not address the causes of the problem.

CONGESTION CHARGES

Kidero’s attempts to artificially increase road efficiency will flounder because even proper carpeting or expanding of roads eventually will not work. Thika Road is proof that  building more roads  generates traffic jams instead of alleviating them.

If you think we have too much traffic, then the cure is ensuring that there is less traffic on the road, and not more space for it to build up.

The only way to alleviate congestion on the roads is to reduce the number of private cars. Private convenience  cannot be the only consideration when your actions affect other people, and roads are only usable when drivers do not overuse them.

Every driver on the road creates an inconvenience for other drivers simply by being there.

Mass transit buses and interchanges will take time and money to achieve.  Buses, which have been proposed, will not be incentive enough for people to leave their cars behind.

Besides, they will run into headwinds created by matatu lobby groups and have political ramifications in 2017. If the Nairobi County government adopts the proposed rapid bus transit system, Kidero will have effectively signed his political death warrant.

This neatly brings me to congestion charges. The easiest way to bring sanity back on the roads is to charge and push  flexible drivers out of the way. The charges will have the support of matatus and the majority of the population.

We should have a congestion charge that considers engine capacity, time of commute and closeness to the central business district. Engine capacity is important due to the disproportionate fouling of air by the owners of urban tractors. Time of commute is an important factor in congestion charges to discourage frivolous travellers during rush hour and save on everyone’s time.

Besides, those who claim that public transport is inadequate will be heartened to know that a congestion charge will lead to an increase in the use of public transport. Increased demand will mean that the services can be bettered. For us to get enough luxury transport services, we must first create the demand.

It might seem like a leftist idea but surely, everyone should pay for the effects of their actions? Shouldn’t you pay for the use of a public utility? The driving of one car creates a traffic jam for everyone else, so we must address it.

Fuel taxes and insurance fail to address the cost of marginal trips. Each trip should be just as expensive as the next. Besides, the bottom has fallen out of the price of oil.  

PROGRESSIVE TAXES

Congestion charges are also a progressive tax. Drivers in this country are rich while those who use public transport are poor. The cheapest second-hand car goes for about Sh500,000, which  can sustain the average Kenyan family of four for more than five years.   

Shouldn’t we, then, tax drivers to pay for better mass transit alternatives for the sake of the environment and to reduce congestion? We should also remember that more pedestrians than drivers die as a result of car accidents. 

Already, the number of pedestrians killed on the roads has increased 10 per cent since last year for the same period, according to the National Transport and Safety Authority. It seems unfair that the poor are being mowed down disproportionately on the road as punishment for not owning cars.   

The adoption of the congestion charge led to a 20 per cent drop in traffic in cities like London  the week it was fintroduced.

We cannot build enough roads to satisfy all motorists. As it is, too much land is devoted to placating Kenya’s 600,000 or so private car owners. Think of all that parking space in town that could be used as walkways devoted to car service stations. We effectively mortgage clean air and our free time to subsidise drivers across the country.

 Everyone gains when we use congestion charges: Matatus get more clientèle, the rich who can afford the charges inherit the roads and earn more prestige as a result of car ownership becoming a more expensive proposition, and everyone else can get to work on time. What’s not to like?  

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WHO DO YOU KNOW 

What matters is who you know, not what you know

I asked several of my friends which college the President attended for his undergraduate degree and mostly drew blanks. One out of seven is a poor rating, considering that they claim to be well read.

The lack of curiosity about the President and his time at Amherst College is indicative of something important in Kenya’s education system. There is no meritocracy in place, so there will never be a good incentive to learn. Personal connections are a lot more important in determining your lot in life.

The high-net worth Individuals report released in 2013, which sought  to identify local dollar millionaires, noted that 80 per cent of them were politically connected.

The average MP makes more in a month than an average family of four earns in nine years. And that is excluding the MP’s allowances, which, in some cases, can be more than their salary.

The youth have cottoned on to the fact that it is the public sector where fortunes are made.

Take Paul “Babu” Ongili, the current chairman of Sonu, for instance. He is a pretty smart guy who got a first class degree in actuarial science, the  highest rated course in public universities, ahead of medicine and engineering. Babu went back to study law and is eligible to run for the Sonu top job for several more years. He probably realised that his degree could help him  head a bank one.

On the other hand, his Sonu chairmanship and the opportunities that arise from the position could eventually help him own a bank. The choice was simple. 

In fact, a degree is irrelevant to personal betterment. Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, who hasn’t finished his degree, is a bigger role model in the country than any professor. 

So it doesn’t really matter what the President did at Amherst College and we shouldn’t be bothered by it; what matters most in his CV is his last name.

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TEARY FAREWELLS

Let’s accord the critically ill some privacy

I have been visiting a sick relative and close friend at a private hospital’s high dependency unit (HDU) in the past month.

First, high-dependency unit sounds slightly less ominous than intensive care unit (ICU). So your first instinct is to breathe a sigh of relief because they are not in the ICU – until you find out that there is no ICU in this hospital.

The HDU, in this case, was the last chance saloon in healthcare. 

However, what struck me about the place was the lack of privacy. Illness is a very private thing, especially in the HDU. Quite often, a procession of visitors comes to say goodbye and this is often a teary affair. It costs about Sh200,000 a day for this facility, so  one wonders why  private hospitals can’t  have separate rooms for patients. Privacy can’t be a semi-transparent curtain.

I know prayer doesn’t work, but it gives people hope. I feel it should be done in a private, more intimate setting. It is a bit embarrassing trying to share what may well be your final moments with a loved one when the ward is full of strangers mourning their own personal tragedies. If you are shelling out top rates for healthcare, you at least deserve a room.

Healthcare is important, but so is privacy, particularly for those who need it most. 

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FEEDBACK

On how American English is killing the British tongue

Dear Waga, 

Allow me to explain  why I think there would be no comment on your article last week ( this is not a comment).

You analyse your themes so well that one is left with just one feeling ­– understanding! Keep it up.

Strive to always leave us with nothing to comment about because you have said it well and with finality. That, to me, is success!

 John Gitau

***

Waga,

That was a great article and those of us who use English to transact are always faced with this question of whether to apply British or American English. I agree with you that, slowly, American English is overtaking British English. 

I am an accountant with a construction company. In my interactions with banks, suppliers, clients and colleagues, we speak American English during meetings but write formal letters and emails in British English.

The deduction here is that, with time, it will be more practical to use American English even in formal documents.

A good way of testing the truth of this matter is by checking the settings of the English dictionary on the word processor of most of the staff  at the office; the setting is “English (United States)”.

Joshua Gatimu

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Waga,

Let us take the word “English” as a language, without attaching British or American to it. English means from England.

In reference to language, when we say English, it means the  language spoken by Britons or  the English (in reference to the people of England).  Therefore, English can stand on its own without the addition of “British” .

Turning to American English: It is still English, spoken by Americans, so Americans cannot own it and outdo the original speakers. What you call American English is a corrupted version of English or British English.

The fact that Americans speak English with a certain accent does not, and should not, make it qualify as a language separate from British English.

Kenyans also speak English with a certain accent, as do Ugandans. One can easily distinguish a Kenya from a Ugandan when they are expressing themselves in English. That does not make it Kenyan or Ugandan English; it is just the accent.

Look at it this way: When a Mswahili speaks in Kiswahili and a person from my village also learns and speaks Kiswahili, he cannot purport to be  more Mswahili than the Waswahili just because he has a different accent, and even goes against the rules of the  grammar of the original language.

If Americans want a language that belongs to them, let them have one but not by attaching American to English and thinking they have a separate language. Just like we have French, Spanish, English, Swahili so should we have Amerish or American language.

Until that is done, different accents are distinguished only by phonological differences from the standard language, whereas dialects also display grammatical and lexical differences. The standard language here being the English Language!

Anthony Gor