Let Us Find Ways To Enjoy Thika Superhighway

There is need to ensure that all the drivers and passengers using Thika Superhighway are getting the maximum value of the 27 billion shillings that the country has invested in the project? However, the recent fatal accidents on the road have generated debate on the readiness and ability of Kenyan road users’ to utilize this national asset effectively.

In my humble opinion, I think the handling of the expected final product by managers of the project (KENHA) and their client (Ministry of Roads) is laid-back and their lack of preparedness is giving the motoring public a raw deal. They seem too excited about the 3 year construction period which is a means to an end and not the road’s 50 year usability period. They seem ill-prepared for what ought to be a giant leap for Kenya’s transport sector.

Even before the road is officially commissioned, the Traffic Police have stepped in to arbitrarily reduce the speed limit to 50 kmph as a way of averting the accidents. Rumble strips and humps have become an eyesore on an expressway that was meant to ease the perennial traffic jams that continue to cost the economy in time and money by creating a three lane unhindered road designed for speed.  As is usual with Kenyans when faced with a problem, we are known to go for the solution least likely to offer a lasting result.

There is nothing wrong with Thika Super Highway design or infrastructure or the intentions behind the project. There is however everything wrong with the managers and owners of the road imagining that everything will be clockwork smooth without any effort or input!    

This is the first expressway in Kenya. Usage of a three lane high speed road is new to many. We have only seen three lanes on Mombasa Road/Uhuru Highway/Chiromo Road which are one continuous city thoroughfare where the choice of lane is dictated by destination or exit point and not speed.

On an expressway, however the old “keep left” rule learnt in driving school applies with only one or two exceptions defined by law. The outer lane (to the extreme left) is for the slowest vehicles like trucks, buses, trailers, etc which are expected to be moving at  the speed of 80 kmph or less or those exiting into the service roads to their left, while the middle lane is for all vehicles moving at over 80 kmph but not more than 110kph .  The inside lane (to the extreme right) should always be free and not used unless you are overtaking a slower vehicle in the middle lane or your vehicle has a siren (police, fire, ambulance or presidential motorcade). Its important to remember that the road was designed for safe high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of intersections and roundabouts.

This sounds all sensible, but how do we ensure that every single user of the road understands and adheres. It cannot be through the so-called “sensitizations” that KENHA conducted one morning near Safari Park Hotel and which at most may have attracted a handful of drivers and idlers on a road reportedly used by 250,000 vehicles daily.

The starting point should be installation of very legible signage on the road utilizing the traditional traffic and informational signs as well as the new LED technology to inform, persuade, warn and occasionally threaten with prosecution those intent on breaking the traffic rules. This should be enriched by a 6-month to 1 year multi-media campaign on radio, TV, print, outdoor, online and onsite with a view of introducing and inculcating the best practices by use of “Do’s and Don’ts” with visual, audio and print messages in all languages used by the potential road users and on all media possible. Finally the law enforcers should come down very hard on offenders in a very public way with a view to ensuring that copy cat tendencies are discouraged.

I imagine that this is not the first time that similar challenges have been faced by road users here and abroad. In days gone by, it must have been a challenge for road owners and managers when the our forefathers first transited from the horse cart to the much faster automobile or even the first time that paved surfaces were used as roads. The history of highways and expressways is not very old even in the developed world and we need to take heart in the knowledge that we are pioneering the same in this part of the world. For a minute, think about the confusion that the first roundabout or dual carriage caused in Kenya not so long ago.