THE IMPACT OF ROAD IMPROVEMENTS ON ROAD SAFETY AND RELATED CHARACTERISTICS By PROFESSOR FRANCIS JOHN GICHAGA UNIVERSITY OF NAIROB! KENYA University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 1 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke * Reflecting back in history there was the famous saying of the old that “all roads led to Rome". Rome was then considered as the “centre of gravity” of the world power for which there was need for neighbourhoods to have links with “Rome” in order to tap power from the source/centre and thereby enjoy the same for purposes of socio-economic development.
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* Neighbourhoods enjoy relatively higher socio- economic development if they are closer to the centre of power, for example a capital city. This is particularly true for countries such as those in East Africa where one finds that underdeveloped areas tend to lack efficient road transport systems among other infrastructure
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* To many inhabitants who have been brought up in those neighbourhoods of the developing world fabric, where the main form of transport was walking, riding on a donkey or a camel, or when well-endowed, riding on a bicycle, the use of vehicle transport takes time to be assimilated and customized to ones cultural transport modes
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*  Quite often, it is not until one experiences the pain that results from an unfortunate road accident that one realizes that when the living is good, the vehicle as a form of transport is enjoyable, but when an accident occurs, sometimes due to carelessness, the result can be traumatic and devastating
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*  Many of those who have witnessed the traumatic scenarios of vehicles being involved in accidents tend to develop and widen the scope of cultural values and the need to take extra care whether one is a pedestrian, a cyclist, a passenger or indeed a driver of a vehicle when using a road. This is generally reflected in the context of cultural values which are considered among the major variables that contribute to road accident causation.
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* The Nairobi-Thika highway has benefited from road improvement funding of the country over the years and the most recent improvement, which was financed by a loan from the African Development Bank, brought with it a high class highway with dual carriageway, multigrade intersections and service roads on either side of the carriageway. There are several pedestrian footbridge crossings and the road was designed for a speed of 100kph
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* Due to road user behavior we have unfortunately witnessed some road users, such as pedestrians who take risks by crossing the high speed road at undesignated locations with the unavoidable consequence of being hit by vehicles travelling at high speed and a number of casualties have been reported in this respect.
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* The Northern Corridor shown in figure 1, is the transport corridor which links the Great Lakes Countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda from the port of Mombasa in Kenya and it is over 2000km long. The Northern Corridor also serves Northern Tanzania, Southern Sudan and Ethiopia.
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* The Northern Corridor has gone through major rehabilitation. The objectives of the rehabilitation, which has been financed by the World Bank and the European Union, were to increase the efficiency of road transport along the Northern Corridor in order to facilitate trade and regional integration and also to promote private sector participation in the management, financing and maintenance of road assets.
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The monitoring and evaluation of the Northern Corridor Road Improvement Project for the Road Safety Component involved: * Collection and analysis of accident data along the Kenyan section of the Northern Corridor * Making recommendations on the appropriate measures required in order to improve road safety * Assessing the effectiveness of the road safety awareness campaigns along the Northern Corridor.
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2005  2006  2007  2008  2009 2003 2004 2010  2011  2012 *  Figure 2 Casualties along the Northern Corridor(A109) http://www.uonbi.ac.ke Figure 3:Causes of accidents(%) along the Northern Corridor
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University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 17 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 18 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 19 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke *  From the monitoring and evaluation study of the Road Safety Component along the Northern Corridor described above, recommendations were made under the following headings:-
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*  ON ROAD DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS *  Road geometric design *  Road safety barriers. *  Bus-laybys. *  Use of recyclable plastic signs *  ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR *  Driver training. *  Compulsory rest for long distance truck drivers in order to address the issue of fatigue.
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*  ON VEHICLE MAINTENANCE *  Regular checks and maintenance in order to reduce the possibility of vehicles stopping along the way due to mechanical breakdown. *  Strict servicing programmes.
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*  ON PEDESTRIAN WAYS *  Pedestrian ways and crossings along the highway should be provided.
*  ON ROAD SAFETY PARKS
*  Given  the drammatic increase in accidents involving motor cyclists and pedal cyclists it is recommended that both pedal cyclists and motor cyclists should be taken through training programmes on road safety. *  There is need to train pedestrians (right from young years) on the basics of road safety *  The above observations require that Road Safety Parks be provided where school children and other road users can be taken to learn road safety aspects.
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*  ON ENFORCEMENT OF ROAD SAFETY RULES *  The Government must insist on road users complying to the Road Safety Rules and should mount regular checks to ensure that drivers, pedestrians and other road users adhere to the Road Safety Rules and Regulations. *  Amenities and advertizing boards should be located where they do not interfere or restrict visibility for drivers.
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*  ON ENFORCEMENT OF ROAD SAFETY RULES *  The Government must insist on road users complying to the Road Safety Rules and should mount regular checks to ensure that drivers, pedestrians and other road users adhere to the Road Safety Rules and Regulations. *  Amenities and advertizing boards should be located where they do not interfere or restrict visibility for drivers.
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*  ON ROAD SAFETY AUDIT *  Comprehensive Road Safety Audit should be considered as a pre-requisite for any road/highway design and construction and further after the road/highway has been opened to traffic.
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*  The road with dual carriageway and service roads- University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 29 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Garden City Mall ISO 9001:2008 Certified 30 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Pedestrian foot-bridge crossing at Kenyatta University ISO 9001:2008 Certified 31 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Sweeper taking a risk ISO 9001:2008 32 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke Nairobi- Thika road-cows taking risks University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 33 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Sign showing a university- off Nairobi- Thika  Road University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 34 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Northern Corridor Fly-over at Kikuyu township University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 35 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
A donkey cart taking  a risk along the Northern Corridor http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Heavy truck along the Northern corridor road http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Langata road junction with Northern Corridor University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 Certified 38 http://www.uonbi.ac.ke
Northern corridor road junction with the  road to the JK International Airport University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 39 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke