Recently, the Kenya Alliance of Resident Associations hosted a meeting on the Traffic Amendment Act 2014. The bill, sponsored by MP Joseph Lekuton with support from the International Institute of Legislative Affairs proposes to protect nursery to secondary school children as they make their way to and from school, play or visit a health clinic. The proposed changes include stronger regulations for vehicles used to ferry kids to and from school, reduced speeds near well marked school zones and safe road design with good pedestrian walkways and crossing in areas where children predominate. Some initial resistance to this bill has emerged; it seems that some legislators do not like the reduced speeds and high fines for speeding in children/school zones. See the report of the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing where the MPs are willing to trade children’s safety for what they think will be fewer traffic jams. (However, I do not believe that the slower speed causes jams-poor traffic management does. The whole city of New York runs on a speed limit of 40 km/hr.)

First, it might be noted that it has taken far too long for policymakers to offer some basic legal protections for some of the most vulnerable on Kenya’s streets. It seems they forget the Kenya is a young society with many small people who no doubt find many roads with speeding vehicles, poor walkways and many traumatizing crashes even more terrifying than we do. Some have disabilities that make navigating the city even more difficult and treacherous.

Secondly, it is clear that Kenya is behind basic global practice for providing safe urban environments. This practice is not necessarily costly and can save lives and money. For example, all over the world speed limits are being reduced in dense urban areas for pedestrian safety. This is based on the simple fact that lower speeds generate more reaction time to avoid crashes and that if someone is hit at lower speeds the chances of survival increase significantly.

From the latest WHO Pedestrian Safety Manual

According to the latest World Health Organisation  Pedestrian Safety Manual: The speed at which a car is traveling influences both crash risk and crash consequences. The effect on crash risk comes mainly via the relationship between speed and stopping distance. The higher the speed of a vehicle, the shorter the time a driver has to stop and avoid a crash, including hitting a pedestrian (see figure above). Taking into account the time needed for the driver to react to an emergency and apply the brakes, a car travelling at 50 km/h will typically require 36 metres to stop, while a car travelling at 40 km/h will stop in 27 metres.

Children going to school in Kisumu.

Thirdly, some of you may not be aware that while we debate how much regulation we need on matatus, school buses and other vehicles used to take kids to school are hardly regulated at all! Poor kids are often crammed onto bodabodas nearly ready to tumble off and without helmets. Some walk on very dangerous streets without footpaths and proper crossings. Others take schools buses driven by people who do not have correct training and are not properly vetted. Unlike matatus that are required to have a yellow stripe, school vehicles are also not required to be one standard color or have a feature that makes them visible to all.

School vehicles need better regulation.

Finally, basic design features for safety make a difference in reducing pedestrian harm including segregated  footpaths that are easy to use and intelligently designed crosswalks and lights. Yet engineers in Kenya do not even have a basic road design manual for urban areas. This may change for Nairobi once the new Non-Motorized Transport Policy is put into place and implemented. All these measures along with strong adult supervision of children on the streets  (The Lollipop Project  is doing this by placing crossing guards at the busiest intersections of Nairobi) can can make a strong impact. The Bill by promoting many of these sensible measures would protect Kenya’s children, save lives and introduce a stronger culture of respect for pedestrians including the littlest, most vulnerable ones.

You can watch a synopsis of the KARA meeting here and send comments about the Bill to [email protected]. Send us your comments too. We’d like to hear your views on these issues! See also our previous interview with Dr. Khayesi of the World Health Organisation.

Collapsing Tenements: (Yet) another Rude Awakening for Nairobi?.

via Collapsing Tenements: (Yet) another Rude Awakening for Nairobi?.

All over the world, cities are trying to get people out of cars by promoting combinations of public transit, cycling and walking to deal with congestion, road safety, obesity, poor air quality and climate change.  Nairobi is a city where only about 14-20% of households in the city own cars and hence the vast majority of people are already using public transit, walking and cycling. This is in some ways a great advantage.Yet the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Nairobi city, with multi-lateral and foreign lenders following, have so far been mostly focussing on improving roads for cars and trucks. This is not only bad policy-it is grossly inequitable and leads to an unpleasant experience for everyone trying to move around the city. It also means that the efforts as they are currently conceptualized will never be able to solve most of the problems related to transportation in the city and region.

Who caters for the mass of pedestrians in the city?

Non-motorized transport (NMT)-walking and cycling-have been completely neglected in Kenya’s capital. This is evident to anyone walking around the city on the many poor sidewalks with crater-like potholes. Incomplete connectivity forces you dangerously onto the street with cars and matatus and of course, the lack of proper markings, traffic management and crosswalks makes crossing many streets a gamble with death. Many pedestrians are killed in the city, and it is hard to imagine what walking in the city feels like for a small child. (We should ask children.)

Cyclists-and there are actually many- have to be courageous. Cycling is a relatively cheap, fun form of transport that is also good exercise and an enjoyable sport that Kenya could start to compete in and the tourism industry could exploit. However, cycling is simply not an option for most Nairobi citizens, because it is very dangerous. This comes from the absence of proper infrastructure and any consideration to design.

There are many cycling groups in the city despite the poor infrastructure.

It should be basic policy that adequate resources be allocated to NMT for every road/rail/bus project. Audits should be done to ensure that this infrastructure is built to certain standards and is linked to existing modes of public transit. Overall, Nairobi needs to embrace the notion of a complete street. A complete street is designed to cater for everyone who uses it in different ways not just a minority of private car users. Note that even those who like to drive too can profit from more people out of cars and using different modes and from better design that allows more harmony between motorised and non-motorised modes. Of course, support should be given to NMT infrastructure that is also not connected to roads like the lovely paths in Karura Forest. More parks could provide them as well. Cyclists in fact feel safer when they are segregated from the road traffic and linking a cycling network through paths in parks can help. In a recent conversation, cyclists said they would love to see some paths in City Park for example.

No sidewalks, no cycle paths for pedestrians in many parts of the city

Recently, I was surprised to discover that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has no proper urban road standards and guidelines, and in the existing essentially rural-yes rural- road guidelines NMT is nowhere to be found. In a recent discussion with engineers in the Ministry, they asked for these guidelines so no road is built with funny and incomplete sidewalks/cycling paths as an afterthought. Some agencies like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Share the Road program have developed helpful NMT guidelines and tools. The National Association of Transportation City Officials in  the United States has developed guidelines for urban street design including NMT  which could be adapted for more local conditions. It would be easy to develop such guidelines for Kenya.

So now the good news. Kudos to the City County of Nairobi for starting a process of developing the first NMT policy in the country with help from UNEP and  the Kenya Alliance of Residents Association. They hosted the first stakeholder meeting and the city hopes to finish the policy by February 2015. It is time for residents who care about these issues to comment, feed into the process and also ensure that the policy reflects citizen concerns and also gets implemented. They might also ask for proper complete street guidelines. Nairobi Planning Innovations will give you up-to-date information on the process. Feel free to send comments. The time for proper walking and cycling facilities was yesterday but Nairobi can make it happen now!

Update: Here is the new policy which still needs passing by the county assembly. If you like it, tell your ward rep!

Nairobi, Kenya Solving Traffic Congestion by Increasing Capacity? | The Grid | Global Site Plans.

Recently NPI interviewed David Shisya about the “Child’s View of the City” project in Mathare. In this post Simon Kokoyo explains what we learned about planning from the children in Mathare.

One of the winning drawings: Judges liked the idea of offering simple solutions like improving existing drainages and roads.

Can you imagine a population of more than 200,000 people crammed together in an area estimated to be less than 2 square km? What happens when 60 children from five schools in this community think about what should be done as urban planners? Mathare constituency is made up of temporary and permanent housing structures scattered across the area. The most common feature that will strike a visitor is the high number of people, uncollected garbage, poor drainage systems, unplanned houses, dirty river, poor road network and lack of adequate facilities for children. Local private developers make use of any available space to construct houses to meet demand for cheap dwellings without considering the need for open spaces and proper planning including for children.

We decided to ask how the children see their community and what they would change as urban planners through focus group discussions and drawings. During focus group discussions with the children it was evident that most children are very uncomfortable using public transport and the major roads around Mathare namely Juja Road, Outer Ring Road and Thika Super Highway. During rush hours children shared frequent experiences of being bypassed by public transport vehicles in the morning and evening hours. For those who are lucky enough to be offered transport, they are often made to stand despite paying the required amount. Crossing Juja Road and Outer Ring Road which are located near the area can be hectic for most children. For those children seeking to use Outer Ring road, the section between Juja Road/Outer Ring roundabout and Mathare River does not even have a  Zebra crossing and  pedestrians including children are left at the mercy of drivers. From the children’s drawings, it was clear that they see a good road as one that is clearly marked, has road signs, walk paths for pedestrians and is easy to cross.

When it came to expressing how children see their community and what they would like changed, the message came out boldly and clearly through drawing. Interestingly all children expressed the desire to change their neighbourhood as ‘urban planners’, if they had the power. Children viewed their neighbourhoods as places which are not well planned and have inadequate social amenities and are insecure and unfriendly to live in. Most drawings depicted a community that is poorly planned with very dull surroundings and very little vegetation or green. However, the same children expressed a strong desire to see a community with well arranged rental houses and clearly marked roads and road signs. Social amenities are highlighted as lacking but badly needed for improving communities. When drawing the current status of their community, children would express how dull their community is by not using colour. But when re-drawing they would use colours to express their desire to live in a happy place. The general message emphasized in all the drawings included the strong need for schools, playgrounds, clearly marked roads, markets, security, street lights, health facilities, good drainage, well organized and beautiful neighborhoods.

Mathare Asst. County Commissioner Mr. Gerald Omoke appreciating one of the young ‘Urban Planners’

Children have great ideas about how to improve their community but who will listen to them? One of the judges during the final exhibition liked how children see it as a simple- that their community can be improved with little ‘effort. Another judge a social worker, appreciated children as urban planners who see it fit to re-design their current situation instead of moving to undeveloped areas. The area Assistant County Commission for Mathare Division Mr. Omoke challenged parents to assist the children in expressing themselves through drawing about what they would like to see in their community. From the discussions and drawings presented by the children, it is clear there has been too much ‘Adultization’ of Mathare for the benefit of the adults. Most of the services available do not seek to incorporate children’s ideas. In drawings children as urban planners wish to see wider roads (their communities have small poor roads so even emergency vehicles cannot enter), working public transport, vegetation, security, playgrounds, adequate houses and street lights in their neighborhoods. The next step is for parents and community leaders to work with government urban planners to incorporate into their interventions children’s ideas as ‘owners’ or ‘users’ the present and future city.

Simon Kokoyo grew up in Mathare. He currently works for the Spatial Collective and is a board member of the Reality Tested Youth Programme, a community organization that serves the youth in Huruma, Kaimaiko and Mathare areas which recently worked on the project “A Child’s View of the City” described above. He has a blog about Mathare http://matharevalley.wordpress.com/