Kenya’s current transport planning and implementation is singularly geared towards creating more infrastructure for cars. The constant push to upgrade road capacity for motor vehicles is unsustainable and exclusive of a large proportion of road users.
About 40 per cent of trips in and around Nairobi City are made by walking. Addressing this blind spot that exists in evaluation of our transport systems could be a spark that sets off a transport revolution and puts Kenya among the global few forward-thinkers.
Our transport systems are too car-centric. While we seek to address inter-connectivity as a catalyst of economic growth, our transport planning is often paradoxically a game of catch-up trying to match short-term traffic demand. This does not allow us the benefit of preparing for not only future traffic demand but also future traffic conditions.
It is fairly safe to predict that cars will be unwelcome in the future. Cities the world over are scrambling to redesign their transport infrastructure to push people out of cars and onto public transport as well as placing an increased emphasis on walking and cycling. From Barcelona’s superblocks to the Paris cycling revolution, it is clear we are moving to a car-averse future and the wheels need to start rolling now.
A good first step in this process is multiplying the quality travel choices people have. Bicycles, for example, are a viable substitution for cars on short trips. Given the large proportion of Kenyan road users who walk, a focus on active modes of transport would have significant impact.
There needs to occur a paradigm shift in road design to favour non-motorised traffic. My brutally functional engineering training had very little appreciation for how our current understanding of transport planning is at odds with our more environmentally-conscious future.
In Amsterdam and most of the Netherlands, streets became bicycle-friendly over the span of several decades and roads were redesigned when they were due for resurfacing or other major construction work. It is not too late for road design in Kenya to take a paradigm shift in who we are designing our roads for.
There currently exists extensive cycling and walking infrastructure on roads such as Thika Superhighway. This offers significant untapped potential. We have grappled with finding reliable solutions for last-mile connectivity in projects such as the Bus Rapid Transit corridor on the Thika Superhighway and the Green Park Terminus in Nairobi.
A focus on non-motorised transport infrastructure is a low-hanging fruit that could provide great dividends given its comparatively low cost of implementation and space efficiency. This could also rescue some pedestrian-averse projects like the Western Bypass.
Cycling has the potential to induce a mode share shift towards public transport due to the viability of bicycles for last-mile connectivity. The struggle to pull public transport vehicles out of our cities could be helped by providing the convenience of safe, reliable and efficient cycling infrastructure for local traffic within our urban centres.
This shift in focus towards non-motorised traffic also has great potential to reduce congestion on our roads. Kenya has placed an emphasis on ‘pull’ measures such as widening of roadways inevitably inducing more traffic demand instead of focusing more on ‘push’ measures such as reduction of road capacity to provide for bike lanes and wider sidewalks leading to less congestion in the long run through a modal shift towards walking or cycling.
These efforts are seen in Nairobi but there needs to be a more holistic transport approach pushing people away from motor vehicles, particularly travellers in the wider Nairobi Metropolitan area.
The introduction of a public bike sharing system could offer a unique opportunity to tackle transport and economic crises simultaneously. Not only is cycling more cost-effective but wider uptake of cycling offers numerous potential economic opportunities for Kenyans along a vast value chain.
To ensure this is a success, concerted efforts need to be made ranging from provision of bicycle storage facilities, establishment of standards and specifications, a robust regulatory framework and public sensitisation campaigns in the operation of non-motorised transport systems.
It is not too late for our transport planning to do just that, plan. Given the speed with which the world is moving away from this car-centric, carbon-heavy state we find ourselves in, we also need to get moving. The future is racing towards us on two feet and two wheels.
Civil engineer. [email protected], @veect0r
